Universal Windows CE emulator
cerf.cx - read more information about the project
libCerfEngine - JIT repository; libCerfCore - Emulator repository

Warning

Beta stage. It is a hobby project, developed in spare time and can't be a called production-grade/exceptionally stable project. Expect bugs, crashes, and breaking changes. CERF stays beta permanently.

This document covers development and contribution aspects. Visit cerf.cx for user-oriented documentation.

Downloads

Visit the website to learn how to download a stable or an unstable build.

8.0

Contribution Guidelines

Please read these if you are planning on contributing.

Building

CERF builds on Windows, Linux and macOS with the same build.py script.

Windows

Install modern Visual Studio with the C++ desktop development workload.

Note

The first build on a new machine takes more than one hour. vcpkg compiles the dependencies from source before CERF links. This occurs one time on each machine. Later builds use the cached vcpkg_installed/ tree and are complete in a few minutes. Do not stop the first build.

Linux

Install the build packages. These are the Ubuntu 26.04 names:

sudo apt install git cmake ninja-build g++ ccache pkg-config qt6-base-dev qt6-svg-dev libslirp-dev nlohmann-json3-dev libasound2-dev python3-venv python3-tk libpython3-dev wine

macOS

Install the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) and Homebrew. Then install the build packages:

brew install cmake ninja pkgconf qtbase qtsvg libslirp nlohmann-json python@3.14 python-tk@3.14

All hosts

Caution

Development environment might need additional configuration on your machine that this guide doesn't explain. If you find a bug there, or find a more universal approach - feel free to submit a pull request.

Configure the clone (one time on each machine), then build the entire project with a helper script. On Windows:

python tools/dev_setup.py
python build.py

On Linux and macOS:

python3 tools/dev_setup.py
python3 build.py

tools/dev_setup.py --check is a dry run. The setup will

• point git at tracked hooks
• report missing prerequisite

The build script will:

• wait for a parallel build (Claude Code-special feature for parallel agents work)
• build the launcher (and will install CPython into a repo directory, if needed)
• build the emulator itself (and will pick appropriate SDK/toolchain from your installations)
• build all the bundled Windows CE apps (at ce_apps/)

Building the CE-side binaries (optional)

ce_apps/ holds various Windows CE applications CERF is bundled with including the Guest Additions driver.

You don't need those if you are not working with Guest Additions. You may copy Guest Additions binaries from an artifact or skip them entirely. On Linux the build runs these tools through Wine.

macOS cannot run these tools. Give build.py the ce_apps directory of a Windows or Linux build, for example from a CI artifact. The build then copies the binaries from that directory:

python3 build.py --ce-apps-from=<the ce_apps directory>

To build ce_apps/, install eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 (a free Microsoft download from the Microsoft archive). CERF includes a script that will unpack the installation (you dont want and probably can't install ancient tools) and will place the build tools / SDK into appropriate directories. See docs/ce_apps_setup.md.

python tools/dev_setup.py --check reports whether the CE toolchain is present.

Website

This repository includes cerf.cx source code at docs/website.

python tools/build_site.py --serve runs the website on your machine with live reload.

AI Usage / Vibecode Notice

AI-assisted contributions are welcome. That's a nice thing to have in 2026 - you have access to tons of resources right in your pocket. Let me show generic use cases on this project:

• study emulators, study JIT, study assembly on various archs, study every piece that affects your code that you don't understand how it works yet
• learn and use AI to reverse engineer; use AI to reach for more correct architecture calls when you stall
• use AI to find projects/resources with compatible license to learn/borrow something complex
• use it to find manuals and papers for devices you target, SoCs/peripherals you target and to extract quotes from them
• use it to work with and explain complex data structures and non trivial algorithms
• use it to review your code and to criticize it
• the AI is an instrument to convert plain thoughts into a code - that's a replacement for typing code in order to get the same code you wanted but faster

The vibe code is banned. Please read Contribution Guidelines. Do not turn this into an AI slop. We put an effort here and we maintain a quality level.

Vibecoding non complex modules is fine but you will most likely violate the Contribution Guidelines by producing shitcode.

Claude Development Environment

The environment includes several controversial things you need to know before using it.

