Unlocking Windows Phone 7 for Programming

[JumpyNET]

I just installed visual studio express 2010 for windows phone and tried to run a simple hello world test on a Nokia Lumia 800 (windows phone 7). Is it true that in order to proceed I have to buy a subscription to Microsoft's App Hub? If so will this change with windows phone 8?

I honestly do not plan to make anything worth selling on the marketplace so I really do not see a need for the subscription.

 

[dotnetguy37]

It says here:

You should register for membership as a Windows Phone developer before you begin creating applications because some development tasks, such as installing your application on a physical phone for testing, require App Hub membership.

It doesn't say what tasks you can accomplish without membership, however..

So I looked around a little more.

This page says:

Before you can deploy an application to a Windows Phone, you must first register the phone, which requires an active developer account on App Hub.

It's step one of "Deploying and Testing on Your Windows Phone"

I found a link on this CodeProject page, which sent me to
the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Download page, where I was able to download "vm_web2.exe" without having a subscription.

Looking at the "Windows Phone Development QuickStarts" page, I noticed
under "Getting Started & Fundamentals", there was a
"Getting Started (Hello World)" link to this page
where the "Installing the Developer Tools" section had some
download links for tools (without mentioning needing a membership),
including the link for updated emulator package.

So basically you download the tools and test on the emulator, but as soon as you
want to try and transfer the app to your phone it's time to pay Microsoft for the privilege.

..so I really do not see a need for the subscription.

You wouldn't want Microsoft to go broke, would you?

I don't know about Windows 8, but you might want to read through
"Microsoft to address Windows Phone App Hub issues", which mentions
them planning changes by "late summer".

Also of interest Microsoft was recently caught releasing Windows Phone Apps
that "borrow" a bit from the iPhone interface (bypassing Metro guidelines).
This page has the screenshot.

 

[JumpyNET]

Unlocked Windows Phone 7 for Programming

So basically you download the tools and test on the emulator, but as soon as you want to try and transfer the app to your phone it's time to pay Microsoft for the privilege. You wouldn't want Microsoft to go broke, would you?

Thank you dotnetguy, this truly seems to be the case. Although students need not pay a dime. What a relief. I got everything up and running. Here are the steps:

1) The download for "Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone ISO" is available here. Get it and install it.

2) You also need "Zune Software" available here. Apparently it is not just a program used to transfer music to your phone. Get it, install it and keep it running on the background.

3) Create a student account at Dreamspark. The navigate to: "Developer & Designer Tools" --> "Windows Phone and App Hub" and go through two of the last steps: 2."Map your Live ID", 3."Register on AppHub"

4) Navigate to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Tools\Phone Registration\", run "PhoneReg.exe" and type in your account details created in step 3. Now your phone should be unlocked for development. So if you use another computer for programming you only need to have VS and Zune on it and it does not check for the AppHub subscription anymore.