PDA query

ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
Forum Member
✭✭
For work I have two PDAs supplied by my employers. Both use Windows Mobile and never receive any OS updates. Considering W7 etc. receive a constant stream of updates. patches etc., I find this a bit odd.
Apart from the company possibly disabling the update facility, what other reason could there be?:confused:

Comments

  • gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,505
    Forum Member
    Do the PDAs run the employer's custom apps? That would be enough for them to disable updates to avoid the risk of destabilising them unnecessarily.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Without the details of the OS, what model and more details it's very difficult to say. A full desktop OS is much more powerful than a mobile OS though. Can you browse the internet on them or what are they used for?

    Threats generally come from having an open platform that you can install stuff from the internet on, if the applications on there are fixed then the risks are limited. There's hardly any malware for Windows PDAs, if they are running an older windows platform and don't have a lot of the functionality of a full desktop OS then there just aren't the same risks, for example, does the browser run powerful scripting and plugins? can you just install packages from the internet, if the answer is no then they don't need the same attention and updating as a desktop machine.
  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    gomezz wrote: »
    Do the PDAs run the employer's custom apps? That would be enough for them to disable updates to avoid the risk of destabilising them unnecessarily.

    Yes, they both do. I think you may well be right.
  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Without the details of the OS, what model and more details it's very difficult to say. A full desktop OS is much more powerful than a mobile OS though. Can you browse the internet on them or what are they used for?

    Threats generally come from having an open platform that you can install stuff from the internet on, if the applications on there are fixed then the risks are limited. There's hardly any malware for Windows PDAs, if they are running an older windows platform and don't have a lot of the functionality of a full desktop OS then there just aren't the same risks, for example, does the browser run powerful scripting and plugins? can you just install packages from the internet, if the answer is no then they don't need the same attention and updating as a desktop machine.

    They're both internet capable but If I were to access the net or even make a call on either of them, it would be a hanging offence workwise.
  • TheBigMTheBigM Posts: 13,125
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    ironjade wrote: »
    For work I have two PDAs supplied by my employers. Both use Windows Mobile and never receive any OS updates. Considering W7 etc. receive a constant stream of updates. patches etc., I find this a bit odd.
    Apart from the company possibly disabling the update facility, what other reason could there be?:confused:

    Windows Mobile hasn't been developed for, for years ever since Windows Phone came out.

    But PDAs generally ran Windows CE rather than Windows Mobile I would have thought.

    What is the actual OS and version?
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    ironjade wrote: »
    They're both internet capable but If I were to access the net or even make a call on either of them, it would be a hanging offence workwise.

    So there's no risk security wise if they aren't used to access the internet then, that's probably why they don't bother updating them.
  • ironjadeironjade Posts: 10,001
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    TheBigM wrote: »
    Windows Mobile hasn't been developed for, for years ever since Windows Phone came out.

    But PDAs generally ran Windows CE rather than Windows Mobile I would have thought.

    What is the actual OS and version?

    They both run Windows Mobile and one of them is pretty ancient. I don't know the version.
Sign In or Register to comment.