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Today I wanted to unlock the WP7 emulator in order to see some more functionalities available like: task manager, accessing isolated storage files and look over default applications like Office, Messaging and others, but I could not make it work ...

I followed the instructions from here but I'm not having the [YourHardDrive]:/Program Files/Microsoft SDKs/WindowsPhone/v7.0/Emulation/Images folder . In [YourHardDrive]:/Program Files/Microsoft SDKs/WindowsPhone/v7.0/Emulation folder I have only the following files:

  1. WM7_Skin.xml
  2. WM7_Skin_Down.png
  3. WM7_Skin_Mask.png
  4. WM7_Skin_Up.png

I looked over others tutorials related to unlock emulator and all of them are pointing to an Image folder - which in my case doesn't exists

Did anyone also faced with this problem?

I am curious: Why Microsoft doesn't provide by default access to an 'unlocked' emulator ?

Thanks.

Paul
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2 Answers2

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The instructions you linked to are from a very early pre-beta release of the Windows Phone SDK, over six month before the phone released! So you don't have to wonder why they aren't working anymore.

You may search the XDA forums for an unlocked version of the 7.0 emulator image, but that version isn't up-to-date either. Currently RTM is version 7.1 of the SDK for the so-called "Mango" release of Windows Phone 7.5 - but it's currently not possible to "unlock" the restrictions Microsoft put into that emulator image, either. There are some possibilities to launch some of the internal applications / dialogs with a tool from the 7.1 SDK and their corresponding GUIDs. You may take a look at this and this article for some instructions.

Anheledir
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  • Nice and clear answer - thanks! I've tried to acces a blacklist application in a WP7 app, but I cannot add the reference to `Microsoft.Smartdevice.Connectivity.dll` - I receive this error: _Reference cannot be added to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SmartDevice.Connectivity\v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.Smartdevice.Connectivity.dll because because it was not build using the windows phone runtime. windows phone projects will work only with Windows phone assemblies_ . I have the wp7 7.1 sdk installed. Do you know what causes that error ?thanks. – Paul Sep 12 '11 at 12:16
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    I have the answer for my above question: `Microsoft.Smartdevice.Connectivity.dll` is not a library for using in a wp7 project (wasn't created using the WP7 development tools); I've created a Console Application and there I was able to add the reference and also to run the blacklisted applications. Thanks. – Paul Sep 12 '11 at 12:30
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The forums at xda-developers often post unlocked emulators. The one that I recently pulled down is here. It is in Italian but just go into the settings and change it to the language you would like.

bkaid
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