How to unlock your windows phone for development

In order to deploy your apps directly to the device, developers are required to have an unlocked Windows Phone device. This process will walk you through all the necessary steps to get your phone unlocked so that you can test your app on a real device.

 

Most Windows Phone devices are locked. Users are not allowed to deploy games or apps to the device for testing or outside the market place. Unlocking the phone will solve the problem.

 

1-  Install the Windows Phone SDK if you don’t have it already. This is required for all developers for developing for windows phone in the first place.

2- Register for a Windows Phone developer account. If you are a DreamSpark/BizSpark/MSDN member, you can register for free.

3- After the SDK is installed on the system, search for the Windows Phone Developer Registration program from the start screen and click on it.

4- Connect your phone to the computer. The program should detect the device immediately. Hit the Register button when it is clickable.

5- A log-in window will show up on screen. Please fill in your developer account information in the appropriate field, and then hit Sign in. The device registration process will start once you are signed in.  The register button will be replace with unlock button, click it. If you are successful, you will receive the following message: Congratulations! You have successfully unlocked your Windows Phone.

 

6- Each developer account can unlock up to three devices. If you want to delete a device from the account, log in to the developer Dashboard, choose Account -> Phones, and then delete the device from there.

7- Now from Visual Studio you can select the target device for your program when you run it.