Windows Phone 7 unlocker released

News · 25 Nov 2010 · MTW Editorial Team

I admit that I hesitate a bit before posting this given that I’m not really into promoting hacking or piracy. So there’s a small tool that was released 2 hours ago that will enable any Windows Phone 7 user to “unlock” his device and side-load any application on it. The official and legal way to do this is to register as a developer and pay $99/y. So what’s the big here other than having the ability to side-load (currently via Visual Studio) any application son any WP7? Well this looks like the beginning of a big mess folks. First off Microsoft, thanks to its PVK system, can detect and ban all the devices unlocked with this method (yeah re-locking it afterwards won’t help you if you Device ID is blacklisted). Secondly, couple this new unlocker with the security issue of the curent Marketplace (anyone can freely download an app directly from the marketplace by bypassing the Zune software and decompile the code if it was obfuscated by the developer..) and we are now in piracy heaven… Anyway, it’s up to you to decide if you want to unlock your device this way at the risk of being blocked by MS (if they decide to take this route) but I won’t be surprised to see a WP7 update in the near future “fix” this potential security hole.  I’m all for tweaking your device etc (hey I actually found out how to enable USB drive mode on Window Phone 7! remember?) , but I’m still unsure about this one…The ChevronWP7 unlocker can be found here. BTW, anyone find this “strange” that this  stuff gets released now on Thanksgiving just when most of the MS employees are on holyday leave?