Setting the name of a Windows Mobile device programmatically

Setting the name of a Windows Mobile powered device can be achieved by manipulating the registry. Since CF 2.0 we have had the luxury of a Registry managed wrapper, so there is no need to P/Invoke the registry API.

This post shows a simple example how to read and update the name of the device - which is stored in the registry.

I've written a simple bit of code that looks like the following:

using Microsoft.Win32;

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    private const string IDENTITY = @"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Ident";
    private const string NAME = "Name";
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
          
    }

    private void apply_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Registry.SetValue(IDENTITY, NAME, deviceName.Text);  
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        deviceName.Text = (string)Registry.GetValue(IDENTITY, NAME, "NAME");
    }
}

The form looks like the following:


Mobile app pre-change

This can also been seen from the Settings\System\About\Device ID applet:


Device name pre-change

Also this can be seen via the Windows CE Remote Registry Editor (CE Remote Tools):



Now we simply change the "MyDevice" to "NewDeviceName" and click the Apply button. Our change is propagated instantly if we go and check the settings applet again:



It's as simple as that!