Get Your PDA Synced With Vista

You can do it! You can sync your HP iPAQ with Windows 2003 on your Vista computer and a computer using Active Sync and Windows XP. I have recently upgraded my office computer to Vista, but my home computer is still Windows XP. My PDA is an older version it is an iPAQ 1935 but it has Windows 2003 installed on it which is the last version supported by Vista. On my XP computer I use Active Sync 3.7.

I tried initially to set up partnerships with my PDA and had decided that my PDA was simply not compatible with Vista. Then I did some Google research. There I found that you need to set up a partnership in the Vista Mobile Center before you use the Sync Center. So I tried again. No luck. I am very persistent and so off to do more research. I saw screen shots on one site of someone just like me syncing their PDA just like mine with Vista. Now I knew that if someone else could do it I could too. Now I am synced totally with my PDA and two computers.

This is how I did it.

1. Connect your PDA by USB to your Vista computer. Click start, control panel, security, and then check for updates. This will send you to Microsoft Update so that your computer can download new drivers to help your PDA be compatible with your new system.
2. When the driver installation is complete, Windows Mobile Center will automatically open. You can then set up your PDA partnership as usual.
3. I did not initially do this next step and so I thought that this had not worked, but it is best at this point to restart your computer, unconnect your PDA, turnoff your PDA, and then reconnect both again. Initially when I did not do this, when I tried to sync I got the message that Outlook was not installed on my PDA and so I could not sync my contacts or calendar. Well today I decided to try to set up sync again and when I reconnected my PDA, new drivers were automatically installed from the Mobile Center and I was magically able to do a total sync without any fooling around on my part. So I think that the key is to restart both your computer and PDA after getting the drivers and then trying to reconnect.

So know that you can sync an old PDA with Vista, I have done it and others on the Web have too. Just make sure to be patient and let Microsoft Vista do the heavy lifting for you of getting the new drivers for you automatically.