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It was a year ago that I’ve published my well-known (for example, it made to Sticky in the MobilitySite Applications forum) Making screenshots of the Pocket PC (alternates: MobilitySite, AximSite, PPCT, FirstLoox, BrightHand, PocketMatrix). Now that WM5 is out, I found it absolutely necessary to rewrite the old article to have, for example, WM5- and more gaming-related information.

In this article, you’ll find a LOT of secrets never published anywhere. You may already have been aware of all Compaq / HP iPAQ’s being able to take screenshots by themselves, but, for example, have you been aware of that you can take auto shots (shots taken one after another, without human intervention) by two Pocket PC-based screen capture applications, and with additional three with some manual “hacking” (don’t be afraid, it’ll be VERY easy!)? Did you know that, however much Vidya Pocket Screen Capture doesn't allow for suppressing the pretty annoying camera sound, you can get rid of it easily, by just deleting the WAV sound file it's stored in? Were you aware of the fact that many screen grabber applications that are considered NOT to be VGA compatible are able to be "forced" into VGA mode so that they take excellent VGA screenshots? Did you know Pocket Informant already has a built-in screen capture utility and the same developer has also released a free, stand-alone version excellent for taking periodic auto-screenshots? The list continues… Yes, you’ll find an explanation of all these in this article – and a lot more, never-before-published tips and tricks. This means that, as with all my similar roundups, this one will reveal a lot of secrets of the Pocket PC – read on!

Introduction: The basics

What's the point in writing so big an article on all these questions, you may ask. Isn't it as easy as just downloading an arbitrary screen grabber application off the Net, installing and starting it and just pressing its hotkey to take a shot (if it's a button based-application) or, if it has a timer, just quickly switch (before the timer is fired) to the application you'd like to take a shot of?

Yes, in many cases, it'll work, particularly if you "only" have a QVGA device, of which you'd only like to take screenshots in the default Portrait mode. As soon as, however, you will need to take shots of

full-screen games

VGA screens

Landscape screens

menus

screens that depend on the actual Internet (IP) address of the device

screens of the "HTC Camera" built-in camera client application (if any)

you will find that the screen gabber application you've chosen just doesn't work. It's particularly in these cases that you'll find this writeup useful.

Classification of screen grabber applications

First and foremost, there are two main kinds of screen capturer applications. The first group of them uses an active ActiveSync (or, in cases, any kind of TCP/IP (Internet) connection) and initiates screen grabbing from a desktop Windows PC; the second group only runs on the Pocket PC itself and doesn’t need any kind of desktop-based client. First, I elaborate on the first group.

1. PC & ActiveSync-based capture solutions

1.1 Introduction

You may already know at least SOTi Pocket Controller, the great PC-based application that makes it possible to control your Pocket PC hooked up to your PC (or being anywhere in the world if it has an Internet connection and your desktop is able to connect to it). SOTi Pocket Controller is one of the many applications that are not only controller apps but also themselves are able to take screenshots of the actual screen content of the connected Pocket PC device. In this article, I won’t discuss any of these programs (again, programs that not only allow for seeing the screen of your Pocket PC on your desktop computer, but also control it) because I’ve already done so. Please read this article for more information on how these applications can be used. Make sure you pay special attention to following the links to Part I of the series.

Seeing how I emphasized the word ‘control’, you may have already guessed there are desktop-based applications that don’t let for controlling the PDA (that is, you can’t use the PC’s keyboard and mouse to directly enter text / click objects on the virtual screen of the PDA), “only” passively show its screen. Or, more precisely, they don’t show it, “only” make a (savable) screenshot of it whenever you ask them to do so. This also means that, while “controller” applications (as they also need to show almost the same picture on the desktop as is on the PDA, with the least possible delay) may hugely slow down how the Pocket PC can be operated, desktop-based clients that only transfer the contents of the screen between the two devices can result in a much faster and more responsive Pocket PC. In this respect, solely screen capture apps (again, ones that can NOT be used to control the device) can be infinitely better: as they only transfer information between the PC and the Pocket PC when you do instruct them to take a screenshot, they don’t slow down the Pocket PC.

These applications (as with the “controller” type of applications; from now on, I’ll only talk about the ones that can’t control) all have the advantage of being able to capture (almost) anything. If you use a Pocket PC-only capture application, a lot of things may prevent you from taking screenshots on your device (for example, the given application’s blocking all hardware buttons or the inability to capture menus because they just close when you press the shortcut to make a screenshot). These problems are non-existent on applications that also have a desktop component. Then, you can, say, just open the menu or start the game you want to make shots of and just instruct the PC-side screenshot grabber to do the job when the screen / dialog you wanted to take a shot of is displayed.

