Windows Phone Thoughts: Add Some Zinc To Your Software: MDM Zinc For Pocket PC 2 Reviewed

ActiveSync Installers

Another jewel in Zinc's crown is the ability to create a professional Activesync installer instead of merely a CAB file.


Figure 4: The options dialog allows you to customize the look and feel of your desktop installer.

Zinc allows you to add in a custom splash screen, your own EULA, and the Compact Framework and Media Player control. Curiously, you'll see that the flash player is grayed out, for reasons we'll discuss in a moment. After configuring, the output .exe is created and is suitable for posting to a website or wherever you may wish to distribute it.

But what about this option for the "flash player"? Well, our buddies at Adobe are who we can look to about that. The flash player we all know and love (and that we complained bitterly about when it was taken away) is required for your Zinc application to run. Unfortunately, due to Adobe's EULA on flash player, MDM can't bundle it with Zinc. I had to download it to my device to run my application, a minor inconvenience to me, but something that could be a deal breaker for an end user. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do aside from provide instructions for End users on downloading and installing the flash plugin prior to installing our app, or to purchase a license from Adobe to distribute the flash plugin. The only positive point is that, once installed, the flash player is available to any Zinc projector you may wish to deploy to the device.