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How to tether your Windows Mobile phone to a laptopBy Sindre Lia, 14 September 2008
Getting to the bottom of Windows Mobile issues are often a painful process. We help out a frustrated reader that is tired of support lines. Some general tips & tricks are also inside.

Reader's question:

I'm running the Windows Vista 64-bit operating system on my PC, and want to tether my Windows Mobile phone to it for wireless broadband access. Every time I try to get it to work, Vista crashes and sometimes forces me to perform a re-install with factory settings. I've spent my fair share of time on the support lines, but nobody seems to be able to help me out. How do you guys get your Windows Mobile phones to work? Kathy

Editor's answer:

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If you don't get laptop tethering to work with the 64-bit version, you may want to check out these two solutions:

  • Mobile Stream

  • PDANet

    Officially, PDANet only supports Vista 32-bit, but a 64-bit version can be found here.

    Additionally, Windows Mobile's best friend is the recessed soft reset button on the back of every Windows Mobile phone. The soft reset of your Windows Mobile phone is like rebooting your Windows PC.

    After installing a program or driver you have to soft reset the Windows Mobile phone, or you may run into trouble. Just like you have to reboot your Windows PC after installing a program or driver.

    We also recommend performing a soft reset on a regular basis. It'll ensure that your Windows Mobile phone runs optimally. Think of a Windows Mobile phone as an old Windows computer; neither is capable of performing well without regular restarts (and regular could mean several times a day if you use it extensively). Just make sure that you've saved all your work before doing so of course.

    Lastly, a hard reset of a Windows Mobile phone will wipe out all your user data, and is basically a re-install with factory settings like you've experienced with Vista lately.
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