Today at the Microsoft� Windows� Embedded Developers' Conference (DevCon) 2004, Microsoft Corp. announced that Windows CE 5.0 will offer expanded source licensing, enabling, for the first time, all licensees to ship products commercially built from their modifications of the Windows CE 5.0 shared source code. Licensees will maintain ownership of their derivative code and will not be obligated to share modifications with Microsoft, partners or competitors. In addition to expanding the Windows CE Shared Source distribution to more than 2.5 million lines of code, Windows CE 5.0 will also include networking performance improvements that dramatically increase data processing speeds, more than 60 production-quality drivers that increase developer productivity, technology to remotely monitor device performance, and Direct3D� Mobile to enable high-intensity gaming applications. Windows CE 5.0 -- previously code-named "Macallan"-- is scheduled to be released to manufacturing July 9, 2004.

"Our new commercial derivatives licensing is all about providing device makers with even greater flexibility to innovate for the vast range of embedded device scenarios where the Windows CE software platform can be leveraged," said Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft. "We believe that the ability to ship commercial derivatives, with no obligation to share customizations, will greatly appeal to device makers -- all of whom want to maintain the rights to their competitive advantage."