Since I installed Vista on my main laptop machine here I’ve been missing syncing with my SmartPhone. Vista includes the replacement for ActiveSync natively which is called the Mobile Device Center. Up until yesterday Mobile Device Center worked fine recognizing my phone and offering to sync files (My Documents, My Music, My Pictures etc.) but it didn’t offer any such thing for the most important aspect – syncing Outlook contacts, calendar etc.

Today when I connected my SmartPhone to my Vista PC to charge the battery to my surprise I got a Windows Update dialog to download Office Synching features. Yay!!! This is one feature I’ve been sorely missing on Vista and after installing I’m now synced back up! This may have been around for a little while actually, since I haven't hooked up my phone to the machine for a while, since syncing wasn't working, but I sure hadn't seen it before.

The new interface looks a lot nicer, although it’s a BIG and intrusive. I sure hope there will be some option to force it into the task tray only. 

I noticed that it automatically set up the right sync settings for me, which previously required a few extra configuration steps. It syncs the usual stuff Email, Contacts, Calendar, but also does Mobile Favorites (WM 5.0) and One Note notes if you install the One Note Mobile software. I need to think about the latter – I could certainly use some note support but I surely don’t want to sync all of my OneNote binders since they are huge.

Great – one less thing to miss about XP…

Now if I could only get Media Player fixed and Virtual PC to behave a little better I could almost say I don’t need to go back to Xp/Win2003.