Windows Phone Thoughts: Disable Pesky ActiveSync Plugins

From time to time, ActiveSync plugins just don't play nice. Perhaps it's a conduit to transport data files over, but the data files are no longer on your hard drive and the conduit gives thousands of error messages. Perhaps it's a plugin designed to sync with software you've removed from your PPC, and now it just won't go away. Normally plugins can be disabled by simply unchecking them in the options screen while your device is hooked up. The problem is, you can't easily disable them unless you hook your device up to sync (Otherwise the "Options" screen where you would simply uncheck the plugin is greyed out!). Fortunately, with a bit of registry editing, you can disable the plugin without disturbing your Activesync setup otherwise. Better yet, you can disable it before you ever plug your device in - ensuring that the plugin won't load when you next ActiveSync.
Read on for the full step-by-step!

To disable a plugin, Run regedit.exe (The usual registry editing warning applies) and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows CE Services\Partners

If you extend the tree out on the left-hand pane, you'll see subkeys that have unique device relationship IDs (For example, mine reads 78101e48). Expand that subkey out to:

Services\Synchronization\Objects\

Now you should see a list of sync conduits as subkeys. These include "Favorite", "File", "Media", etc.. You should also see a subkey for the conduit you want to disable. Click on its subkey.

Now comes the fun part. In the right pane of regedit, find an entry named Disabled. It should be set to 0x000000000 (0). This means that the entry is Enabled! Double click on it and change the entry to read "1". If for some reason the Disabled entry isn't there, simply rightclick and choose New -> DWORD value. Name the value "Disabled", set it to "1" and you're done.

Easy as that!