Windows 7

Posted on Windows 7 News & Tips

Yesterday, Microsoft released the beta of the first major Windows Phone operating system update, codenamed Mango, to developers and this included myself.  The news first broke in a blog post where Microsoft announced the new developer tools for creating apps that are compatible with Mango, but they also said that all developers would be able to install the current beta of Mango on their handsets.

This caused some confusion in the developer forums where initially it was suspected that the 5,000 “most enthusiastic” developers would get it on the first day (I could only assume this meant those who had submitted the most apps to the marketplace) and the rest of the developer community would get it in the next few weeks.  Microsoft were keen to point out though that invitations were being sent out to all registered Windows Phone developers that day, but that the email release was being staggered.

There has been considerable talk about Mango, but little in the way of actual evidence of what will be contained within it, so I sat patiently waiting for my email from Microsoft’s Connect beta website.

Eventually the message arrived.  “This program makes a pre-release build of Windows Phone ‘Mango’ available to our developers, allowing you to test your applications on ‘Mango’ and prepare it for the upcoming update.  Together with the recently released Windows Phone SDK Beta 2, this pre-release OS build allows you to test your code on a personal, retail device.”

The Mango installer comes in four parts and gives a good insight into what people can expect when the final code is released later this year.  There is an update to the Zune Desktop software.  This is required to support some new features in the update, such as custom ringtones.  There’s another update for the player that then gives it access to Microsoft’s Windows Phone test servers for updates.  The final piece of software is a standalone utility for backing up your phone.

This utility strikes me as being incredibly useful and I don’t know why Microsoft don’t release it separately.  Currently there’s no way to completely back up your Windows Phone should you want to.  This utility does exactly that and is extremely good.  It creates a folder with many data files containing a copy of the phone’s OS and all its settings and data.  It’s quick too and some might think a valuable little tool to have.

Once this is done the updates are delivered through the Zune desktop software as per usual.  There are two in total, a quick one to begin with, though there’s no information on what this is and why, and then Mango itself.  This may well mean that Windows Phone users can expect another small update before Mango in the way the very first update for Windows Phone was delivered.  This small update delivered no new features in itself but is required if you’re going to have mango on your handset.

The Mango update will take about an hour to install on your handset.  This is much the same as the previous NoDo update which took a similar time and caught a few Windows Phone users by surprise as a result.  I’ll write a full review of Mango here next week, as it stands so far anyway as there are still some buttons marked “Coming Soon!” in the OS.

One thing that’s well worth mentioning though are the warnings.  There are warnings in the original blog post, warnings on the download page for the beta and a 15 page installation guide that’s full of warnings not to brick your phone.

Please read the instructions document fully and carefully before you update your retail device. Not properly following these instructions can place your personal phone in an unusable state. Microsoft is unable to assist developers who ‘bricked’ their phone because an instruction step was skimmed or skipped.

The beta installed perfectly well on my HTC Mozart though keeping all of my contacts, files and settings.  It would have been useful to have messages during the install though in the Zune Desktop software, telling me about new features.  This would be much in the way earlier versions of Windows, like 98 and XP did when you installed them.  I doubt this will be rectified for the final release, but many people would find it useful.

Nobody can say that Microsoft aren’t concerned something can go wrong during the beta update.  Most of the warnings though are about the device backup software.  They point out that this is utterly essential as the Mango beta installation takes your phone into a state where the regular updates will no longer work in Windows Phone.  In order to get Mango proper when its released the phone needs to be returned to the state it was in when the backup was taken.  Thus it’s critically important to keep several copies of the backup and not lose any of them.  Who am I to argue!

As I said earlier, I’ll write a full review of Mango next week but the things that jump out at me so far as very cool are the integration of SkyDrive into the Office hub, the threaded conversations in messaging and email, the added support for Twitter and LinkedIn (neither of which are active yet), the web connector that will automatically re-download apps you’ve purchased from the store if you need to reset your phone and several references to forthcoming (and long overdue if you ask me) To-Do list support.

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