Device Names and existing partnerships

Naming your PocketPC

What's in a name anyway? Out of the box, your device comes with the name "Pocket_PC" - and why the heck would you want to change that inspiring example of nomenclature?

There are two reasons to change a name: Beaming and Sync more than one device.

When you beam information to another PDA, you are identified by this device name. Not a big deal, but some colleagues may wonder who the heck "Little Doofus" is.

If you synchronise more than one device to your desktop, it can be helpful to have devices named so that you can remember what they do, who they belong to etc.

To change the name on your device:

1. Tap on Start | Settings
2. Tap on the System tab near the bottom of the page
3. Tap the About icon
4. Tap the Device ID  tab near the bottom of the page
5. Enter a new name in the Device Name field
6. Tap on Ok to save the changes.

Using existing ActiveSync partnerships

To re-use an existing partnership, simply rename your device to the same as you had it before. Do this before you sync for the first time.

Note that ActiveSync is clever enough to detect if the device itself has changed. So if you lose your iPAQ and replace it with an identical twin, ActiveSync will complain about re-using this partnership, even if you clone every last thing from the original device.

Page last modified on October 31, 2005