1. Install Visual Studio 2005 first; I have the Professional Edition. It's best not to do a DEFAULT installation but instead customize the components (CUSTOM). Otherwise, it will waste a lot of disk space unnecessarily. Unlike Windows CE 5.0, which is standalone, the Platform Builder for Windows CE 6.00 is integrated as a plugin for VS2005. All OS creation, customization, compilation, and debugging will be completed within VS2005.
2. Install Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. The release address is: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/zh-cn/vstudio/bb265237.aspx
This is a necessary step. The Release Notes mention that SP1 provides support for the Windows Embedded 6.0 platform and tools. Different versions of VS2005 (Standard / Professional / Team Edition) correspond to different downloads. However, for simplicity, you can use this download link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BB4A75AB-E2D4-4C96-B39D-37BAF6B5B1DC&displaylang=en (over 430 MB), which works with all versions.
3. Optional: Install the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista.
Release and download website: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en
This adds Vista support on top of SP1. Note that you must install SP1 first before installing this update. The System Requirements explicitly state the Required Software: a licensed copy of Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. At first, I thought this included the SP1 above, but it wasted me some time.
4. Install MSDN from the VS2005 installation page. The new MSDN interface looks cool, but the Product Documentation for CE6 is rather poorly written, and many details seem unclear. Therefore, it is recommended to select the product documentation for CE5 for future reference.
5. Install Windows Embedded CE 6.0. Application developers may choose not to install it, as mentioned later, they can work using the SDK generated by CE6. However, without installation, you likely won't get the CE6 product documentation in the local MSDN, nor the rich application sample code under the PUBLIC directory.
Some key points to note: