This time I have 2 updates for you:

• New version of Interop Unlock for 2nd generation Samsung WP7 devices. The last version worked for most people. The unlock for 2nd generation devices was downloaded 8852 times. And there was a hand full of people who were unable to successfully unlock their device. The new unlock adds an alternative unlock method, which should work for these people too. You can read more about the previous release of this unlock here. You can download the package for this unlock from the Download section. The instructions are inside the package.
• WP7 Root Tools SDK 1.1 is a minor update. It fixes a bug in registry access and the documentation was improved to reflect changes from the version 1.0 release. This is also available from the Download section.

I'm also very close to a release of WP7 Root Tools 1.2. I'm only waiting on some translations and test-results. The key-change in this version is "Internet Sharing unlock".

One final note: Google Adsense has disabled my account, so this website currently has no ads. I appealed to their decision. From what I understand now, I am accused of illegal click-activity. This means they think I route traffic to my site to generate extra income or something. I don't know how they get that idea, but I know I only serve ads to generate a little money to compensate the costs of this website and I strictly comply with their policies. I've tried to explain that in my appeal. So I hope to stay a "partner" of Google Adsense and keep this website running.

- Heathcliff74 -

Update: Google reviewed the situation and enabled the ads again. Thanks Google.

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Hi all. Nice day today :-) I have some stuff to release:

• New unlocks for Samsung WP7 devices! Including 2nd generation devices, like Focus S and Omnia W, etc.
• WP7 Root Tools 1.1
• WP7 Root Tools SDK 1.0

The unlocks for the Samsung devices will help you to Interop Unlock them. It should also work on fully updated phones! WP7 Root Tools will help you with further unlocks. Read the instructions thoroughly! Especially the instructions for 2nd generations Samsung devices are quite complex. But after these steps you will finally be able to run homebrew-apps :-)

WP7 Root Tools 1.1 has a new Accent Color editor and some more small extra's and fixes. Not all languages are completely translated. I will arrange that as soon as possible.

The new SDK has new functions for setting the Power State and also a few important bug-fixes.

Thanks to Dennis Wilson for doing initial tests with me. And thanks to ManelScout4Life for sending me his Samsung Focus S!! This was of invaluable help finding the unlocks.

All new stuff can be found in the download-section. Have fun!

Heathcliff74

Update 1: From the amount of problem reports about the Samsung 2nd generation unlock, I conclude that I probably made a mistake somewhere in the guide or files. I will retrace my steps and I promise a fix soon! Excuse me for the confusion.

Update 2: Problem found. Solution found. While looking for the problem I found an even better combination of exploits, which also makes the unlock process slightly easier. The new guide is inside the download-package. Make sure you follow the NEW guide, not the guide from the old archive. Especially notice the order in which you need to tap on the attachments! Get the new version of the unlock in the Download-section. Please let me know the results!

Update 3: I'm getting a lot of success stories now. All seems to be working as expected :-) Sorry for the initial confusion. I did so many tests that I had mixed up some test-results. But quickly fixed now!

Update 4: From people who are still not able to unlock, I'd like to collect more detailed information, so I can attempt to fix that for you. Please post the following:

• Phone Model
• OS version
• Firmware revision
• Were you developer- or student-unlocked when you attempted the unlock?
• Did you interop-unlock the phone before and what method did you use then?
• What error-code do you get when you try to try to deploy WP7 Root Tools using, the official Application Deployment tool from the WP7 SDK?

Many people who didn't succeed the first time, have been able to unlock later attempts. They reported various steps that they did, which may have resulted in finally being able to unlock. I've tested most of these steps, but I've not been able to identify the reason possible failures, because at my end, it always succeeds when I follow the guide. I will list here some of my own ideas and some of the ideas that people posted in the comments. You can try this, if you were not able to unlock by just following the guide:

• Make sure you really didn't exit the mail-app before you restart your phone, as stated in the guide.
• Make sure you have the mail-attachment opened only once, when you are opening the other attachments. Press-and-hold back-button to verify that.
• Try to uninstall and reinstall the Wireless Manager. This might actually be a plausible reason for the unlock to start working.
• If you had official developer- or student-unlock, try to relock your phone and sync with Zune at least once, before you start to follow the Interop Unlock guide.
• You can try to remove your SIM card before you attempt to unlock the phone.
• At some point in the guide it states to restart your phone. When you do this, hold power-button and keep holding it. It will show the wallpaper with a message to slide down. Just keep holding the power-button and wait for it to power off. So DON'T release the power-button to slide-down.
• If you have a linked mailbox, then unlink it, restart your phone and send the mail again to your account. From there on follow the guide.
• As a final resort, you can try to hard-reset your phone. Some people reported that the unlock did work after a hard-reset, other people reported that it still did not work after a hard-reset. A hard-reset will wipe your apps, data and settings, but you can restore your backup. Sync with Zune at least once, before you start the unlock procedure.

If you manage to unlock your phone after trying the above steps, then please report back, so I can improve the guide.

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Shorly after the 8860 release, Microsoft has released another update for Windows Phone 7.8. The version is: 7.10.8862.144. I have tested this update and I can confirm that the issues with the live-tile-scheduler and the live-tile-notifications both have been fixed now! Yea! Thanks Microsoft! :-)

The downside is that the lag-issue, when tapping on start-screen-tiles, still isn't fixed. I hope they are working on this. Although I suspect that this is a bit more difficult to solve, because it seems the OS performs some pre-launch checks at that moment. This probably can't be skipped. But maybe it is possible to start the animations while doing that, so that it doesn't feel like there is lag.

Anyway, I'm happy. Windows Phone 7.8 seems to be stable again! You can update your phone by connecting it with your PC, running Zune. If your phone is not yet scheduled for update, you can also do an offline. Read more here.

- Heathcliff74 -

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I'm a bit disappointed. Today Microsoft released an update for Windows Phone 7.8: 7.10.8860.142. I was exited to try it. I updated one of my Windows Phones and started to repeat the steps of my earlier research. I expected the live tiles to be fixed. But I was surprised and disappointed to see, that I could still reproduce both live-tile issues.

It's not really clear to me what the update is meant for. It is an incremental update. Most files in the update only contain relocations, so these files are actually not changed. There are bigger changes in asplugin.dll and quartz.dll. I opened the updated files, but there are no obvious changes. I guess this is just a minor security or stability update.

Still hoping for a live tile fix.

- Heathcliff74 -

Update 1: Tom Warren from The Verge says that Microsoft has confirmed that the update fixes the broken live-tiles and data-drain issues. My tests do not confirm this! I double-checked: my phone is on 7.10.8860.142 and still draining data!

Update 2: The update is compiled at January 19th. While my first report about live-tiles was on February 3rd. On January 19th Microsoft was not aware of the issues. So I don't know how The Verge can report that this fixes the live-tiles.

Update 3: windowsphonedaily.com found that there is actually another update on its way: 7.10.8862.144. It's shown here. But that is not the update being pushed out now. I wonder why Microsoft pushed out the 8860-update instead of the 8862-update.

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