Desktop-based screen capturer (or, again, controller) applications refuse to work in very-very few cases; for example,

when the given application (for example, Fathammer’s excellent 2700G-enabled 3D golf title, Toy Golf – it won’t start if the PDA is connected to the desktop PC via ActiveSync; the situation is the same with some other games that rely on the Intel 2700G GPU; for example, GeoRally EX) because it hates ActiveSync to be active. In this case, you can only make screenshots with Pocket PC-based tools. (In most cases, however, with a bit of playing with the time you connect the PPC to the desktop, you can still take screenshots through ActiveSync even with games like Toy Golf. For example, in order to take screenshots of Toy Golf from the desktop PC, start the game without the Pocket PC connected to the computer and only connect after the first “Loading” screen. Then, any server-side application will work – both specialized screen capturer apps and, as can be seen for example here, “full” Pocket PC controllers too. Note that, as far as this screenshot and the VGA 2700G-enabled devices – Dell Axim x50v / x51v – are concerned, if you use a plain screenshot tool, prefer the ViTO one (reviewed in this roundup) and start the game from native VGA mode so that the screenshots will be full-resolution ones. Forget GetPDAScreen, which, even as of version 1.1, is totally incompatible with VGA and will only take low-res screenshots.

when the additional network connection ActiveSync creates can cause problems. For example, if you take screenshots of an application or a game that displays or relies on for example a local network address, you can’t use an ActiveSync-based tool. The sole reason for this is that ActiveSync (as has also been pointed out by several of my ActiveSync & networking-related articles; for example, this) assigns another IP (Internet) address to the device. Then, the Pocket PC will have two addresses: one in the “real” network it’s supposed to talk to the outer world (in the following case, other PDA’s running the same game) and the other is that of ActiveSync. An example screenshot of this is here, where I took a screenshot of pocketadventures.com’s Travel Collection (also see The Definitive Multiplayer PPC Game Roundup). There, two IP’s are shown; one of them being assigned by ActiveSync, while the other being the “real” address of the device.

You will also need to keep this in mind when taking screenshots (or, for that matter, operating) local area network-based programs like the excellent 4Talk (review here) , or, when taking screenshots of for example the IP configuration screen of vxUtil, probably the best networking tool on the Pocket PC.

In most (all?) of the other cases, desktop-based screenshot taking will work just great.

1.2 Screen grabber / saver, desktop-based applications

There are, as far as user-friendly apps are concerned, two such applications (and one strictly for Pocket PC Phone Edition devices) right now (again, the rest also have controlling capabilities and, therefore, aren’t listen in here – check out the above roundup for a complete overview of them): GetPDAScreen and VITO ScreenCapture, both free and, unfortunately, both incompatible with the standard (SE) VGA mode of WM2003SE/WM5 VGA Pocket PC’s.

Note that Microsoft also has a (free - it comes with the free eVC 4.0) remote screen capturer application. It, however, is far from being user-friendly (particularly the connection initiation is a real pain in the back as it requires the user to always use different port addresses and, therefore, doesn't really allow for static .lnk files just to invoke \Windows\cemgrc.exe on the PDA) and offers really nothing additional compared to these applications. It supports landscape and native VGA as can be seen in here. it is, however, hopelessly QVGA in standard (SE) VGA and, therefore, not at all recommended.

If you really want to give it a try, you need to know the following: install eVC and execute c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows CE Tools\Platman\bin\cezoom.exe. Go to Connection / Configure CE Platform Manager and, after highlighting "Default Device" under "Windows CE .NET Default Platform" (there may/will be other top-level roots), click Properties. Change the settings to TCP/IP... in the top and Manual Server in the bottom drop-down menu. Click OK two times and select Connection / Connect to Device, highlight the same device and click OK. Now, you'll be presented the two DLL's and the one EXE file you'll need to copy from the c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows CE Tools\Platman\target\ subdirectory according to your CPU type to the \Windows subdirectory on your PDA. In the bottommost, non-editable textfield, you'll be presented the parameters (the IP address of your PC and the port the server will be listening on) you will need to pass to cemgrc.exe on your handheld. For example, in this example, you must supply the "/T:TCPIPC.DLL /Q /D:169.254.2.2:3359" parameters to cemgrc.exe; for example, via a link file with the following content:

99#"\WINDOWS\cemgrc.exe" /T:TCPIPC.DLL /Q /D:169.254.2.2:3359

Then, start the server on the PDA and immediately after this the client on the PC. Click OK and the connection will be built up. You can any time refresh the view by pressing F5 (or Connection / Refresh).

Note that the port number will change every time you reconnect the PDA to the desktop PC; this is one of the reasons I don't recommend this solution at all for simple screen grabbing purposes and haven’t even included in the comparison chart.

