One of the first utilities

recommended for newcomers to the Pocket PC family

is a replacement file manager for the built-in File

Explorer. The file manager provided by Microsoft is

missing some important features which various software

developers have attempted to build upon. As the Pocket

PC has evolved, so have these file management utilities

to include such features as FTP and network connections.

Enter Vieka

   Unfortunately, the setup program

for PE Pocket Explorer 2002 is nonexistent. To install,

one must decompress the zip file and manually copy

the EXE to the Pocket PC via ActiveSync. I have seen

this done for several pieces of software but usually

authors will at least provide a CAB file which will

install itself once double clicked on from the Pocket

PC. However, PE Pocket Explorer 2002′s "chicken

or the egg" setup instructions direct you to

start it through the built-in File Explorer, then

copy and paste a shortcut through PE Pocket Explorer

    In addition to standard

enhancements provided by many file management tools,

such as split screen folder and file views (figure

1), PE Pocket Explorer 2002 promises to add FTP and

network browsing capabilities into a file management

you can see the options available in PE Pocket Explorer

2002, some of which are slightly cryptic, but a nice

addition not always seen in file management utilities

is the ability to customize which columns are seen

there is a fair amount of room for customization in

the software there a few options I’ve seen before

in other software which I missed, such as font size

selection, the ability to show or hide either the

folder or file view, filter functions and the ability

to show or hide read-only system files. Another option

I missed from the program is a most recently used

file management utilities rely on context menus for

much of the functionality, and of course PE Pocket

Explorer 2002 is no exception (see figure 7). However,

just as in the options, there were a couple items

that I would have liked to see, such as Send To Start

on in my exploration of PE Pocket Explorer 2002, when

I decided to use it to copy the snapshots used for

this article to my desktop machine, I found the software’s

tragic flaw. There is apparently no way to select

multiple files at once, a feature I use more often

I’ve seen ordinary file management tools for the Pocket

PC and was anxious to play with the network and FTP

enhancements Vieka brought to the table. The commands

to add and remove both FTP and network shares are

easily accessible through the File menu (see figure

8). After determining exactly how the options should

be entered (e.g.: ComputerName versus \ComputerName),

it was a straightforward process to add a network

network shares in Pocket PC 2002 appear in a Network

folder off of the root and act as any other folders

on your Pocket PC (aside from the fact that you can’t

actually load files directly off the network shares).

I was able to copy and paste files between my iPAQ

and desktop machine as if the network shares were

decided to try tackling the FTP features next, what

I thought would be one of the most useful options

in PE Pocket Explorer 2002. The screen to add an FTP

server (see figure 11) was straightforward and reminiscent

of the network share screen. I clicked OK, and I’m

connected to the FTP server, sort of. I initially

connected to an FTP server using a username and password,

but what I saw was the anonymous area of the ftp site.

After a couple of tries of tweaking the settings,

I still had no luck, so I decided to remove the FTP

server from the browser. The active selection in the

tree happened to be on one of the directories on the

FTP server and not on the server icon itself. When

I selected ‘Remove FTP Server’ from the menu, and

the software came back with an error message (see

figure 12). However, once I selected the server icon

and tried again I was able to successfully remove

how I was apparently able to connect anonymously to

an FTP server, I decided to give that a whirl by connecting

to RedHat, but again I ran across problems. As I was

expanding the tree by clicking on the little addition

signs, I noticed that the directory structure didn’t

seem correct. The directories were being recursively

listed in the tree view (see figure 13). Well maybe

I have to select the actual folder for things to work

correctly, but no such luck as I came across another

is where I gave up on exploring the FTP features of

    There is absolutely no

sort of help file that gets downloaded or installed

with PE Pocket Explorer 2002 either to your Pocket

PC or to the desktop machine, but there is a simple

HTML based user

of my wishes is that the FTP functions of PE Pocket

Explorer 2002 would actually work. But as for the

features from what did work, it was missing amongst

other things: a Most Recently Used list of folders,

font selection options, a switch between folder view

only, list view only and split screen (both horizontal

and vertical), and most importantly a way to select

Pocket Explorer is available for purchase for $34.95

from Vieka’s

website and all billing is handled through PayPal.com

meaning all major credit cards are accepted. For more

information you can visit Vieka’s

   My overall impression of the

software was that it is very amateurish, and in regards

to file management functions, PE Pocket Explorer doesn’t

bring anything more to the table than other cheaper

utilities do. The FTP aspects of the program (if they

would work) might add functionality but seeing as

networking is built into Pocket PC 2002, one could

easily keep using their existing File Management software

and download Netrunner

for free to receive the same features as the networking

word: Go purchase the Collector’s Edition DVD of Howard

The Duck. It would be a more sound investment of your