Feature Post

Top

Will I ever be able run windows phone 7 on windows xp machine?

This post answers the following questions:
  • How to run Windows Phone Development Tools on Windows XP?
  • How to run install windows phone developer resources on windows xp?
  • XDELauncher.EXE vs XDE.exe?
I tried running windows phone 7 development environment from an xp machine. Amazing! the windows phone 7 developer phone would not install on xp machine, in the first place.

When you download a windows phone 7 online installation executable (vm_web.exe) and double click the file, it throws an error saying that a better OS is required, which means a Windows 7 or Vista.

Dint work!

Then I thought that I should download the .ISO (WPDT_RTM_en1.iso); and may be I get lucky to find the exact files that required installation.

This helped digging in more, and was able to find in the extracted files, a folder named WindowsPhone inside WCU folder. Installed XNA Game Studio, and Expression Blend without a glitch. What did not work was WindowsPhoneDeveloperResources_en.msi; it did not install. Same error, a better OS is required.

I was able to see the windows phone templates in visual studio 2010 professional; that kept on throwing the error that it requires windows phone developer resources!

Dint work!

Some how I still was sure that I'd be able to run the windows phone 7 application on a windows xp machine.

I tried installing Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate; and bang! it did the trick (0:

But wait!

I get this compilation error which says, Device Emulator is not detected. Install the Device Emulator.

Woohoo!!!

And this happiness turned in to a nightmare when I tried lauching the WP7 emulator (XDELauncher.exe, found in \Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Tools\XDE Launcher); and un/fortunately, it did not run. I click on it, it seems that it runs, but it does not. When you click on the file, the program ends, it seems, before it starts!

Dint work!

I still, "had" some hope... so I asked my friend google; but to my surprise it responded me with zero result set.


Ah ha! (made me scratch my skull)

It turned out not many people know about the XDELauncher.exe. And it seems that in Windows 7, XDELauncher.exe is called XDE.exe.

Here, another one like myself tried a different method of installation which "did" work! But, not really worked! (0:

The emulator requires:
  • DirectX 10
  • WDDM Driver

Both of which do not exists on Windows XP. Installing DirectX 10 also did not work.

Dint work!

This issue was raised on Microsoft Connect on May/4/2010; currently in "Review" status, with only 1 vote for it! Sounds like windows xp is scrap already. What will those do whos "corporate standard" is still Windows XP.

From another, more into "mobile-dev" says:
"I work for a large mobile silicon vendor with many, many developers working on WP7. Our corporate standard is Windows XP, and I can promise you that a bunch of very bright people have spent a lot of time trying to get this to work."

It seems, even if you are able to install and run the WP7 app successfully, you cannot guarantee that it will run smoothly everywhere. The hacked/cracked environment  that you will setup will be full of surprises. (0:

Btw, if you "still" want a workaround while staying on XP - get a VM! I created a virtual (VMWare) environment with windows 7, visual studio 2010 ultimate, and windows phone 7 developer tools - Just need to see if it works!

I'll post an update as soon as I deploy my first app on Windows Phone 7 App Store.

Update 2011/APR/21: (for those who are interested)

"Running Windows Phone developer edition in Virtual Machine is not supported". Yep, damn!

From MSDN Forums:
"Running Windows Phone developer edition in Virtual Machine is not supported. Windows Phone Developer Edition is supported on physical machine"
Emulator during its boot checks whether HW virtualiztion is enabled or not. If enabled and is available, it will enable it for its VM. My guess is that the VMWare VM driver must be tripping when the query is invoked. I will follow up with development team for possible solutions to fix this. For the current drop, please do not have active VM when launching the Emulator.

You might also enjoy this discussion.


Enjoy!