1.2.1 GetPDAScreen 1.1 by NewMad

Its biggest problem is that it’s strictly QVGA (it doesn’t even take full-resolution shots in native VGA mode) and Portrait only. (The latter, fortunately, doesn’t mean it won’t be able to make screenshots of (most) games running in Landscape full screen – it will). It only takes QVGA shots of VGA devices, which is unacceptable in most cases. If you force \Windows\GetScreen.exe (the EXE component the desktop client, behind the scenes, deploys on the Pocket PC to grab the screen and send it over the ActiveSync connection) into VGA (with Tweaks2k2.NET or just copying the standard .mui file into \Windows), the result will only contain the upper left quarter of the screen as can also be seen in this screenshot.

Therefore, you will only want to use it on QVGA devices, preferably in Portrait only (or with landscape games).

1.2.2 VITO ScreenCapture 1.0

This application doesn’t support taking full-resolution screenshots of VGA devices in SE (standard) VGA either; only in the native VGA mode. It supports non-Portrait screen orientations. That is, it’s much more useful than GetPDAScreen. It is only able to export screenshots into BMP files; therefore, you will want to convert them further with, say, ImageMagick on the desktop or XnView on the Pocket PC (see the tips in the Full Roundup of Picture Viewers/Editors for the Pocket PC for more information & tips on conversion!) to the much more compact, say, PNG format.

1.2.3 Jeyo Mobile Companion 1.1

This application is a well-known, excellent Pocket PC Phone Edition SMS / contacts manager for the PC - highly recommended if you want to, say, backup your SMS messages or call history to your desktop PC or manage your phone contacts directly on the PC.

Unfortunately, it is only compatible with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices - that is, not with standard, phone-less Pocket PC's.

It, in addition to PIM handling, also has screen capturing capabilities, which is accessible via Tools / Capture Screen. It captures landscape screens without problems and is able to directly save images to both BMP and JPG files.

While, by default, it's not capable of capturing VGA screens in standard (SE) mode, forcing \Windows\CommMan.exe (the file auto-deployed by Jeyo to the PDA) into VGA does the trick. That is, this is the only desktop-based application that is able to correctly capture the VGA screen of, say, the VGA HTC Universal. That is, if you have a HTC Universal, you'll want to give it a try.

2 Strictly on-the-PDA screenshot applications

There are three types of them: some are part of picture viewer/editor applications (see the Full Roundup of Picture Viewers/Editors for the Pocket PC for more information on the latter) and the rest have been created solely for screen capturing capabilities (while, possibly, they also have image viewing capabilities to, for example, browse the screenshots already taken). Finally, there may be screenshot taker applications in strictly not imaging-related applications; for example, Pocket Informant.

They are all in common in that, as opposed to desktop-based screenshot and/or Pocket PC controller applications, they may prove useless to take screenshots in a number of situations. For example, if you want to take a shot of a game that runs in full screen mode (and, therefore, hides the taskbar where you could quickly switch to your picture maker app to take a screenshot), some of these apps (for example Resco - it can’t even be bound to a hardware button to take screenshots) become useless. In these cases, applications that have hardware button-based picture taking capabilities (most of them have except for the above-mentioned Resco application – or XnView) may be of help – unless the game disables all access to buttons (which, unfortunately, is the case with most games).

If the game does block all the access to hardware buttons and, thus, makes it impossible to invoke picture taker apps to take screenshots, you can only rely on Pocket PC-based screen grabber applications that have some kind of a (countdown) timer (making it possible to automatically, without human interaction, take a screenshot some (dozens of) seconds later) or multiple (“auto”) screenshot taking capabilities.

In this section, I first review all of the screen capturer applications that belong to the first category and, then, move on to self-standing screen capture applications.

2.1 Image viewers/ editors with additional screenshot taking capabilities

2.1.1 The built-in Screen Capture utility of Resco Picture Viewer 5.32

Resco Picture Viewer is, in my opinion, the best picture viewer application for the Pocket PC. It’s commercial and is bundled with some Dell Axim PPC's for free. After installing, it has a separate icon, “Screen Capture”, which makes it possible to take screenshots without invoking the main application (as opposed to how, say, XnView works):

As can also be seen, its configurability is really poor: you can’t configure anything except for a 10-second delay and saving automatically. This also means it can only be used for basic, non-involved screenshot making tasks – it can’t really be used to make screenshots of games. It, however, has something that very few other screen grabber applications have: it saves images in the best lossless (PNG) format, in addition to JPG and BMP.

2.1.2 XnView 1.35

XnView is a very nice, free (!) picture viewer / converter. The latest, 1.35 version, fortunately, fixed the Portrait-only bug of the previous, 1.31 version; now, you can make Landscape screenshots too. Unfortunately, as a screenshot application, it’s pretty poor (except for the really useful multiple output format capabilities) – all it offers is a settable 1/5/10/15s delay. No hardware buttons, no multiple shots, not invokable from external scripts. Nevertheless, if you don’t need the latter functionalities, you will want to give it a try.

