windows system programming

Configuring a Windows XP Embedded thin client

Introduction

Thin clients are becoming increasingly popular computing platforms among IT departments. The ability to run an operating system with all the major applications -- word processing, spreadsheets, and other company software -- on remote servers saves companies millions in computing service fees. Thin client architecture requires very little local storage, and acts like a window to the backend servers that host the major applications.

IT departments like thin clients because they save hundreds of dollars versus the cost of a fully configured PC, and they also reduce application software maintenance costs for deployment and upgrading. Of course, no two IT departments are alike -- each has its own approach to security or custom implementation to access the network. Therefore, easy configurability of thin clients is important.

There have been several requests on the Windows XP Embedded (XPe) newsgroups asking to modify either thin client hardware or make some change to the software. The customization requests are quite diverse in scope and complexity, but many would involve modifying the whole underline operating system image. Minor changes for TCP/IP address and domain names can be handled within the existing image, but changing the whole image takes some reverse engineering. This article provides the first steps to customizing Windows XP Embedded thin client platforms.

by Sean Liming and John Malin

Full Article: http://www.windowsfordevices.com/articles/AT6152425094.html