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QA: How can I get the serial number of a Pocket PC 2000 device?

Vassili Philippov (vasja@spbteam.com), July 05, 2001.

Question

I need to get serial number of a Pocket PC 2000 device. How can I do it?

Answer

All existing information shows that you can do it only for Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC devices. There is a standard way suggested to OEM vendors by Microsoft but it isn't supported neither by Casio Cassiopeia nor by HP Jornada nor even by Compaq iPAQ. You can find information about reading serial number of Pocket PC 2002 devices in the article QA: How can I get the serial number of a Pocket PC 2002 device?.

Compaq iPAQ

Run \windows\CreateAssetFile.exe file and then read \windows\cpqAssetData.dat file - it will contain computer serial number.

Symbol PPT

Symbol support team wrote that Symbol PPT devices support serial number that could be read using RCM_GETUNIQUEUNITID function. You should download and use Symbol SDK.

Source code

Here is a sample code for iPAQ:

CString GetSerialNumber() { // Start CreateAssetFile.exe PROCESS_INFORMATION pi; if (!::CreateProcess(TEXT("\\windows\\CreateAssetFile.exe"), NULL, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 0, NULL, NULL, NULL, &pi)) { m_strCompaqIpaqId = _T(""); m_strErrorMessage += _T("Cannot run \\windows\\CreateAssetFile.exe file."); return TEXT(""); } // Wait until CreateAssetFile.exe will be finished ::WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE); // Read data from cpqAssetData.dat file HANDLE hInFile; TCHAR strSN[65]; DWORD dwBytesRead; hInFile = CreateFile(TEXT("\\windows\\cpqAssetData.dat"), GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ, NULL, OPEN_ALWAYS, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0); if (hInFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) { m_strCompaqIpaqId = _T(""); m_strErrorMessage += _T("Cannot read \\windows\\cpqAssetData.dat file."); return TEXT(""); } SetFilePointer(hInFile, 976, NULL, FILE_BEGIN); memset(strSN, 0, 64 * sizeof(TCHAR)); ReadFile(hInFile, &strSN, 64, &dwBytesRead, NULL); CloseHandle(hInFile); return CString(strSN); }

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