2.1.3 Pocket Artist 3.2 by Conduits

Pocket Artist is a hugely popular Photoshop clone on the Pocket PC with (pretty weak) screenshot taking capabilities. All it offers is just a timer. The newly-introduced hardware button support, unfortunately, doesn’t let for assigning the screen capture functionality. It stores the result on the clipboard, which, then, must be manually pasted to a new file (via Menu/Image/ New, then, Menu/ Edit/ Paste and, then, Menu / Image / Save. Note that it’s only capable of saving images as Photoshop (.PSD) files). It, however, is compatible with every Pocket PC OS (even Handheld PC’s!), every video mode and is a great Photoshop replacement. As a “simple” screen capturer application (if you don’t need a mini-Photoshop on your PDA - that is, wouldn't use the other features), however, it’s not recommended.

2.1.4 CEPicture 2.7 by LimeLink

This very old picture viewer also has screenshot capabilities. It offers nothing particular (no timer, for example). It can take menu screenshots.

Note that if you change the screen orientation while it's active, it won't be able to take shots in the new orientation; that is, only change screen orientation while the app is not active. Then, it'll take Landscape screenshots too.

The same developer also has a free screen capture application, CECapture (see below). It, capturing-wise, is exactly the same as the screen capture module of CEPicture.

2.1.5 PictPocket Cinema 4.0

It’s WM5 / Landscape-compliant. It’s only able to use the Action button (it’s also able to capture menus using it); it has no timer capabilities. Not recommended because of the very high ($39.99) price and because most of its functionality it offers is implemented by either the free TCPMP and some much more superior & cheap image viewers.

2.1.6 Photogenics 1.0 Release 139

This is, as with Pocket Artist, another pretty pricey ($49.99) Photoshop-like application.

Note that Handango has release 133 while the latest release I know of is 139. I’ve tested the latter. Also note that while it’s said it’s not WM5-compliant, I haven’t really encountered problems when using it on my WM5 devices.

Unfortunately, unlike with Pocket Artist, it only takes QVGA images (and the GUI is also QVGA only) ; forcing \Program Files\Photogenics\ Photogenics.exe to VGA doesn’t work (it’ll display everything in the upper left corner); the same stands for using it in native VGA. That is, it’s not recommended if you have a VGA device.

As far as its capture capabilities are concerned, it has nothing to write home about: all it can boast with is just a simple wait timer.

2.1.7 PQV 3.0.10 by HanaHo Games

The screen capturer utility, “PQV Screen Capture”, as with “Screen Capture” in Resco Picture Viewer (and unlike all the other picture viewer/editor applications), is a separate entity from the main program. It’s, therefore, assignable to a hardware button and can be greatly used from external scripts when multiple, auto screenshots are needed.

Unfortunately, it only takes QVGA shots on VGA devices and forcing \Program Files\HanaHo\pqvscl.exe doesn’t help this. It doesn’t work in native VGA mode either. Furthermore, it isn’t able to take standard landscape shots (it’ll work with most full screen landscape games though).

Both the screen capture and the “main” application are WM5-compliant. However, never ever try to run the screen capturer application on a WM5 VGA device (it works OK on WM5 QVGA devices – apart from the inability to take non-Portrait shots). It will at least mess up the screen and, in cases, result in a lot of device.exe crash reports (tested on both the Axim x51v and the HP hx4700).

The main application, just like with WM2003SE, is buggy under WM5 (on QVGA devices too): it hides the drop-down tree lists in the file input dialog.

2.2 Self-standing, specialized screen capturer applications

These applications are primarily meant for screen capturing and are also advertised as (primarily) screenshot taker apps, as opposed to the applications in the previous, 2.1 section.

2.2.1 SnapIt 2.0 by Xoanan

This application doesn’t offer much as can also be seen in here:

Unfortunately, it also has compatibility problems: in SE (standard) VGA, it uses pixel halving (fortunately, by forcing it into VGA mode, it’ll work as supposed to). It can’t be used to make screenshots of menus either: it has no timer functionalities and, when invoked using a hardware button (configurable from inside the app), the menu disappears.

All in all, I don’t recommend it – there are much superior apps on the market for the same (Vidya) or even considerably less (BeniSoft ScreenShotCE) price.

2.2.2 Developer One Pocket ScreenSnap 6.10

This app is definitely better than the above-reviewed Xoanan SnapIt 2.0; for example, it entirely supports VGA and it allows for making shots of menus with hardware buttons or timers (it does support timers). It, however, isn’t as good as the (equally priced) Vidya or the (much cheaper) BeniSoft application – for example, it only supports BMP as the output format and doesn’t support taking continuous screenshots – unless you invoke it from an external script (see below), when it works just wonderfully.

