I thought it might be helpful to make a little write-up here for all the potential new Windows Phone users after getting a ton of questions from friends on Facebook. The "student developer unlock" basically lets you side-load applications and potentially get into the registry to either tweak or accidentally brick your phone (obviously be careful if you start mucking with the registry).
Microsoft loves students, so if you are going back to college/university like I am or you meet Microsoft's student criteria by some other means, rejoice.
The site you want to get familiar with is called DreamSpark.com, it's Microsoft's gateway to free developer software and applications for students.
http://www.dreamspark.com
Obviously if you have a Windows Phone, you should already have a Windows Live ID, which will speed everything up. Keep in mind, you don't need to create your Windows Live ID with your student/.edu email address, you only need to use a valid .edu address for the verification process. The purpose of the project is to get more people excited about the OS and to try writing their own apps. Check out the getting started videos at http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/article/wp7_jump_start
The whole walk-through can be found at the following link under the name "Project Hawaii" from Microsoft Research.
Microsoft Research Project Hawaii
Good luck and I hope you find this helpful & you're encouraged to try some tinkering.
note:
Unlocking for non-students can be done via the $9 token process through ChevronWP7 Labs or you can become a non-student WP developer for ~$99/year, but I don't know if that includes all the same apps as they give students.
Microsoft loves students, so if you are going back to college/university like I am or you meet Microsoft's student criteria by some other means, rejoice.
The site you want to get familiar with is called DreamSpark.com, it's Microsoft's gateway to free developer software and applications for students.
http://www.dreamspark.com
Obviously if you have a Windows Phone, you should already have a Windows Live ID, which will speed everything up. Keep in mind, you don't need to create your Windows Live ID with your student/.edu email address, you only need to use a valid .edu address for the verification process. The purpose of the project is to get more people excited about the OS and to try writing their own apps. Check out the getting started videos at http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/article/wp7_jump_start
The whole walk-through can be found at the following link under the name "Project Hawaii" from Microsoft Research.
Microsoft Research Project Hawaii
Good luck and I hope you find this helpful & you're encouraged to try some tinkering.
note:
Unlocking for non-students can be done via the $9 token process through ChevronWP7 Labs or you can become a non-student WP developer for ~$99/year, but I don't know if that includes all the same apps as they give students.
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