ActiveSync on PC vs ActiveSync on Phone

[Cyrus]

We have several users of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices synching their email and
Calendar over the air by synching with the Exchange server.

However, when these same people use their data cable to connect to a PC to
move some picture files or music files to/from the phone, ActiveSync on
their desktop wants to create a relationship with the connected phone and it
wants to synchronize email, calendar and contacts. If the user does NOT
know to click CANCEL on this prompt, the new relationship wipes out the
contacts they had previously stored on the phone and Exchange server.

Certainly, this seems way to fragile. is there a way to disable the PC
ActiveSync from creating a new relationship just because the user connected
a data cable?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cyrus

[William]

Post by Cyrus
We have several users of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices synching their email and
Calendar over the air by synching with the Exchange server.
However, when these same people use their data cable to connect to a PC to
move some picture files or music files to/from the phone, ActiveSync on
their desktop wants to create a relationship with the connected phone and it
wants to synchronize email, calendar and contacts.   If the user does NOT
know to click CANCEL on this prompt, the new relationship wipes out the
contacts they had previously stored on the phone and Exchange server.
Certainly, this seems way to fragile.  is there a way to disable the PC
ActiveSync from creating a new relationship just because the user connected
a data cable?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Are they logged in to their own account on the PC? Does the PC/
Account they are connecting to also have Outlook connected via
Exchange Server? My experience is that connecting a PPC to such a
workstation will create a relationship, but it will preserve the
Exchange sync settings for the device. Usually it just adds the
ability to synchronise favorites and files.

--
WH

[r***@pen_fact.com]

Post by Cyrus
We have several users of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices synching their email and
Calendar over the air by synching with the Exchange server.
However, when these same people use their data cable to connect to a PC to
move some picture files or music files to/from the phone, ActiveSync on
their desktop wants to create a relationship with the connected phone and it
wants to synchronize email, calendar and contacts. If the user does NOT
know to click CANCEL on this prompt, the new relationship wipes out the
contacts they had previously stored on the phone and Exchange server.
Certainly, this seems way to fragile. is there a way to disable the PC
ActiveSync from creating a new relationship just because the user connected
a data cable?

One key to finding info is knowing what term to seek. The
non-partnership relationship is called a "guest" partnership. Thus, I
just used google (http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&) to
look up
guest only
in this newsgroup and got 17 hits . One of them was a thread called
"SMT5600 will only connect as guest...HELP!!!", and that includes a 14
Nov 2004 contribution by riki, which mentions a registry on the PC:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services\GuestOnly
I then used google to look up that key, and
found:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270136/en-us
This method will prevent _all_ partnerships on that device.

Another option is to create a partnership with that PC, but make sure
it does nothing. I know that at least sometimes I can eliminate all
synchronization as I'm setting up a partnership, so I can avoid the
problem you described.

Post by Cyrus
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cyrus

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Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
PenFact, Inc.
20 Park Plaza, Suite 400
Boston, MA 02116
www.penfact.com