2.2.3 BeniSoft ScreenShotCE 1.10

This application, in my opinion, is a very good one for the price if you don’t need to take screenshots of fast-paced games or menus (it only supports taking menu screenshots by the, for this, pretty awkward serial screenshot taker).

It even has a ZIP plug-in (which, unfortunately, needs separate registration, which doesn’t seem to be available for causal users), which makes it possible to compress the output screenshot files (which can be pretty important with huge BMP shots). It’s the only title that allows for record voice with shots (2). It, however, is different from how for example digital cameras offering additional- voice-recording- with-keeping -the-button- depressed work and is definitely inferior.

Unfortunately, it has no timers - however, the auto (serial) screenshot mode is usable in this case too.

It’s one of the applications to have (native) serial screenshot taking capabilities (not counting in the screen contents change-triggered Auto mode of SuperSnap). It, however, can’t really be used in fast-paced games. While PC-based apps will take correct screenshots of all fast-paced games as can be seen for example in these screenshots: 1 2 3 (of the 2700G tech demo PowerVR Racer - see section 2.1 here, in the Roundup of All 2700G-enabled Games and Demos), ScreenShotCE is definitely slower as can be seen for example in this and this screenshots. This problem is common in all other games; for example, here and here are screenshots of ToyGolf, also showing this problem. The situation is even worse in Fathammer’s Stuntcar Extreme as can be seen for example here – actually, I haven’t been able to take a single screenshot in that game without these kinds of problems.

Unfortunately, non-2700G-based games can also suffer from this problem; for example, here’s a screenshot of Acky’s Breakout with a doubled ball image (it’s a fast-moving object).

These won’t be an issue with any desktop-based screenshot taker or controller applications. Also, Vidya Pocket Screen Capture has considerably less problems with fast-paced games if you want to stick to taking screenshots strictly on your Pocket PC, without using any desktop-based client. Finally, I haven’t encountered so (many) problems with the other three, scriptable-for-auto-shot apps either (PQV, WebIS Screenshot and DeveloperOne). Therefore, if you want to make a lot of screenshots of fast games, check out the just-listed titles first.

2.2.4 Vidya Pocket Screen Capture 1.0.9

This application, in my opinion, is the best of all. It has very few shortcomings: for example, the lack of (single) timed screenshots (fortunately, the app offers great button-based menu capture capabilities) and the fact that, unlike with the Benisoft title, auto screenshot sounds can’t be disabled. Unless you delete \Windows\VidyaCameraClick.wav (this is highly recommended!), that is.

When it comes to making screenshots of fast games, it fares considerably better than the Benisoft title. Some examples: very few Stuntcar Extreme shots show (slight) artifacts (for example this). The same stands for the PowerVR demo: I’ve only found one screenshot (of some 10-15) to be (slightly) faulty. Finally, few of the ToyGolf screenshots were bad (1 2). I haven’t found any Acky screenshots to be faulty. This means definitely this is the app to go for if you want to take game screenshots without using a desktop-side application and you don’t want to mess with my scripts that make it possible to also use PQV and the DeveloperOne app to take continuous shots.

2.2.5 Kilmist SnapShot 1.0

Definitely not as powerful as Vidya Pocket Screen Capture or BeniSoft ScreenShotCE. For example, it offers neither timers nor auto-shots and it isn’t able to take high-resolution shots of VGA screens in standard (SE) VGA mode (only in native VGA) without explicitly forcing it into VGA mode. At least it has button-based menu capturing capabilities, unlike the BeniSoft title.

I wouldn’t get it – after all, it costs as much as the really superior Vidya Pocket Screen Capture.

2.2.6 Magic SS 1.1

This has been a famous, free application. Unfortunately, compared to the alternates, I'd say it’s not really worth getting – it offers nothing compared to even some of the free alternates (no timers, no menu capture capabilities – the assigned hardware button exits the menu – etc). On the positive side, it’s small and standard (SE) VGA compliant.

2.2.7 Epiphan Screen Grabber (CECapture 1.0)

This free application is in no way recommended – there are much better free (!) apps that are able to do much more. For example, it isn’t compatible with the standard (SE) VGA mode (unless forced) and doesn’t even have timer capabilities (both, for example, XnView and Resco have the latter). Actually, it is only able to make screenshots of the Today screen because it can only be invoked using its green E icon on the command bar there (see the above screenshot). You can’t make it grab a screen when you directly invoke it.(Also see the user opinions here).

2.2.8 iTask’s built-in (Delayed) Capture

All iPAQ models that have iTask on them (that is, all iPAQ’s starting with PPC2k2) have a built-in screen capturer application in iTask. It has nothing to write home about (BMP output only and non-configurable delay) but it’s still good to have around. Please read the previous article on configuring and using it - there is a full tutorial on this question in there, packed with screenshots.

2.2.9 CECapture 1.0 (5002) by LimeLink

(Note that I could only find a Chinese page; there doesn’t seem to be an English one.)

