How to deploy Windows Phone 7 app, to Windows Phone 8 phone?

2
votes

The title pretty much sums it up. I've written a Windows Phone 7 application and now I want to deploy it to a Windows Phone 8 device (HTC Windows Phone 8X). I have registered and unlocked this phone for development.

When I plug in the phone via USB and I want to deploy to it using Visual Studio 2010 it keeps on stating that a deployment error occurred as Zune wasn't started up. Windows Phone 8 phones now don't use zune though.

How can I get around this so that I can deploy the WP7 app to the phone?

2
windows-phone-7windows-phone-7.1windows-phone-8
Are you sure that it's possible? This suggests that it isn't stackoverflow.com/questions/8923508/… – Kevin Brydon
While that refers to Windows 8 apps and not Windows Phone 8, the premise still holds true. It's not possible. – anothershrubery
@Kevin Brydon - I have heard though that Windows 8 CAN run Windows 7 apps? stackoverflow.com/questions/13724852/… – user818700
Just as a possible solution (very inconvenient): publish the app as beta to the market; you'll be able to install it on the wp8 device then – Sergei Grebnov

2 Answers

5
votes

You can't deploy to a Windows Phone 8 device without the Windows Phone 8 SDK, which requires Visual Studio 2012, which also requires Windows 8. So without upgrading, you can't do it.

2
votes

Hard to believe, but it's really possible. I deployed WP7.1 application to the Windows Phone 8 device (HTC 8X) from Windows7 x64 machine:

  1. Install WindowsPhone8SDK (solved on stackoverflow here, detailed instruction here, don't forget to aggree with numerous error and warnings)
  2. Register and unlock your device by PhoneReg.exe tool ("...\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.0\Tools\Phone Registration\PhoneReg.exe")
  3. Build your app in VS2010 (I haven't figured out how to deploy the app from VS, this doesn't work)
  4. Deploy the app by XapDeploy.exe tool ("...\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.0\Tools\XAP Deployment\XapDeploy.exe"). Select the "Device" and point to the directory with *.xap file (...\AppName\Bin\Debug)