Using Your Mobile Device with Windows 7: No Muss, No Fuss
If you use a smart phone or other mobile device, you may be wondering how to synchronize it with Windows 7. Windows Vista comes with the Mobile Device Center, but it’s not built into Windows 7. Never fear – like Windows Mail, Windows Messenger, and other applications that some people use but many others don’t, Microsoft has made the Mobile Device Center an optional component that you download only if you need it.
MDC is not a Windows Live component, though, and isn’t on the Live download site. Don’t worry, though – you don’t have to go hunt it down. When I plugged my Omnia (the iPhone Killer!) into a USB port on my Windows 7 computer, MDC was automatically downloaded and installed. This is version 6.1.6965.
You then have the option of either setting up the device, or connecting to it without going through the setup process. If you want to sync your smart phone with your Outlook .PST, you’ll want to go through the setup. If, like me, you connect with your device over the air to an Exchange server to get your mail, contacts and calendar information, and you only want to transfer some files (for example, to upload a bunch of photos taken with your smart phone camera to your PC), you can just connect.
If you do choose to set up the device, you’ll be asked what kinds of items you want to sync: contacts, calendar, e-mail, tasks, notes, mobile favorites (web links), files, and/or information from OneNote. You’ll be given the option to create a shortcut on your PC desktop to the MDC.
If you choose to connect without setting up the device, you’ll get the following choices:
- Programs and Services
- Pictures, Music and Video
- File Management
- Mobile Device Settings
If you select Programs and Services, you can add or remove programs on your mobile device, get updates and downloads, or connect to the TotalAccess web site, where you can find wallpapers, ringtones, applications such as Facebook for Windows Mobile, and much more. TotalAccess membership is free.
Adding or removing programs is easy; you just check or clear a checkbox.
If you select Pictures, Music and Video, MDC will detect how many new photos or video clips are available on your phone. You can import them quickly and easily, and you can assign a tag (such as a date or the location or subject of the photos).
You can also change the import settings, including the folder on your PC to which the photos/videos are to be saved (by default, it’s your My Pictures folder. You can also designate how you want the subfolder named (for example, date imported + tag, date taken + tag, tag only, etc.). You can also choose whether you want to be prompted for a tag when you import photos, whether to always erase the photos from your mobile device after they’re imported, whether to rotate vertical photos automatically on import, and whether to open Windows Explorer to view the photos on your PC after you import them.
When you select File Management, you can browse the contents of your mobile device, in Windows 7’s Windows Explorer. It’s far easier to view your files here than in the smart phone’s file manager program. Your phone shows up along with hard disks and removable storage devices in the left pane of Windows Explorer, and if the phone has a separate internal storage area or a microSD card inserted, each of those will also show up and you can browse the contents of each.
I couldn’t help noticing that not only is device setup easier in Windows 7, but subsequent connections to the device are established more quickly and reliably than they ever were in the Vista Mobile Device Center, too. With Vista, it was always a hit or miss thing; sometimes my phone would be recognized, other times it wouldn’t, and there was never any indication of why. With Windows 7, I actually like using MDC. With Vista, it was so bad that when I took photos with my phone, I usually just emailed them to myself (a time consuming process because I had to mail one at a time from the phone) whereas now I connect the phone to the computer and import all the photos quickly and easily.
Windows Mobile Device Center is an example of one more thing that simply works better with Windows 7.
Debra Littlejohn Shinder
MVP (Enterprise Security)
deb@shinder.net www.debshinder.com
Markus Craig on July 27, 2009 at 12:41 AM
Dearest,
My Name is Markus Craig and my sister is Vivian Craig we are from Liberia my consignment boxes contains 5 million United States Dollars(US$5,000,000.00) and some quantity of gold and Diamond,which I cannot specify.The consignment is presently in the United States of America.The consignments got to the States through the help of Dr Jeff Tekwa,The fact is that Dr Jeff Tekwa is supposed to have delivered these consignments boxes to a man called MR ALEX GREEN in States.
When Dr Jeff Tekwa arrived to deliver the consignments to him in the States after clearing the consignment from the Airport, he call Mr Alex green to tell him the description to his house for the delivery but his wife answered the call and told Dr Jeff Tekwa that her husband Mr Alex green had a heart failure which lead to his death a day before.
Mr Alex green has already before paid the demurrages from the security company,he paid for Bullion van that took the consignment to the airport and he paid for custom check report he also assisted us in getting the DRUG / ANTI TERRORIST CERTIFICATE,which is so expensive that he spent 47 thousand dollars to acquire it from the United Nations Office in Accra Ghana,but unfortunately he died out of a heart failure,that was why Dr Jeff Tekwa has to deposit the consignment with a warehouse in Diplomatic Lodge over there in the States and called us to inform us about what is happening for us to get another beneficiary for him to make the delivery of the consignments boxes to.
So dear,with due respect we are seeking for your assistance to receive the consignments boxes on our behalf.Please do get back to us with your direct cell number and address so that we can forward you more details and the diplomat number for you to call him who is presently in the States now.and also Please when you call him you will tell him that you are calling in respect of Prince Markus and Princess Vivian Craig's consignment that is in the States.
If Dr Jeff Tekwa asks if you have discussed with me tell him that you have discussed with me. Immediately You can call me as you read this mail and please strictly reply to my private email address: markus.craig80@gmail.com
I await your urgent response.
Thanks and God bless you
Prince Markus and Vivian Craig
confidence coach on July 28, 2009 at 10:16 AM
I like this phone, but not as well as the iphone for sure.
MARK PERKINS on December 21, 2009 at 05:02 PM
DISGUSTED WITH THE INCAPABILITY OF MOBILE DEVICES BEING COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS 7