Windows 10 Creator update causes strange behaviour in ArcPad

MarikaVertzonis · ‎05-18-2017

Up until we installed the recent Windows 10 Creator update, ArcPad has been running great on Windows 10. But with the update came two strange twists. Windows Mobile Device Center stopped working and dates in forms look strange. Both of these were unexpected and the second one still not explainable, but I'll describe them here. If you come across any other strangeness please comment on this blog. If you are using Windows 10 in a production environment with ArcPad, and you don't specifically need something from the Creators update, it might be better to hold off.

Windows Mobile Device Center

After installing the update, I could no longer launch Windows Mobile Device Center. This one, the internet had an answer for:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/after-windows-10-creators-update...

Changing the service setting fixed the issue.

Squashed dates

OK this is a weird one and we don't have a definitive explanation yet!

The good news is that it doesn't effect the date that is saved to your data. If you enable the Attributes table on your form, you can see that the date that you selected in the date picker is correctly stored. It is only the appearance on the form that is effected.

And on two different different machines we have observed two different appearances. See the screenshots below, on one the date is squashed so much you can not see any numbers, on the other you can partially see the numbers.

Please let us know if you also experience this date issue, or any other unexpected behavior after updating your Windows 10.

DanPatterson_Retired · ‎05-18-2017

I posted in a couple of places about the scrunchies... here is one link

https://community.esri.com/message/686595-re-toolbars-not-showing-completely?commentID=686595#commen...

StephenQuan1 · ‎05-18-2017

It's not just ArcPad. A growing number of applications using the Date Time Picker from COMCTL32.DLL 5.82.15063.0 are being affected by the Windows 10 Creators Update (previous one COMCTL32.DLL 5.82.14393.0 is okay).

Microsoft will have a cumulative update for Windows 10 in June. See Dave Anderson's comments in https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4cf03067-46c4-4962-af8c-f4b1483e88ba/date-time-picker...

I highly recommend you wait for the update.

If, however, you're would like to have a crack at fixing yourself, you can try swapping out your COMCTL32.DLL version 5.82 with a previous version. Becareful to only touch 5.82 and not touch any version 6.0 files. On my computer, I found two locations with version 5.82 files:

C:\Windows\SysWOW32\COMCTL32.dll
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.15063.0_none_8b4e86125c6fbfec\COMCTL32.dll

To revert them to pre Windows 10 Creator Update, you need Administrative privileges. Changing the one in C:\Windows\SysWOW32, it's a simple file copy. To change the one in the C:\Windows\WinSxS folder it's somewhat more involved.

1. Right click > Properties

2. Security tab

3. Click Advanced

4. Note that the Owner is currently TrustedInstaller

5. Click Change and make yourself the Owner

6. Even being Owner doesn't give you permissions to modify it

7. Back at the Security tab from before click Edit

8. Highlight a Group or User and ensure that you have been granted permissions to modify this file

9. Rename it to something innocent, e.g. 000-COMCTL32.DLL

10. Copy in the older COMCTL32.DLL into this directory

See also:

https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5386845/Re-CDateTimeCtrl-in-Windows.aspx

MarikaVertzonis · ‎07-15-2017

If your machine hasn't got the date fix yet - find it here - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022725/windows-10-update-kb4022725

ThomasSchipper · ‎10-30-2017

With the fall creator edition of Windows 10 build 1709 you can no longer install the Microsoft Mobil Device Center and I've seen reports that others who had it working in 1703 can no longer get it to function. Are there any plans to address this issue. So far Microsoft is telling people to use the Windows 10 Sync center but ArcPad seems to be hard coded to only work with the Mobil Device Center.

MarikaVertzonis · ‎10-30-2017

I have installed the fall creator edition of Windows 10 build 1709 and successfully have my device connected to the computer with Windows Mobile Device Center.

The steps to get this to work are:

1. Uninstall and reinstall Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

2. As per the original blog above, again modify the log in mode of the Windows Mobile 2003-based device connectivity service as described in https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/after-windows-10-creators-update...

NB: When I made this change this time (with the fall update), I did get an error when trying to restart the service saying that another similar service uses a different log in. If you get this too, look for a service called Windows Mobile based device connectivity service, and make the same change there. Restarting both services will now work.

3. Follow the steps here https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/9cab3e8e-6cc4-48e4-8ed9-d595bc83f04b/windo... to add a property to two registry items.

4. Restart your computer

ThomasSchipper · ‎10-31-2017

Very interesting that you were able to reinstall the Mobil Device Center after upgrading to the fall creator 1709 version of Windows 10. My personal experience and one I see often repeated by others in multiple online post is that and a system running 1709 any attempt to install the WMDC results in a failed attempt with a rather generic error about a required dll not being found on the system. My personal experience and those I have seen posted by others has been with the 64-bit version of the OS. MY personal experience was with a clean build no prior installation of WMDC but I have seen others that tired removing and reinstalling only to run into the same error. I wonder what might be different about your install that is enabling you to do the install when it keeps failing for so many others,

Her is a link to a technet thread on the problems others are having:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/557e9694-0e45-409e-9bb9-8a7139eb2088/windows-mobil...

MarikaVertzonis · ‎10-31-2017

hmm... here is a screenshot of my machine settings. As you can see it is 64bit and the OS version number you describe. Perhaps the difference is the Pro version?

ThomasSchipper · ‎11-01-2017

Just about the same specs. the differences are listed below

Processor I7-4600M CPU @ 2.90GHz

RAM 8GB

No pen or touch

OS Build 16299.19

By chance do you have some developer tools/software installed that may be the difference between what I and most others are seeing? Or perhaps the uninstall is leaving behind something that is enabling you to do the reinstall however having said that I am seeing a number of reports online from people who tired to uninstall/reinstall after running into problems with the fall creator release who are reporting the same issue unable to install due to a missing DLL error message.

ThomasSchipper · ‎11-01-2017

I found the difference in our version numbers is the patch KB4043961 I uninstalled the patch and now have the same OS version number as yours 16299.15 but still get the missing DLL error when I try to install the WMDC. I have found one thread where someone has reported to have found a way you can make it work at:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/93efdeb2-b417-476a-9252-689375163c4d/unable-...

Look down the page for a user Alexander Demidovich. I haven't tried his approach yet. He was trying to get it to work for a mobil device emulator on a VM running Windows 10 1709. All the mobil devices I need to support are off site so I don't have any way to test if this may be a fix for all of us or not.

ThomasSchipper · ‎11-01-2017

I can confirm the steps in the article I linked to in the last post enabled me to install WMDC. As I said I don't have any devices here on site to test it out.

ThomasSchipper · ‎11-09-2017

Today I was able to ahold of one of our Juno units and was able to connect to it and navigate through the directories on that device from the PC I used the steps in the Microsoft forum article to get the mobile device center to install.