Pocket PC Troubleshooting

All computers eventually need to be reset back to their original state. In the case of PCs, this involves copying all critical user data off of the machine, formatting the hard drive, reinstalling the operating system from scratch, and then copying the user data back onto the unit. It's a painfully long process though using a utility like Acronis when you first get the computer can greatly simplify things.

Getting a Pocket PC back to its original state is achieved via a different process. After copying all critical user data off of it, a hard reset needs to be done. In the case of my Dell Axim X30 this involved holding down the power button and pressing the soft reset button at the same same. A safety prompt is presented to double-check that this is really what you want to do. I did.

When the hard reset was complete, I needed to resync the device with Outlook. When I tried this it wouldn't establish a partnership, instead only coming back in Guest mode. I spent the next 90 minutes finding out why. I finally learned (and subsequently remembered) that my registry settings had "GuestOnly" set to true. To resolve this I opened up the registry (by clicking on Start -> Run and typing "regedit"). I then navigated to this area of the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services\GuestOnly

Sure enough, the value was set to "1". I changed it to "0" and instantly everything synched properly again!

Some may ask why on earth I'm posting this. Well, the power of Google has completely changed the way we find information. So I'm hoping that I'll help save someone else 90 minutes of their time in the future!