Microsoft pushed Mango beta to developers less than 24 hours ago. Some of us must be very happy right now while other could do nothing but shooting beams of jealous. Read more after the break
Well, worry no more! The updating tool for invited developers has already leaked. Thanks to the sharer, you could find it on the interweb already if you know what I’m talking about. For legal concerns I’m not going to give you a link to the file download page. But I trust you guys will eventually find it when it gets widespread.
What I will reveal is the innards of the tool. Inside the file package there are:
- Zune 4.8: A pre-release version of our beloved Zune client, used to sync Mango beta devices and do the actual job of updating a device to Mango beta.
- Setup-UpdateWP.exe: ROM flashing tool of some kind.
- MangoB2-DevRetailUpdate.exe: The file that checks if your phone is developer-unlocked. If so, it proceeds to making a full back up of your phone, and configures it to receive Mango update through Zune 4.8.
- Update_Instruction_Mango_Beta_2_for_WPDevs.pdf: The name is quite self-explaining.
You see, the whole trick is to developer-unlock your phone. Once this is done, it will be set to a “Mango-ready”status, and get update through the pre-release Zune client. To achieve that, you could become a registered App Hub member, which take quite some effort, and next to impossible if you happen to be sitting in some unfavorable countries, like me right now in China.
However, there’s an overlooked shortcut.What I will reveal is the innards of the tool. Inside the file package there are:
- Zune 4.8: A pre-release version of our beloved Zune client, used to sync Mango beta devices and do the actual job of updating a device to Mango beta.
- Setup-UpdateWP.exe: ROM flashing tool of some kind.
- MangoB2-DevRetailUpdate.exe: The file that checks if your phone is developer-unlocked. If so, it proceeds to making a full back up of your phone, and configures it to receive Mango update through Zune 4.8.
- Update_Instruction_Mango_Beta_2_for_WPDevs.pdf: The name is quite self-explaining.
You see, the whole trick is to developer-unlock your phone. Once this is done, it will be set to a “Mango-ready”status, and get update through the pre-release Zune client. To achieve that, you could become a registered App Hub member, which take quite some effort, and next to impossible if you happen to be sitting in some unfavorable countries, like me right now in China.
Chevron jailbreaking, that’s what I’m talking about. Remember those old days when it still worked? Essentially Chevron’s solution is to developer-unlock your phone via an OS glitch, without App Hub membership. Our experiments found that the Mango beta tool literally checks if your “phone is developer-unlocked”. Just the phone itself. It won’t ever bother asking Microsoft server if it’s unlocked legally, or which App Hub member unlocked it. If your device is still Chevron-unlocked, go find your tasty Mango.
If your phone has no Chevron right now, or has been relocked somehow after previous updates, you can do this:
- Flash your phone with an old ROM, build 7004 or 7008
- Update to 7008 if the one you got is 7004
- Apply Chevron jailbreaking on 7008, which is the last version it could work
- Update the jailbroken phone to 7390 or 7392, in most cases it should still be jailbroken
- Launch the Mango updater, get your share
- After Mango beta, the phone will inevitably be relocked, but it’s fine, you get Mango
Of course, the last retreat is to really buy your way into App Hub if you can, or find an App Hub member to unlock your phone if you can’t. At the end of the day honest kids got worst treated, or so Microsoft thinks apparently.
Please beware that flashing a ROM empties your phone warranty, and doing this Mango trick absolutely has some risk. Think thrice before you do it.
Another side note. This Mango beta won’t be able to be updated to the real Mango when it comes. You will have to keep the backup image generated by the Mango beta tool very carefully. When Mango really comes to your phone in the full charm, you must restore the phone with that image first, then uninstall Zune 4.8, install the new Zune, and re-update the phone to the latest build.
