Run the Windows Phone Emulator as Standalone

UPDATE 11/2/2010: You don't need to do this anymore, as the Windows Phone Developer Tools now install a link in the Start menu that launches the Emulator directly.

If you are developing a mobile Web app and want to test it out in the Windows Phone emulator running IE Mobile, you don't need to launch the Windows Phone developer tools with a dummy project each time and hit F5 just to click on the IE icon in order to get the browser running.

Create a shortcut icon, right-click it and choose Properties, and set the Target field to:

"{Install Drive}:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\XDE.exe" "{Install Drive}:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\WindowsPhone\v7.0\Emulation\Images\WM70C1.bin"

Then you can just use this shortcut to launch the Emulator as a standalone image each time and start the browser.

Enjoy!

Joe Marini
Principal Program Manager
@joemarini

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 06, 2010
  I am not able to launch the emulator using above mentioned steps. Any suggestion?

• Anonymous
  October 07, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 25, 2010
  Great tips, but I am wondering: Is there a way to debug javascript on the windows phone emulator?

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2010
  You guys don't need to do this anymore - the tools now install a shortcut in the Start menu that directly starts the emulator.

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2010
  Emulator is not in sync with the real phone. The app I am building for mobile phones looks perfect on all phones and even Windows Emulator. Surprise: When I look it on real windows phone. It looks completely different and chaotic. Finally, RIM has done it all perfectly for BBs. I Hope MS will soon start using webkit too. Cheers!

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2010
  @Mihir - I'm not sure what issues you are seeing, but the emulator is absolutely in sync with the real phone. The version of IE that we ship on the emulator is the same as on the device.