This free and very old screenshot application is produced by the same folks as CEPicture.

As with CEPicture, it’s able to save in both BMP / JPG. The similarities don’t end up here: it doesn’t dynamically get the list of the available buttons; it’s also capable of taking screenshots of menus with the assigned hardware button; it (\Program Files \Limelink\ CECapture.exe) must be forced into VGA in order to make standard (SE) VGA screenshots and isn’t able to capture non-Portrait screens.

2.2.10 Pocket Screen Capture v1.0 by CEToolbox

(Note that almost all references still refer to the old CEToolbox address. It no longer works.)

This free application, if you don't need any fancy, extra capabilities and only look for a simple, but usable application, can prove pretty good.

It's non-VGA compliant without explicitly forcing \Program Files \Pocket Screen Capture\ psc.exe into VGA. It's landscape-compliant and timer-based (5 sec only). The only output format it offers is BMP. It is not scriptable.

2.2.11 ScreenShooter 1.0 by KaonTech

(The original homepage is no longer accessible; hence the PocketGear link.)

It's a commercial (in trial mode it's useless because of the watermark it puts on all images - only the Vidya app is the other that watermarks the shots). It's landscape- and WM5-compliant. In SE (standard) VGA, you must force \Program Files\ScreenShooter\screenshooter.exe to make high-resolution screenshots. It can only be invoked via non-assignable (!) hardware keys. Screenshot taking is wired to Button 1. It is not scriptable and has no timers.

All in all, it's a really weak application at the price tag - many freeware applications offer the same (or even better) functionality. Not recommended.

2.2.12 Screenshot by WebIS

This very simple (no GUI, no timer capabilities, only BMP output, only stores its files in the main storage, in \My Documents etc.), WM2003+ utility (which takes a screenshot when it's executed - that is, its icon is tapped or the button, which it's assigned to in Settings / Button, is pressed) is highly recommended for scripted (auto / periodic) screenshot taking). It's VGA and Landscape-compliant and pretty fast when it comes to taking game screenshots.

Note that the WebIs Beta server used to host a standalone, older version of this screenshot maker application (see Alex’ last post here and here) but it’s no longer available. The new version, however, is accessible.

2.2.13 SuperSnap by PocketDevelop.com

(Note that while the developer does have a homepage, it's empty. This is why I've provided a PocketGear URL.)

This is a pretty good, WM2003+, WM5- and VGA-compliant, albeit a bit expensive ($14.90) product. It has a unique feature: in the Auto mode, it takes screenshots whenever the screen content changes (that is, it won't take shots in auto mode when there is no change in the screen contents). It works wonderfully in games too.

2.3 Screenshot takers in non-imaging applications / utilities

2.3.1 Pocket Informant by Web Information Solutions, Inc.

Pocket Informant (which comes with the HP iPAQ hx4700 and, given the popularity of the application, is also installed on many thousands of Pocket PC’s) also contains a (pretty rudimentary: all it offers is a 5-second timer and isn’t invokable using a hardware button or from an external program) screenshot taker application.

To use it, go to Menu / Tools & Settings / Utilities and select Screenshot… at the bottom.

Note that the developer has also released a standalone screen grabber available here, which is highly recommended particularly for scripted (auto / periodic) screenshot taking. See section 2.2.12 for more information.

3. Hacks – how can you run screenshot taking periodically?

In addition to Vidya Pocket Screen Capture and BeniSoft ScreenShotCE, there is still a way to make a strictly Pocket PC-based screen capture application take screenshots periodically: by invoking it from an external program – a script in this case.

For this, I recommend nScriptm, on which I’ve already elaborated a lot (please see for example this article and the scripting programming-related articles linked from there).

There are three applications that can be directly invoked (by just executing the program to take a screenshot, which can also be easily checked if you configure your Pocket PC to invoke the application straight from the Settings/Button applet or just click its icon in Start/Programs) and, therefore, be periodically run: PQV (for Portrait-only or game screenshot taking, strictly on QVGA devices), WebIS Inc. Screenshot and Developer One Pocket ScreenSnap (for screenshot taking on any kind of device and screen orientation). (Please see the comparison chart for the explanation why other apps can NOT be executed from an external application – I’ve elaborated on them all.)

To configure your system to execute these three applications, you’ll need to get nScriptm from here; unzip ARMPPC\ns.exe to the newly-created \Program Files\ns directory on your PDA (that is, create a directory named ‘ns’ under ‘\Program Files’ in the main storage). Now, get this file and copy PeriodicallyInvokeScreenCapturer.ns from \DevOne , \WebIS or \PQV (depending on which screenshot app you’d like to periodically invoke) in the same directory (\Program Files\ns) on your PDA. Finally, transfer PeriodicallyInvokeScreenCapturer.lnk (also in the same RAR file) to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs so that the auto invocation can be easily started from Start / Programs.