• Full project documentation is injected into a system prompt - this eats tokens
• The environment kills global clangd.exe and own claude.exe instances if they leak memory
• Thinking is set to high; bypass permissions mode is set
• Several own/3rd-party skills included
• Powerful hooks triggering when agent might do something bad to the codebase
• IDA MCP is ready to be installed at tools\ida_server.py and tools\ida_claude.py
• FS Read MCP is a workaround for Read() tool, useful for /tracking restore and massive text files (tools\fs_read_mcp.py)

The environment gives you the /start-board-implementation skill. Run the skill and agent will start the new board bring-up on its own. You need experience - the skill won't do all the work instead of you. (it actually will do, and that's the problem)

Run the environment:

python run_claude.py

Supported Devices

SoC	Family	Board	Features
ARM ARM720T ARM720T	Microsoft Hardware Reference Platform	Microsoft Hardware Reference Platform odo
Freescale i.MX31L ARM1136	Toshiba Gigabeat S	Microsoft Zune 30 zune_30
Freescale i.MX51 Cortex-A8	Ford SYNC Gen 2	Ford MyFord Touch ford_sync_2
Intel IOP13xx XScale	Siemens SIMATIC MP 377	Siemens SIMATIC MP 377 12" Key * siemens_mp377_12_key
		Siemens SIMATIC MP 377 12" Touch siemens_mp377
		Siemens SIMATIC MP 377 15" Touch siemens_mp377_15_touch
		Siemens SIMATIC MP 377 19" Touch siemens_mp377_19_touch
Intel SA-1100 StrongARM	HP Jornada 820	HP Jornada 820 jornada_820
Intel SA-1110 StrongARM	Compaq iPAQ H3000	iPAQ H31xx ipaq_h31xx
		iPAQ H3660/H3670 ipaq_h3660_h3670
		iPAQ H36xx ipaq_h36xx
	HP Jornada 700 series	HP Jornada 720 jornada_720
	Pangolin	SmartBook G138 smartbook_g138
	Siemens SIMpad	Siemens SIMpad SL4 simpad_sl4
Intel XScale PXA255 XScale	Askey PC3xx	PSC/Datalogic Falcon 4220 falcon_4220
	NEC MobilePro 900 Series	NEC MobilePro 900(c) nec_mobilepro_900
Intel XScale PXA270 XScale	Symbol Hamptons	Symbol MK500 (A035QN02 panel) symbol_mk500_a035qn02
		Symbol MK500 (T35QM7117 panel) symbol_mk500
		Symbol MK590 * symbol_mk590
Samsung S3C2410 ARM920T	Samsung SMDK2410	Device Emulator (QVGA) devemu
		Device Emulator (VGA) devemu_vga
		Device Emulator (WQVGA) devemu_wqvga
		Device Emulator (WVGA) devemu_wvga
	Siemens SIMATIC TP 177B 4"	Siemens SIMATIC TP 177B 4" color PN/DP siemens_p177
TI OMAP 3530 Cortex-A8	TI OMAP35x EVM	TI OMAP35x EVM (Gen1 main board) omap_3530_evm
		TI OMAP35x EVM (Gen2 main board) * omap_3530_evm_gen2
NEC VR4102 MIPS III	NEC MobilePro 700	NEC MobilePro 700 nec_mobilepro_700
NEC VR4111 MIPS III	Casio Tomcat	Casio Cassiopeia E-55 casio_cassiopeia_e55
NEC VR4121 MIPS III	Casio PocketPostPet	Casio Message-Cam casio_message_cam
		Casio PocketPostPet casio_pocketpostpet
		Casio Toricomail casio_toricomail
NEC VR4122 MIPS III	Casio JX670	Casio Cassiopeia E-700 casio_cassiopeia_e700
		Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 casio_cassiopeia_em500
NEC VR5500 MIPS IV	NEC Solution Gear 2-Vr5500	NEC Rockhopper SG2_VR5500 nec_rockhopper
Philips PR31500 MIPS I	Philips Velo 1	Philips Velo 1 philips_velo_1
		Philips Velo 1 (1 MB DRAM Miniature Card) philips_velo_1_dram_1mb
		Philips Velo 1 (16 MB DRAM Miniature Card) philips_velo_1_dram_16mb
		Philips Velo 1 (2 MB DRAM Miniature Card) philips_velo_1_dram_2mb
		Philips Velo 1 (4 MB DRAM Miniature Card) philips_velo_1_dram_4mb
		Philips Velo 1 (8 MB DRAM Miniature Card) philips_velo_1_dram_8mb
Philips PR31700 MIPS I	Philips Nino	Philips Nino 300 philips_nino_300
	Sharp Mobilon HC	Sharp Mobilon HC-4100 sharp_mobilon_hc4100

* Supported, but CERF does not model this board's differences.

