{"id":131,"date":"2013-08-20T10:27:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpkins.social\/cliff\/?p=131"},"modified":"2025-03-04T10:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T18:29:11","slug":"windows-phone-dev-unlock-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpkins.social\/cliff\/blog\/2013\/08\/20\/windows-phone-dev-unlock-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows Phone Dev Unlock for All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A couple weeks ago, as part of\u00a0a fairly sizable \u2018August update\u2019 blog post<\/a>, the Windows Phone team announced that they expanded developer unlocks to enable hobbyist developers to unlock their personal device to test their code on a real device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a number of questions on the topic via email and Twitter, I thought it was worth posting a blog entry detailing the device unlock expansion to help folks understand what happened (and what didn\u2019t happen). Given the number of things announced in one blog post, it seems a number of people connected things together that weren\u2019t intended to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick context: developer unlocked phones<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the launch of Windows Phone 7 (and the accompanying Marketplace), developing for Windows Phone has required this thing called a \u2018Developer Unlock\u2019 to deploy an app to a phone. Once unlocked, a developer with a current\/paid membership on the Windows Phone App Hub\/Dev Center could use their Microsoft Account ID to unlock 3 of phones, and side-load up to 10 applications. The intent here is to enable apps to be tested and run on the device prior to submitting them up to the Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that a developer unlocked phone is different than what some folks call a carrier unlocked or network unlocked phone. A developer unlocked phone can side-load apps, but it\u2019s still bound by all other MO and OEM restrictions that are placed upon it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what changed this month?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Starting this month, anyone can developer unlock their phone. This means two things for a developer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. They don\u2019t need to pay for a Windows Phone Dev Center account in order to debug and run a personal app on their personal phone<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. While\u00a0SLAT<\/a>\u00a0is still required for to run the WP emulator, devs can now debug their\u00a0app\u00a0using their personal Windows Phone<\/em>. While you\u2019ll still need an x64 processor and Windows 8 (any edition) to run the\u00a0WPSDK<\/a>,\u00a0folks just starting out with WP should no longer be blocked by the HyperV-based emulator (which\u00a0requires Windows 8 Pro (or above) and a SLAT-capable processor<\/a>) if they have a device to run the app on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    And those two things are pretty awesome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But there is fine print, and here it are the limits with this when using a Microsoft Account that is not paid\/registered on the Windows Phone Dev Center:<\/p>\n\n\n\n