Windows Phone 7 Unlocked for Sideloading

Since the US is stuffing turkeys down their faces today, we’re a little low on news. As such, let’s talk about this sort-of jailbreak for Windows Phone 7 devices. Like iOS, you can’t sideload applications by default, and as such, we need to resort to hacks to unshackle Windows Phone 7 phones from the Marketplace. This has been made incredibly easy. Also, just to annoy those that don’t like unicorns: PINK FLUFFY UNICORNS DANCING ON RAINBOWS.

Earlier this month, enterprising hackers already managed to turn Windows Phone 7 devices into default USB mass storage devices, allowing you to just hook them up via USB and use them like any other drive. It turns out that device support this by default, but that the feature is turned off in the registry.

Today’s hack comes from well-known Windows specialists Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, and Long Zheng. Developers are allowed to sideload applications, but ordinary users cannot; thanks to this hack, even people without a Marketplace developer account can sideload applications.

“We’ve taken the pain out of the process involved and put together a super simple executable that will allow anyone to unlock any WP7 device on the market using a USB cable and just a couple clicks,” they write, “This tool is completely safe and reversible for the phone.”

Microsoft has always been very tolerant of the modding community when it came to Windows Mobile, but whether or not that attitude carries over to this entirely new operating system remains to be seen. I sure do hope so, since I’m hoping to acquire a Windows Phone 7 device for a review here on OSNews.

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