Windows CE 5.0 will be released on July 9, 2004. The announcement was made at the Microsoft Windows Embedded Developers' Conference. Microsoft said that it will share more of the operating system's source code and allow device makers to make changes to that code.

In the past, companies that modified the operating system for their own devices were required to share these changes with Microsoft. Microsoft said today that hereafter licensees will maintain ownership of their code and will not be required to share modifications with Microsoft, partners or competitors. This represents a major shift in Microsoft's policies towards open source code.

New Features in Windows CE 5.0

One of the biggest changes in Windows CE 5.0 is Direct3D Mobile (D3DMobile), a graphics solution built on DirectX. This will allow Windows CE devices to support even higher-performance graphics and multimedia.

Windows CE 5.0 will also include networking performance improvements that Microsoft says will increase data processing speeds.