A lot of new Windows Mobile users have the same questions. To make life easier, I decided to write about general topics regarding this mobile phone operating system.

Windows Mobile, or often called WM or WinMo, is an operating system just like Windows or Ubuntu is for your pc. The current version is 6.1. For the HTC Touch Diamond 2 and HTC Touch Pro 2, an upgrade to 6.5 is freely available once Microsoft has published it.

Software for Windows Mobile is widely available and partly free of charge. While finding the software that suits you might be difficult at first, forums and reviews will help you solving this issue.

How to use Windows Mobile nowadays is somewhat difficult to explain and I therefore will stick to Windows Mobile in its original version (6.1). That said, the experience of using this operating system for mobile phones will vary greatly depending on the brand of your phone. Currently I own a HTC Diamond 2 which has HTC’s TouchFlo 3D installed and shall be used in this post as an example for the different approaches mobile phone companies take to make Windows Mobile more fingerfriendly.

Using Windows Mobile

Start

Windows Mobile is basically an old computer version of Windows, well adapted for mobile phones – in my opinion anyway. The Start button works just like on a computer and the mostneeded/used applications are easy to start with a click/touch. Yes, it really works with a single click/touch.

The TouchFlo 3D software from HTC changed this to a more Iphone-like experience, where you can add your most used programmes and start them with a finger-friendly interface.

The idea itself is good but unfortunately not well implemented. Programmes can be added and deleted but the amount is limited. While Iphone users can add as many programmes and apps as they would like to, HTC limited the number to 24 (and that’s already after editing the registry).

Everyday use

The easiest way, so I thought, is to show videos of Windows Mobile 6.1 and TouchFlo 3D in action, rather than trying to explain it. To be honest: I actually haven’t used Windows Mobile 6.1 without tweaking it.

Software installation

The most important fact, in my opinion, is to know what executable files are and how to use them. What .exe is for Windows, .cab is for Windows Mobile. This is an information you need, as otherwise you might misunderstand files as archives. I won’t go into details here about which software to use though, as I tend to use the phone’s memory-card as ‘harddisk’ when the phone is plugged into the computer. But if you really don’t know how to sync or copy files genrally, Active Sync is a programme to start with and is most likely on one of the CDs you got with the phone.

If you have the software you want to install on your computer and your phone connected via USB, copy your .cab file onto the device and open the phone’s file explorer. Click/touch the file you just copied and install the software either to your phone or if you have, to your flash memory. The file itself can be deleted now, as it’s not required anymore. Make sure you still have a copy of that file on your computer, in case you delete the software from your device and would like to install it later again. Using software like Active Sync makes it a lot easier to install software I guess, but because I’m using Ubuntu, the above described way is is the easiest way for me.

Tweaking

Windows Mobile is great for tweaking and has a massive community creating software and ROM-updates. While editing your phone registry and installing new ROMs is a great way to personalize your device, I only recommend it to users who have a lot of experience with Windows Mobile and aren’t afraid of possibly ruining their phones.