Connect Your Phone or PDA From a Laptop or PC (Transfer Files)

I found my phone quite usable for on-the-run short messaging, but as a new user, I had not yet mastered the predictive keyboard input or other input methods. When attempting longer messages and more intense activity I was getting frustrated not being able to use my laptop. 

Bell provides a tethering program on the Touch that allows you to use the phone as a modem for the laptop, but I didn't want to use the tethering option because there are regular data charges outside of the 'unlimited' plan that can quickly run up big data bills like I used to get with Rogers and Telus.

I started looking at ways to connect my Touch to my laptop, with the idea of finding a remote control program that could allow me to use my laptop keyboard that I was used to.

So I pulled out the CD disk that came with the phone and ran the install program. It installed the Microsoft ActiveSync program on my XP laptop that allows regular Windows PC machines to connect and communicate with Windows Mobile Devices.

The picture on the right shows a partial screen capture of the newer Vista version of ActiveSync - Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). Running on my Vista laptop, it even recognized, by itself, that I had an HTC Touch (and put the picture of it up too).

This installed in a routine fashion, but also offered to set up my system for 'syncing', which I did not want. This is a procedure that allows you to synchronize mail programs (and other things) on both the PC and phone so that any mail activity that has taken place on the phone will get updated on the laptop. However, it requires that you use their Microsoft Outlook mail program, which I did not want to get drawn into.

I use the Mozilla Thunderbird mail client because I really like it, and it also works on the Ubuntu operating system that we are replacing Windows with on all our machines. I have my phone set to 'leave messages on server' so that when I get onto a net connection with the Wifi on my laptop, I can still get all my messages and remove them from the server. This system works well for me, and I have been using it this way for a long time.

I only wanted the communications capability between the two machines, so I stopped at the install point where it offered to set up Outlook. I then plugged my USB cable from my laptop into the phone, heard some funny sounds, and suddenly saw the 'CONNECTED' message on my laptop screen. I then launched the file explorer on my laptop and found I could browse my phone, just as if it was a USB hard drive. I could also transfer files back and forth - Activesync handles the file translation transparently from one platform to the other. This is cool!

I then went over to my Vista laptop to set up the same thing, but discovered, as above, that Activesync is no longer used by Vista. Instead, you have to download a new program called Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). Be warned folks: this thing is very buggy and often won't detect your phone; I had a lot of trouble with it and spent many hours trying to get it to work properly. I finally got it to work ok, but I still have to sometimes repeatedly conect/disconnect and reboot both devices to get Vista to recognize my phone.

The XP ActiveSync seems to work much better and if you have been hesitating to upgrade to Vista, or have been contemplating going back to XP, or switching to Ubuntu or Mac, this could be an important factor in your decision.

NEXT: Operating the Touch phone or PDA by Remote Control from your laptop