General FAQ > Windows Mobile FAQ > Pocket PC Products

- I can't seem to run the installer. What do I do?

I can't seem to run the installer. What do I do? (back to top)

The installer program that you download is intended to run on the PDA, not your desktop PC. Just copy the installer to the PDA using ActiveSync (or an equivalent for your platform, as mentioned below) and run the installer from the Pocket PC's File Explorer.

The main reasons for going that route instead of a normal CAB file were one of size (it's compressed, where CAB files aren't) and to make it easier to install to alternate locations. Another benefit of this technique is the removal of the dependency on a Windows-based desktop platform or, for that matter, a desktop computer at all! There are, for example, ActiveSync equivalents available for Mac OS X (The Missing Sync, PocketMac Pro) and Linux/FreeBSD (SynCE), but none of them can handle Windows-based installers for Pocket PC software.

The odd thing is that the Windows 2000 error when trying to run the installer ("This is a valid executable, but not for this machine type") actually made some sense. Rather than further clarifying it in Windows XP, though, they made it more confusing ("This is not a valid Win32 application").