Changelog

Version	Release Date	Changes
v8.0	TBA	💿 Emulator 🆕 Support for Linux (x86-64) 🆕 Support for macOS (ARM64) 🆕 Startup screen scale configuration and dynamic mode for retina screen ✨ Guest Additions ✅ Moved "untrusted apps hack" for WM into optional switch since it broke WM6
v7.0	14 Oct 2026	📱 Devices 🆕 Casio Cassiopeia E-55 support 🆕 Symbol Mk500 support (by @Katamaran21) 🆕 Siemens MP377 support (by @RaulMerelli) 🆕 Casio Toricomail: bezel touch buttons 🆕 Casio Cassiopeia E-700 support 🆕 Philips Velo 1: Various DRAM Miniature Card profiles 🆕 iPAQ H3660/H3670 support ✅ Device Emulator: keyboard no longer drops or repeats keys while typing ✅ Device Emulator: Windows Mobile 2003 SE no longer freezes ✅ Casio Toricomail: fixed rendering crashes ✅ Ford Sync 2: Massive rendering improvements, navigation maps and more (by @cavenderbi) ✅ iPAQ H3100: fixed audio playback ✅ iPAQ H3600: standard RAM size ✅ Siemens SIMpad SL4: 64 MB RAM 💿 Emulator 🆕 BREAKING: Device database has been updated, check your launcher and fix your entries before running on old values 🆕 Configurable display colour depth for Guest Additions and Device Emulator 🆕 Bundled CompactFlash cards can be auto-inserted at launch 🆕 Thumb32 support. Windows Embedded Compact 2013 is now supported 🆕 Right Click simulation mode for the stock stylus (synths LAlt+Tap) 🆕 Shutdown dialog has received reboot options 🆕 Host key is now reassignable 🆕 Improved UI and added notification cards 🆕 Catch up throttle multiplier knob (see in launcher) 🆕 CPU rate multiplier knob (see in launcher) ✅ ARM JIT and JIT core full rewrite. ARM JIT/peripherals massive performance optimizations ✅ Audio systems were reworked - less sound stuttering ✅ Media instructions for Zune 30 - music is now playable ✅ System clock improvements ✅ Keyboard input no longer stops working after switching to another window and back ❌ Memory visualizer 🚀 Launcher 🆕 Feedback window listing GitHub issues 🆕 Copyright issues contact window 🆕 Configurable update channel 🆕 UI revamp and optimizations 🆕 Configurable board types, ROM and storage sources 🆕 CPU Configuration ✅ Launcher does not wait depend on internet connection and it's speed to let you use it ✅ Toolbar buttons are now properly trimmed when not enough width 💾 CE Apps 🆕 romdump: SH3 support 🆕 romdump: universal reset vector presets for MIPS and SH3 ✨ Guest Additions 🆕 Virtual Ethernet adapter 🆕 Persistant customization/settings from CERF UI 🆕 Windows Embedded Compact 2013 support 🆕 Font size override support 🆕 Stylus simulation mode for the mouse pointer 🆕 Shared folders on Windows CE 2.0 🆕 Driver automatically disables system-wide signature checks on Windows Mobile 🆕 Hack to the WinCE shell for Ford SYNC 2 🆕 ClearType support (by @RaulMerelli) and configuration ✅ Pre-OS graphics (stock framebuffer) is now visible too and usable (switch to GA inputs is deferred now) ✅ Crash when drawing off-screen (GiNi) ✅ Default colour depth is now 24bpp instead of 32bpp - fixes Device Emulator Windows Mobile 6.5 shell rendering ✅ Colour corruption in 16bpp mode - alpha-blended elements rendered green/cyan ✅ Gradients on WM 2003 - the taskbar and application backgrounds render again ✅ Mouse and keyboard no longer stop working for the whole session when input arrives early during boot ✅ Crash/artifacts when scrolling under complex rendering ✅ Apps run from a shared folder no longer crash ✅ Shared folders no longer crash Explorer on Windows CE .NET ✅ Fixed memory errors on Windows CE 6 branch ✅ Fixed shared storage caps
Previous versions - see the full changelog.

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CERF was known earlier as WCECL (2019)

MIT License | Third-Party Notices
Copyright © 2019-2026 Yaroslav Kibysh