Featured E-Mail Question:

  Along with the miscellaneous applications and utilities which might be included on the CD-ROM disc that shipped with your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone, there are two specific applications usually included on the disc which are important to getting the most out of your handheld. These two applications are ActiveSync (or Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Vista users) and Outlook.

Either ActiveSync (Windows XP) or Windows Mobile Device Center (Windows Vista) is required for synchronization between your Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone (or Smartphone) and your Windows PC. ActiveSync and WMDC allow e-mail, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and more to be moved back and forth between handheld and computer.  These applications also allow programs to be installed on your Windows Mobile device from within Windows. Without ActiveSync or WMDC, there is no communication between your Pocket PC and Windows PC.

Outlook (current version 2007) is a Windows-based Personal Information Management (PIM) program which allows you to check your e-mail, keep a schedule, manage your contacts, keep up with projects and tasks, take notes, etc.  Outlook is the Windows Mobile software partner in the Windows OS; the information stored in Outlook is synced with your Windows Mobile Pocket PC / PDA Phone / Smartphone and vice versa.  Without Outlook, you can connect your Windows Mobile device to your PC for installing software, but you cannot perform basic PIM synchronization functions as they were intended by Microsoft.

ActiveSync can be downloaded (ActiveSync v4.5) free of charge from Microsoft at any time, as can Windows Mobile Device Center.

Outlook, on the other hand, is an application you paid for when you bought your Pocket PC and cannot be legally downloaded for free online. 

If you've lost the disc with the Outlook setup files and key code, you have two options:  you can contact your Windows Mobile device's manufacturer or service provider - like HP, AT&T, etc. - or you can purchase another copy. 

NOTE:  Not all Windows Mobile devices ship with Outlook included. 

Updated 1/02/08