An intrepid developer has managed to successfully unlock Microsoft’s recently released Windows Phone 7 emulator.
“I still cannot believe it but I did it. After a good idea, 6 hours of work and a lot a lot of digging I’ve unlocked the ROM image in the emulator CTP,” Don Ardelean confirmed in an official blog post.
“I will describe tomorrow the method but right now I will just post some screenshots, upload the bin somewhere so I can give you the link and go to sleep cause it’s almost 2 o’clock in the morning.”
Meanwhile, Chris Davies of Slashgear commented that there was “plenty more” functionality in the emulator ROM than appears at first glance.
“It’s just that Microsoft have done some work to keep certain elements hidden. Ardelean…has modified the BIN responsible for which features are accessible, bypassing Microsoft’s lock-down.
“Among the things discovered are a file explorer and a native task manager. [And] over at xda-developers they’ve already discovered mention of cut, copy and paste functionality, which Microsoft have admitted won’t be in the initial release of WP7 but will instead follow on in a later upgrade.”
However, it should be noted that Ardelean has since removed the link detailing the unlock due to fear of reprisal from Microsoft.
“I have decided to take down the link because Microsoft could get upset and I don’t really want that. If someone at Microsoft will tell me that it doesn’t bother them I will put it back).”
