File converter and Windows Vista

I just got a new laptop with Windows Vista. On my old Windows XP laptop I was using the Microsoft Windows CE Services file converter (WCESConv.exe) to convert Pocket Excel and Word files to and from Excel and Word 2003. I can't seem to get this utility to install on my new Vista machine even when using a Windows XP compatibility mode. Has anyone had success with this installation?

You will not be able to get it to run properly (using any installer process at least) because it relies upon one of the converter modules from Windows CE Services / ActiveSync in order to function, this is specifically blocked from operating on Vista, and of course you cannot install ActiveSync to replace the module.

As I avoid Vista as a matter of course, I'm not in a position to help you to see if it can be forced to run.

Have you given any thought to Virtual PC? It would get you out of the fix; if in a rather long winded fashion.

Boy oh boy. Definitely a lot more than I wanted to get into. I did try placing an icon for the WCESConv.exe on the desktop and attempted to force it to run. It was looking for CEUTL.dll which I presume is the active sync module you mentioned and of course it wasn't there. I don't suppose I could get it to run using the command prompt? I suppose it will still look for CEUTLL.dll which isn't there.
Running a VM might work, but I'd have the issue of getting a copy of an XP OS. I probably have one from my old laptop, but there's the issue of license costs. Seems a bit much to pay for a license just to run WCESconv.exe occasionally. What about a multiboot using DOS?

You can use any Windows OS in the VM, not just XP. You can pick up a back-dated version of Windows off of eBay for nothing of any consequence.

If you stick CEUTIL.dll next to wcesconv.exe and run it, assuming Vista is as pathetically stupid as it looks, you might get lucky.

Believe it or not I was successful. But it took some doing.

I found CEUTIL.dll in WINDOWS\system32 on my old laptop.
I copied it and put it in the same place on the new laptop.

Now when I tried running wcesconv.exe it indicated that the file converter it was looking for did not exist.

So I now attempted to load Windows CE Services 2.0 from the original CD. It didn't exactly load correctly since the RAS settings aren't right. But it did manage to download the converter programs I needed and put them into the proper directories.

I put a shortcut to wcesconv.exe on the desktop. I drag a file over to it and Voila! the conversion happens.

It's a bastard installation, but it works. Thanks for the help.

So will that DLL transplant also make ActiveSync 3.8 work?

I don't know. I don't use activsync anymore since I no longer have any kind of serial connection. That's why I use the file converter program instead.

I did have to also transfer the file rassapi.dll into the Windows/system32 folder. Otherwise I got an error message saying that file wasn't there.

Now whenever I plug anything into a USB port I get the CE Windows Services Properties window popping up. I am trying to shut this off. Anything I do in this window doesn't seem to get saved, such as trying to disable it. So now I am trying to remove Windows CE Services from my start-up. That new Windows Explorer start up windows seems to say that Windows CE Services is "not defined" and will not let me disable it.

Anyone know where the Windows Vista start-up file is located so I can manually edit it?