Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!
Man ur like a wizard,turning a not so good phone into a beast,but u gotta tell us how to do it,i was literally about to sell this phone,but lingered to it cuz of its smooth design,screen and amazing audio quality(BEATS) so plz man hurry up,and tell us how to do it ,THANKS
Ok, here's what I did to get PD 8.1 working on my 8S...
A few things first.
1. I didnt do anything tricky or new. I just followed the instructions I found in a WP Central post entitled Installing Preview for Developers 8.1 on Non-US phones (or something close to that). You can search for it if you want.
2. I have a Singaporean Region HTC 8S and I live in Viet Nam.
3. You may be able to do the upgrade without doing some of the things I did - I just didn't want to take any chances.
4. You will need to do a FACTORY RESET first.
5. Make sure you know your Microsoft Account user name and password before you start. You will need to sign into it. Ignore the 'skip this' button. You can't. You wont be able to download any apps unless your signed in.
6. Don't reload your previous apps from backup. Start over. (you may be able to get away with it, I just didnt want to take a chance)
Let's start:
1. Do a Factory Reset (Go to setting, about Phone, Reset My Phone). This may take awhile. Let it go thought everything. Eventually you'll get to the 'Welcome to Windows Phone' screen.
2. IMPORTANT : Go through the set up screens, dont skip any. Make sure you CHANGE REGION TO U.S, U.S LANGUAGE, U.S KEYBOARD. Make sure you set every option it asks for to U.S Region.
3. Connect to a good wifi .
4. Go to the Windows Phone Marketplace and download Preview for Developers. Only download that app for now.
5. Run the PD app, It will ask you some questions and then want you to verify your account with an email address. Do it, Follow the steps it says.The last step will be go to CHECK FOR UPDATES.
6. Check for updates. It will be there. Download it. It will take awhile (10-20 min). It will reboot a coupe times and run the gears a bit. Just let it finish.
7. CONGRATS! you should now have PD 8.1 installed.
8. 8.1 Set up will ask you 'where do you want to store appp?" Select SD card. I would store everything on SD. Now when you download apps, unless the app doesnt let you install it on the SD card (it will tell you if it cant be), all of the apps will automatically install on your SD.
9. HAVE FUN - A few more things:
Cortana should be installed - The app icon will be in your list of apps. Pin it to start screen. IMPORTANT: Cortana will only work when your phone region (and langauge) is set to U.S Einglish. If you think your gonna be clever and install it then switch your region back. Dont - Contana will disappear if you do! (Dont worry, if you do it, it will reappear when switched back to US)
If your using a non-US 8S you MAY be able to 'trick' your phone into getting your local (non-US) apps anyway. I use Deezer Music. Its not available in the US, So its not in the US Marketplace..BUT... I switched the region back to Singapore after I installed Cortana, It disappeared. But Deezer was there. I downloaded Deezer. Then switched back to US region. It worked! Both Cortana and Deezer were there! Both work great!
Have fun!