<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.

  1. Downloaded beta 2 developer tools and started install.
  2. Beta 2 Developer tools won’t install with Beta 1 installed. Uninstalling beta 1 for me was too much trouble I guess.
  3. 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…
  4. Accepted Connect invite email, completed survey, completed registration and email confirmation.
  5. Installed mango beta 2 dev tools.
  6. Spent a few minutes figuring out where to download the retail updates on Connect.
  7. Downloaded the 3 installers and setup instructions in the phone update and unblocked files.
  8. Made more free space for the phone backup. Uninstalled several apps, deleted and moved files, ran disk cleanup…
  9. Uninstalled Zune.
  10. Installed new Mango compatible Zune.
  11. Connected phone, closed Zune.
  12. Ran UpdateWP.
  13. 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.
  14. Reran DevRetailUpdate.
  15. Unlocked screen and reran dev retail update. Took a long break while waiting on backup.
  16. 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.
  17. Updated windows phone to 7.0.7401.0 “pre-Mango?” with Zune. Why the need for 2 phone updates here?
  18. 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>