--This thread is basically me just thinking with my keyboard--

I haven't owned my Z2 for long, and I am no computer superstar by any stretch of the imagination. But it is obvious to me that probably the ONLY way we are going to be able to bypass the Z2 will be by tricking the operating system into allowing it.

Let's start from the beginning, we know that the Z2 runs off of "windows automotive" OS - which is basically just built from Windows CE. I know there are tons of developers out there that work with .Net and Windows CE.. I think that if we could find a way to get to the operating system files, someone will be able to figure out how to patch the registry, or boot up config or something to that nature.

That brings up the question of WHERE those files are - we are pretty sure they are not on the HD because we have a few members with unlocked drives and nothing has been found. Although there maybe SOME files on there we can use, I think if we got that image out to more people we better the odds of somebody finding something. -- but the files we need are probably on a ROM chip of some kind inside the unit.

which brings the next question -- how can we access those files? Maybe through one of the basic forms of communication we already have.. either find a console mode - through a bluetooth connection - the connectors on the back - or some kind of hard connection inside the unit - and of course the CD rom

what makes the most sense to me is if somebody who was good with .Net development with a bluetooth PDA connected to the unit with bluetooth and somehow accessed those files - learned how they worked so a patch could be put on CD to patch the unit. a start to learning what you need to patch the unit could be gathered from the Gracenote update and bluetooth update cd's that are already out.

So my question to get this started is - what all has been attempted to access the system files? and what COULD we try?

If the files are somewhere in the head unit, they would have originated from the HDD. Why else would a Z1 HDD work fully bypassed in a Z2. When the Z1 HDD is put in a Z2 head unit the system is updated to the HDD software that was inserted. If a Z2 HDD is put in a Z1 head unit it becomes a non bypassed Z2. so that should explain that the software changes necessary would be in the HDD.

Thats a very good point, how many people have the z2 image?

and is there anyone out that that is familiar with Windows CE filesystem?

An even better idea...... it must be possible somehow to install windows mobile 5 or 6 on this unit and have a fully functional pda with a hard drive! Imagine all the things it could do then.... including playback of any kind of file.

Yeah that would be pretty cool, but I know that WM5 sucks! at least on anything i've ever seen it on.. my friend has a WM5 phone that he has to pull the battery on daily because it locks up on him..

I would think that if it's windows auto, which is basically windows ce - it wouldn't be that hard to get windows media player to work.. and then maybe that would work without a bypass.. I wish i knew more about how that stuff actually works.

Well I wouldn't say all WM5 sucks. It is typical microsoft and usually requires some tweaking. The guys over at PPC Geeks forum make up custom ROMs for WM Phones. I put one on my Sprint 6700 and it works great! My phone is very stable and I am sure if a good developer were to play with a project like this we could get a lot of function out of these units.

To go even one step futher let's think about this:

Since we can hook up our AVIC-Z1's to a USB cord why not try to get the Display to show our PDA desktop? That way you could actually control your PPC or your WM5 Treo 700W or WX from your display screen and pull up anything you wanted including running TOM TOM navigation since I know that our navi's leave much to be desired at least until the update. You could even pull up your contacts list and surf the net and watch your cable/Direct TV at home through a slingbox display on our Z1's & Z2's.

Everyone the possiblilities are endless. Is there a way to load a software program onto our Z1's that allow to us fully mirror our PDA phones on the Z1 display through the USB cable? I'm sure if some one is running a "carputer" through the Z1's(Which I've seen on this site.) then there must be a way to do a mirror display on the Z1 display from our WM5 PDA/phones through the USB hook up. Who should we ask?

Let's work together on this. Mark