IE7 and UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs aka Origami) - problem with text input and a fix
Nick Randolph, Visual Developer - Device Application Development MVP is very interested in the mobile devices space, and tonight he found some information pertaining to IE7 that he thought we would be interested in.
Nick tells us that there have been problems with UMPCs and TIP, described in one case as:
"If I try to post a comment in a message form on a website (like this one) using the ink screen on the TIP, the text doesn't transfer to the message form when I tap "insert"."
As you read through the thread, you will see that there are a few different TIP problems described. For a while some were sure that IE7 was the problem. But, Adrian and the gang had a closer look and provided a cause and fix.
"We were able to reproduce this problem. Our initial investigation indicates that something is misconfiguring the Tablet OS by turning off support for advanced text insertion into all applications. This is completely unsupported on a Tablet PC and we're working to track down how this setting got turned off. In the meantime, I'd like to confirm that this is the entire cause of the problem you are seeing.
Please can you check this setting:
Control Panel -> Regional and Languages Options -> Languages -> Details -> Advanced -> "Extend support of advanced text services to all programs"
This checkbox should always be checked on a Tablet PC. If it's not, please try checking it, rebooting and then see if the problem in IE7 evaporates."
Now, all they need to do is find out what is turning off that option.
The review about IE7 and UMPC devices referred to in the thread is great news - I quote:
"If you own a UMPC and you haven't installed IE7 then you want to listen up. I installed IE7 on Flash (Samsung Q1 SSD) yesterday and it simply rocks on this device. I find IE7 to perform faster overall on the Q1 than the older version of IE and the way Microsoft has implemented the full screen mode is great."
I hope to have ownership, or at least temporary custody, of an UMPC one day... In the interim though, I will be taking delivery of an Acer Ferrari 5000 in about 6 weeks time. I am really looking forward to running Vista on that machine and putting it through its paces - the Acer Ferrari 5000 is Vista Capable *and* Windows Vista Premium Ready meaning it can run all the goodies, including Aero. The Acer will go very nicely with the Wacom Graphire 4 CTE 640 tablet that is sitting behind me. Watch this blog around Christmas time as I start putting my new hardware through its paces seeing how far I can push Vista and IE7 (and what sort of mess I can make of the kids' holiday photos).
Thanks to Nick for the heads up.