Interacting with Windows CE Shell [closed]

Question

I recently baught a Navman S200 which is a Windows CE 5.0 device. I have managed to get passed the vendor specifified UI and have the device booting the native CE shell, however interaction with this is proving difficult.

The Navman devices are touch-sensitive and this appears to be implemented at the OS level which is unsurpring, I did manage to open the start menu once but can't reproduce this.

My questions

1. Where exactly should I be touching to interact with the start menu, there is a windows flag and a "start" caption, which of these will open the start menu when touched
2. There is a shortcut for launching SmartST (the aforementioned vendor-specified UI), it appears to be selected based on the fact that its caption text is the typical selected text colour, I'm not sure if this is true
3. Is the fact that the shortcut is focused prevventing me from clicking start?
4. If the above is true, how do I give focus to the taskbar so that i might use the start menu.

I know this is a rather odd question, I feel odd asking such basic things as a developer, but this is a UI i'm not supposed to see on a device that uses an OS I'm unfamilar with and an input method I'm not entirely sure of.

Answer 1

I cannot answer all of your questions but I do think I have some relevant info for you concerning the CE shell. Windows typically keeps a registry key which specifies what program it will run as the "shell". In windows this is usually "explorer.exe". It is possible to change this to any program you like which will mean that you have no access to the underlying windowing system.

Now that being said, many systems like this have a "backdoor" to get back to the operating system. Sometimes it is a key sequence or a hotkey which will allow you to switch to the OS mode.