<Rant>
The development experience may be pleasant for Windows Phone but the setup and upgrade process could sure use some smoothing out. On iOS I hate having to download and install a new version of XCode for each new SDK release (even minor updates) but at least it is pretty straightforward. I am sure that I am leaving some things out below with the 6+ hour process of upgrading to Mango beta 2 tonight.
- Downloaded beta 2 developer tools and started install.
- Beta 2 Developer tools won’t install with Beta 1 installed. Uninstalling beta 1 for me was too much trouble I guess.
- Accidentally uninstalled non-beta (non Mango) SDK. Granted this was my fault but when you have several phone installs in Programs and Features it is easy to do and beta 2 install could have saved me that mistake. Had to reinstall 3 non-Mango installs (dev tools, jan update, phone developer tools fix). Two hours later…
- Accepted Connect invite email, completed survey, completed registration and email confirmation.
- Installed mango beta 2 dev tools.
- Spent a few minutes figuring out where to download the retail updates on Connect.
- Downloaded the 3 installers and setup instructions in the phone update and unblocked files.
- Made more free space for the phone backup. Uninstalled several apps, deleted and moved files, ran disk cleanup…
- Uninstalled Zune.
- Installed new Mango compatible Zune.
- Connected phone, closed Zune.
- Ran UpdateWP.
- UpdateWP failed (UpdateWP has stopped working). See http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/85763/516753.aspx#516753. Deleted UpdateWP in Zune folder and reran UpdateWP.
- Reran DevRetailUpdate.
- Unlocked screen and reran dev retail update. Took a long break while waiting on backup.
- Copied 8GB backup to a dual layer DVD. Near the end, sorry, not quite enough room. Switched to 7-zip of directory. Split zip and copied off of hard disk.
- Updated windows phone to 7.0.7401.0 “pre-Mango?” with Zune. Why the need for 2 phone updates here?
- Updated windows phone to the actual Mango release with Zune (7661).
Now I can look forward to undoing all this in a few months since there is no upgrade path from beta to RTM. Okay, sorry, I’m done venting. At least now I have Mango installed but I’m too tired to play with it much. I am noticing some odd behavior already but am excited to see the vast improvements coming to life!
</Rant>