Note that you may want to modify the two .ns files if you want to in/decrease the frequency of taking screenshots (it’s now (at least – don’t forget that if the CPU / the file system is overloaded, it may take much more time to save a screenshot) six seconds). Also, you’ll want to modify the paths to the picture taker executables if they aren’t in the main storage (RAM in pre-WM5 devices). Please note that I couldn’t use loop constructs here (for some reason, nScriptm just didn’t like either while() or for() loops so don’t come to tell me “hey, you don’t even know what looping is about?!” ;) ).

After all these files have been deployed, just click the PeriodicallyInvokeScreenCapturer icon in Start / Programs (with Developer One Pocket ScreenSnap, manually starting the app first, making sure the post-shot taking dialog is suppressed and going into the Hide mode – see the comments and screenshots in the comparison chart on all this) and then, just click it for the screenshots to be taken. Note that you’ll need to explicitly stop the .ns file from any task manager (Settings/System/ Memory/Running Programs by default) if you don’t need it any more and it still hasn’t finished.

4. The comparison / feature chart

It’s available here (sorry, it’s too wide to be included in here).

4.1 Explanation for the chart

Where does it run?: if it’s “PPC”, then, it only needs the Pocket PC. If it’s "PC + PPC", then, it also requires a computer running a desktop Windows and connected to the PDA via ActiveSync.

Pic formats: a list of the save format. Most apps only know BMP (the least storage-friendly format – but, at least, as opposed to JPEG/JPG, the format that is also supported by some screenshot apps, it isn’t lossy). Unfortunately, PNG (probably the best image format for taking screenshots) is only supported by few applications.

It stores the captured images in the file system: This is also pretty important. About half of the screen grabber applications put the files into the main storage (RAM in pre-WM5 operating systems) in, in most cases, the \My Documents, \Temp or simply the root (\) directory. This, especially when done on a VGA device and/or using BMP files and/or using auto (periodic) shooting and/or you use a WM5 device very sensitive to mass-writing operations (like the WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50 or the HP iPAQ hx4700; see this for more info), can really quickly fill up the (storage) memory and/or result in lengthy filesys.exe cleanups. Therefore, it's very important for the screen grabber application to be able to store the screenshot files on a storage card. In this test, I've scrutinized each application in this respect. Ones with the ability to store the files "anywhere" are generally preferable.

OS compatibility with real device tests group: here, I’ve elaborated on the Pocket PC / Windows Mobile version compatibility of the tested applications. Of these, I’ve tested all, except for the oldest PPC2k (Pocket PC 2000). (Incidentally, compatibility with the 12-bit iPAQ 36xx also means that all these apps are able to capture screen contents of both 12 and 16 bits. This may also mean they are also compatible with 18-bit screens as, as far as I know, the underlying data is still 16-bit, just like with the case of 12-bit screens like that of the 36xx/37xx iPAQ series.)

VGA compatibility with real device tests group: does the given application support VGA screens – that is, does it make full, high-resolution screenshots of them?

The majority of them support SE (standard) VGA (the VGA mode that is by default active on VGA devices, unless you explicitly switch it to the so-called ‘native’ VGA mode; please see my older, VGA-related articles for example in my blog on these questions); many of them that don’t can be “forced” to do so. There are only four applications that can’t take high-resolution screenshots in SE (standard) VGA mode.

Native VGA WM2003SE/ WM5: the non-default, “magnifier is needed!” screen mode of VGA devices. Three applications are hopelessly incompatible with it.

Non-portrait orientation support group: are the given applications compatible with non-portrait (that is, right- and left-hand landscape) modes. Very few applications aren’t.

Pocket PC-based group: questions that only pertain to Pocket PC-based (that is, not ActiveSync-based) screenshot applications (again, you can take a screenshot through ActiveSync any time – this is why it’s not important whether, say, a desktop screen grabber has periodic screenshot taking capabilities). Of them, the following are the most important:

Auto shots: does the given application have built-in (!) support for taking screenshots periodically? Only two of them do (Vidya, BeniSoft ScreenShotCE).

Direct programmatic invocation to make screenshots in auto mode?: if they don’t have built-in support for periodic (auto) shots, are they “hackable” to do so? Three of them are; I’ve also described in the chart how this must be done.

Gaming group: is it a right program for making screenshots of games? In the 2700G tests, I’ve also listed some of my remarks on how it behaved (in Auto (periodical) mode) during my tests.

Menu/button group:

One-time timer: is it possible to set a timer in the program to make a shot x seconds later (making it possible to, say, take a screenshot of a menu or even a game that otherwise blocks all access to button-based screenshot making). With many applications, it’s possible; unfortunately, the best application, Vidya, doesn’t support this.

