How to Determine CompactFramework Version

If you are developing mobile application for Windows PocketPC and Windows Mobile using Microsoft Compact Framework, you may need to deploy Compact Framework to targeted mobile device in order to run your application. It is crucial to determine what version is currently installed on targeted device and if the installed version fits your application requirement. Different builds may work differently and thus may break your application if installed wrong version. How to Check If Compact Framework Already Installed on Mobile Device There are few ways to check if any compact framework has been installed. However, I will show you the basic ways to determine compact framework installation. 1. On your device, go to My Device -> Windows and run cgacutil.exe. The version will be displayed on screen. 2. Check if \Windows\mscoree.dll file exists. If this file is exists, that means the compact framework has been installed. Now you know Compact Framework already installed on the mobile device and want to know which revision and builds is being installed. How to Determine Compact Framework Version In order to check the version installed, you can access the registry key on targeted mobile. The registry key that you want to look at is HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetCompactFramework All versions of Compact Framework installed will be listed in this key. Take not that all Compact Framework 1,2 and 3.5 (beta) can co-exists at the same time on the same mobile device. Thus, you may see both versions on the list if both versions already installed. For more information on what the revision number means, please refer to table below. Compact Framework Version List There are 2 tables below that list out all builds and revisions for Compact Framework 1.0 , Compact Framework 2.0 and Compact Framework 3.5. (There won’t be a CF 3.0). Compact Framework 1.0 1.0.2268.00 RTM 1.0.3111.00 SP1 1.0.3226.00 SP2 Recall 1.0.3227.00 SP2 Beta 1.0.3316.00 SP2 Final 1.0.4292.0 SP3
Compact Framework 2.0 2.0.5238.00 RTM 2.0.6129.0 SP1 2.0.7045.0 SP2
Compact Framework 3.5 3.5.7066.0 Beta 1 3.5.7121.0 Beta 2