Getting Started: Tips for Faster Installation

Due to the relatively large size of the Essential Evidence Plus content and the variable performance of flash memory devices, the installation of Essential Evidence Plus can sometimes take a long time, particularly for Palm OS devices. Also, if you are managing a large number of handheld devices for your organization, repeating the standard installation for each device can be time consuming.

Here are a few suggestions for reducing the time spent on installing and registering Essential Evidence Plus to your Palm OS and Pocket PC devices.

Professional Grade memory cards

The installation time of Essential Evidence Plus data files to external memory appears to be largely dependent on the quality of the external memory card. Most flash memory manufacturers offer a line of "professional grade" memory cards that offer increased speed and reliability for a small increase in cost.

Installation of Essential Evidence Plus typically shows a dramatic speed increase with such professional grade memory cards.

Palm OS: Avoiding HotSync

Installation of Essential Evidence Plus data files via HotSync is often much slower than a direct copy to a memory card. Additionally, when maintaining a large number of Palm OS devices, performing a long HotSync for each device may be undesirable.

Each of the following tips requires that you download the "Alternative Installation" version of the Essential Evidence Plus installation file. You should refer to the instructions for Installing Essential Evidence Plus for Palm OS (Manual Method).

You will need to have a flash memory card reader built into your PC, or a reader connected to your computer via USB, and you will need to be familiar with its use.

(A) Copy data files directly to the memory card

Refer to the instructions for Installing Essential Evidence Plus for Palm OS (Manual Method), but substitute the following instructions for step 7. Install the Essential Evidence Plus data (.vdf) files:

Install the Essential Evidence Plus data (.vdf) files

  • Insert your memory card into a USB card reader
  • Locate the PALM_VDF folder that you extracted from the Essential Evidence Plus installation ZIP file
  • Copy the PALM_VDF folder, in its entirety, to the root directory of the memory card (do not place the PALM_VDF folder inside any other folders on the card).
  • Remove your memory card from the card reader and insert it into your device.

(B) Install the Essential Evidence Plus PRC file from a memory card

To avoid using HotSync altogether, you can also install the Essential Evidence Plus program from a memory card. This may be particularly useful when installing to a batch of Palm OS devices

  • Insert your memory card into a USB card reader
  • Locate the InfoRetriever.prc file that you extracted from the Essential Evidence Plus installation ZIP file
  • Copy the InfoRetriever.prc file to the Expansion Card. It must be placed in the /PALM/Launcher/ folder.
  • Remove the memory card from the reader and insert the it into your Palm device.
  • Select App -> Copy... from the Palm application menu.
  • Select Copy From: Card and To: Handheld.
  • Select Essential Evidence Plus and tap Copy.

(C) Run Essential Evidence Plus from a memory card

Essential Evidence Plus can also be run with all components installed to the external memory card.

  • Insert your memory card into a USB card reader
  • Locate the InfoRetriever.prc file that you extracted from the Essential Evidence Plus installation ZIP file
  • Copy the InfoRetriever.prc file to the Expansion Card. It must be placed in the /PALM/Launcher/ folder.
  • Remove the memory card from the reader and insert the it into your Palm device.
  • From the main Palm programs list, select Card from the dropdown in the top right of the screen.
  • Tap the EE+ icon to run Essential Evidence Plus.

Note that Essential Evidence Plus may take slightly longer to launch from the external memory card, but general program performance should not suffer.

Pocket PC: Avoiding ActiveSync

This technique is useful when installing Essential Evidence Plus to a large number of Pocket PC devices. It avoids the step of copying data to each handheld via ActiveSync by installing from a special file placed on a memory card.

NOTE: If your Pocket PC device does not run Windows Mobile 5.0 or later, the device will not prompt for the installation location; it will automatically install to internal memory. If you wish to install Essential Evidence Plus to the external memory of a pre- Windows Mobile 5.0 device, you must perform a standard installation.

  • Download the CAB version of the Essential Evidence Plus for Pocket PC installation file. See Getting Started: Downloading Essential Evidence Plus and look for the Alternate installation (CAB) method.
  • If you want to install Essential Evidence Plus to multiple Pocket PC devices from the same card, change the CAB file to be "read-only" (otherwise the CAB file will be automatically deleted after a successful installation). Locate the CAB file on your desktop computer, right-click on the file, and select Properties. On the General tab, locate the Attributes section check the box next to Read-Only, and click OK.
  • Copy the CAB file to a memory card using ActiveSync, a card reader built into your desktop computer, or a USB card reader.
  • For each Pocket PC device on which you want to install Essential Evidence Plus, insert the memory card into the device, and locate the CAB file using the File Explorer. Tap on the CAB file to install Essential Evidence Plus.

If the CAB file disappears from the card after the first installation, then it wasn't properly set as read-only.

Don't forget to register each copy of Essential Evidence Plus that you install!

Batch Registration

Typically, each copy of Essential Evidence Plus is registered separately by visiting the Essential Evidence Plus website or contacting technical support. If you are managing the installation of many Palm OS and/or Pocket PC devices, we can supply a special installer that will allow you to use the same license code to register Essential Evidence Plus on each device.

To obtain this special installer, please contact technical support.