Hardware key (PPC-only apps)?: is it possible to make screenshots with a hardware button press? If yes, does the application offer all the available buttons to be used (le’ts not forget some high-end Pocket PC’s like the Pocket Loox 720 have some six buttons and all of them can also be used in hold mode, doubling the number of accessible functions), or just the standard four or five? Unfortunately, very few applications let for assigning the screenshot shortcut to all the available buttons. (Also see my old, button-related articles on how the actual number, the currently assigned programs and icons of the available buttons can be get programmatically – developers, hear me? It’s time to read all my past articles to find out how this all must be done!)

Able to capture menus? (Via HW button or timer): many times, you’ll need to take screenshots of opened menus. This can prove pretty tricky as menus are known to be closed when another program is started or a button is pressed. In this test, I’ve examined if it’s at all possible with the given app to make menu screenshots and if it is, how it can be done. That is, does pressing the assigned screenshot button close the menu and if there are no button assignment capabilities, are there at least timing (delaying) capabilities.

PC-based group: here, I’ve listed whether the PC-based client is able to take not only screenshots but also a video (as with, say, SOTi Pocket Controller or dotPocket) of the PDA screen. (Neither of the two PC + PPC apps are able to do this). Also, the Manual orientation change to take pics of for example Thunderhawk & games? Correct orientation? and the Remote (not just ActiveSync), IP-based connection? EDGE-based test if exists tests may be well-known from my old Remote Controller Roundup(s).

5. Taking screenshots of the built-in HTC Camera application?

A widely asked question (see for example the below-linked XDA-Dev thread on some practical uses) is taking screenshots of the standard HTC Camera application that comes with all HTC models (and some other HTC-manufactured Pocket PC's like the Pocket Loox 720) without the camera content being totally left out as can be seen in the following screenshot (taken with CEZoom in standard SE VGA mode; hence the pixel-halving):

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, it is not possible to do this (except for using CoolCamera, but, then, you won't see the standard HTC Camera GUI in the screenshot - see below). None of the tools I've tested was able to do this in not any mode. I've tried all the reviewed stand-alone, Pocket PC-based screen grabber tools, all the three reviewed screenshot-only PC-based applications (GetPDAScreen shot here; ViTO here, CEZoom shot above) and all the "real" remote controller apps (some example screenshots: SOTI Pocket Controller, VH Capture not even in capture mode, VNC Server etc.)

Note that according to XDA-Dev forum member levenum, (some of?) these tools work on HP's Pocket PC Phone Edition devices like the hw6915 with the HTC Camera app.

Also note that, right now, there is an alternate camera applications of HTC Camera: ATEKsoft's CoolCamera (reviewed here). You can freely take screenshots of it on both the PDA (see the screenshots in the review) and the desktop. Then, however, you won't see the standard camera controls of the HTC Camera application (as CoolCamera has nothing to do with the HTC Camera application). All PC and PPC-based tools were able to capture the screen of CoolCamera, as opposed to that of HTC Camera.

As far as the infamous CECam is concerned, it doesn't support built-in cameras - that is, it doesn't support any of the new(er) HTC models.

6. Verdict

It all depends whether you need fast gaming and/or automatic screenshots. If you want to take game screenshots (topped with easy menu screenshot taking), go for either Vidya Pocket Screen Capture or SuperSnap. Unfortunately, both are pretty pricey. If you don’t need to take game / (easy) menu screenshots but would certainly welcome auto shots, check out the much cheaper BeniSoft ScreenShotCE. If you aren’t afraid of a bit of manual work and script deploying, definitely need auto screenshot capabilities and, say, already have PQV or Developer One Pocket ScreenSnap, you can safely use these two applications too. (Note, again, that PQV is unable to work on VGA devices and will not save operating system-level Landscape screens, only Landscape games). Alternatively, you may want to give a try to the free WebIS Screenshot - it's VGA-compliant and works just great in (scripted) auto screenshot mode.

Finally, if you need no periodic shooting capabilities (because, for example, a timer-based single shot will do the trick), check out the comparison chart: there will be a lot of applications to choose from. Make sure you base your choice on the most important things you need (for example, operating system version / VGA / Landscape compatibility; the ability to store screenshots right on a storage card; support for timers and/or buttons etc.). You'll find all the information you need in the comparison chart to base your decision on.

UPDATE (09/05/2006 9:22AM CET): PPCT frontpage

UPDATE (09/13/2006):

justanothermobilemonday frontpage

UPDATE (09/17/2006): AximSite frontpage; Allen Gall's thoughts on screen capturing. In the meantime, I've also published a full article How do I take screenshots of great multimedia player TCPMP (or, any other decent video player) playing videos.

UPDATE (09/20/2006): Added Jeyo Mobile Companion 1.1.

UPDATE (09/23/2006): Added SuperSnap 1.0