New Windows Vista Includes ActiveSync

When you upgrade your PC to Windows Vista or buy a new computer with the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, don't worry about installing ActiveSync. Its features are integrated into Windows Vista in the form of the "Windows Mobile Device Center," which allows you to manage your Windows Mobile-based device. Like ActiveSync, the Windows Mobile Device Center permits you to create partnerships with your mobile devices that automatically synchronize information. Communication with your device can be achieved via Bluetooth, infrared, serial, or USB.

Business-critical information

The Windows Mobile Device Center can synchronize Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and e-mail on your mobile device with Outlook on your PC, as well as files or Favorites. The synchronization engine looks for changes to your data on both your device and your PC, and pushes the updates to the other. This allows you to make sure that you've always got the latest information while you're on the go, and ensures that any changes or new information you created on your device make it into your desktop.

If you use your device in a business or enterprise environment, you may very well have an Exchange Server that holds all of your information in Outlook. In that case, Windows Mobile Device Center can help you configure your device to synchronize directly with the Exchange Server. The advantage of synchronizing with the Exchange Server is that you don't need access to your PC in order to sync your data. While you can connect to the Exchange Server using the Windows Mobile Device Center on your PC as a pass-through network, you can also sync through some other wired or wireless network.

Pictures and music

The Windows Mobile Device Center offers picture management that can automatically detect new photos on your device, add tags to the images for simplifying the sorting process, and import them into Windows Vista Photo Gallery on your PC.

Windows Media Player can synchronize music with your mobile device. You can select the playlists or individual files that you want to transfer to your device, and if you need to you can remove files from your device to free up memory. If you have enough memory on your device to hold your entire library, it can be automatically synchronized. Otherwise, you can configure your device to "Shuffle what syncs" so that every time you connect your device, all the music is removed and new music is automatically copied. And if you are a subscriber to an online music service that is compatible with Microsoft PlaysForSure, such as URGE All Access To Go or Napster To Go, you can download unlimited amounts of music from their libraries of millions of songs so that you'll never run out of things to listen to.

Enhanced experience

The entire user experience has been overhauled from the previous version of ActiveSync. The partnership wizard has been improved to eliminate many of the problems that have plagued ActiveSync users over the years, and the user interface has been simplified to make it easier to perform basic tasks.

File browsing has been improved to enable faster browsing of files and folders on the mobile device, as well as the ability to open files on your device from your PC without having to first copy them over. The Windows Mobile Device Center allows you to add or remove software on your device, give you access to the programs you need, and easily manage your available memory resources.

The look and feel of the Windows Mobile Device Center has been designed to fit with Vista.

Up to date

One of biggest advantages of the Windows Mobile Device Center being integrated within Windows Vista is the fact that it is integrated with Windows Update. Unlike previous versions of ActiveSync that required a user to locate the Web site, download an update, and manually install the upgrade, Windows Mobile Device Center will stay current through automatic Windows Updates. This is very beneficial for both business and personal users alike.