Windows Phone 7 Mass Storage Mode Revealed
A simple registry edit turns your WP7 device into a USB drive.
MobileTechWorld has discovered that Windows Phone 7 can be used as a mass storage device. According to the site, there's no "hacking" involved, as the feature is native to Windows Phone 7 but turned off by default. Users simply need to alter the Windows registry on the PC to re-activate USB drive mode support.
The instructions seem rather simple, however as always, registry tinkering could lead to nasty results, so back up before editing. Once that's done, open the Registry Editor (regedit), go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM and then expand the CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB folder (ignore ControlSet01 or 02). Now search for ZuneDriver.
The search results should pull up the Windows Phone 7 device. Choose the device and (1) change ShowInShell from 0 to 1; (2) Change PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell from 1 to 0; (3) Change EnableLegacySupport from 0 to 1. That's it. If there's more than one Windows Phone 7 device listed, you'll need to change the three values for all of them separately.
Once the registry edits are completed, just plug the Windows Phone 7 device into the PC. The device should appear in Windows Explorer after the Zune software launches, allowing direct access to the device's internal storage like any other USB-based drive. Users can close the Zune software and copy/paste files without Zune running in the background.
The site adds that Windows Phone 7 videos are either .WMV or .MP4 but transcoded to WMV9 with a maximum resolution of 800 x 600. Additionally, photos remain the same size when syncing from the PC "as original," however Windows Phone 7 creates thumbnails in the photo gallery for faster loading and viewing.
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why wouldn't this be set as default?
Nice but pretty useless if you're trying to use it on public/friends computers.
why wouldn't this be set as default?
Because Microsoft wants to control what you put on your phone. If you can't access the phones memory directly via USB, it "might" make it harder to hack the machine and/or install unapproved third-party apps. Of course, Tom's readers know this is pointless (people will unlock the phone), but Microsoft thinks it's doing itself some good here.
Because MS wants you to have to use WMP to sync your media on your phone. They also only want your media on Windows Live. At least the feature's actually there, MS just thinks it's customers put round pegs in square holes and can't do anything for themselves so they turn features off. Just look at how Windows OS is progressing.
I can confirm that this works on the Zune HD as well. No, you can't access apps or the OS, but it does, in fact, turn it into a mass storage device, as advertised.
Just make sure the Zune client isn't open when you try to access the device.
Because Microsoft wants to control what you put on your phone. If you can't access the phones memory directly via USB, it "might" make it harder to hack the machine and/or install unapproved third-party apps. Of course, Tom's readers know this is pointless (people will unlock the phone), but Microsoft thinks it's doing itself some good here.
If this was true, why would Microsoft include it as a feature at all?? The reality is that they know a lot of users would just get confused and/or screw things up. Just like all other advanced Windows tweaks/easter eggs, MS hides things that could get Joe Average in trouble. They leave it to the advanced users to figure out.
If this was true, why would Microsoft include it as a feature at all?? The reality is that they know a lot of users would just get confused and/or screw things up. Just like all other advanced Windows tweaks/easter eggs, MS hides things that could get Joe Average in trouble. They leave it to the advanced users to figure out.
But fiddling around as a novice user is what got me hooked to Windows in the first place. I may have accidentally destroyed my sound drivers once by mistake without knowing how to fix them...
I prefer the simple option to press a button or two to completely unlock everything. If I mess up, that's my fault and my fault only.
Anyways, I prefer drag and drop file transfers, and I have no intention of using Windows Media Player.
why do all this to make mass storage.
c'mon steve?!!?
All modern phones should mass storage default, pisses me off when they want you to install a shitbrick piece of software that is slow and buggy as hell and then they hide the activate mass storage option on the phone 5 pages deep into the device settings usually in a ridiculously named place.
it wasnt a hack. i read an article the other day (not on toms) that its to ensure that 1. only supported files get put on and 2. that the files put on have the appropriate metadata (and possibly also thumbnails and album art for must). makes sense if they want to keep it fast.
I know, i use windows mobile which some may know to be an OS that you could change anything on if you wanted to and things like the viewing pictures can be very slow as thumbnails are being generated.
Christmas wish to Microsoft :
Please please please dont kill this mass storage feature on WP7! I love the ability to copy documents from work, and go home and read it (not all computers let me install Zune you know). I bought the phone to replace the box of gadgets I would need to carry around with me (camera, voice recorder, notepad). Dont make me carry a USB stick again, I will just loose it!
It's crap like this that's got people spending bundles of money for android devices. A Microsoft OS will not gain any traction. They're lucky that netbooks are still as dirt cheap as they are.. otherwise they'd lose out on the entire market for portable devices. Once the deals for $150-$300 netbooks goes away.. so does interest in a M/S o's. Android and Apple OS will divide most of the phone and portable device category. Anything else proprietary will die off or be relegated to smaller and smaller market share.
So this feature is not available out of box? I know that Microsoft are copycats but I don't get it why should they copy the worst that Apple does. Why is Android successful? Because it is open.
People would go away from iPhone if the alternative is not just better but also opened and free.
What does Microsoft offer currently? A bad, bad copy of iPhone... Microsoft are obviously a bunch of clueless morons. They've missed the internet revolution, they've missed the mp3 revolution, they've missed the smartphone revolution and the down of the search engine.
The only reason they have any success is because they are absolute monopoly as desktop OS and office suite developer on the PC and we the users are so retarded that we just can't move to anything else. At least we've ditched MS Office in our company.
NB: When I've written "morons" above I've had in my mind the upper management and the marketing people not the hard working developers.
All modern phones should mass storage default, pisses me off when they want you to install a shitbrick piece of software that is slow and buggy as hell and then they hide the activate mass storage option on the phone 5 pages deep into the device settings usually in a ridiculously named place.
I have a Symbian phone by Nokia. When you plug it in it asks you automatically what mode should it connect in and I always choose mass storage. Using the synch applications are always crap.
But fiddling around as a novice user is what got me hooked to Windows in the first place. I may have accidentally destroyed my sound drivers once by mistake without knowing how to fix them...I prefer the simple option to press a button or two to completely unlock everything. If I mess up, that's my fault and my fault only.Anyways, I prefer drag and drop file transfers, and I have no intention of using Windows Media Player.
Joe Average must be a very dumb man?
Good find. I'll pass this on.
Any of you actually tried this? Seems to provide access to media files, those things the Zune software actually does to a pretty good job of handling. I can just create a new stuff autoplaylist for pictures, videos, music etc, and Zune will handle that for me, wirelessly at that. If this would allow me to copy office files to the right places for Office to read them, or pdfs, etc, I'd get excited. Doesn't seem like the case though. If you feel the need to hand manage 8-16G of media though, have at it.