HTC's HD2 Hacked To Run Windows Phone 7

The Dark Forces Team is misnamed, in our opinion. They should be called the Light Way Team. They have once again posted a hack on the XDA Developers forum that will earn cheers. They've made Windows Phone 7 run on the HTC HD2 smartphone.

Their instructions will even let HD2 users get access to their Windows Live service. However the hack won't easily give users access to the Markeplace or Xbox LIVE as Microsoft has blocked those with an extra layer of security. A note on the YouTube video channel mentions a possible fix for marketplace. By changing the phone type to HD7, the HD2 was able to access HTC's apps marketplace.

We haven't tried this and we're not sure how happy Microsoft will be with users who do it (probably not very happy). But those who bought HTC's HD2 on T-Mobile got hosed. It was released in the spring with Windows Mobile 6.2, with a lot of great hardware specs and vaguely rumored promises that it would be upgradeable to WP7. Not so. WP7 arrived about six months later. Microsoft admitted in the spring that it had modified hardware requirements so that Windows Mobile 6 phones couldn't be upgraded. (It's a little like how Samsung Galaxy Tab owners might feel if Android Honeycomb goes live in the spring and requires dual-core CPUs.)

So, DTF to the rescue. These folks have created a long list of everyone-wants-them fixes -- ehem unauthorized hacks -- including porting Android to the HD2.

It's a many-step process to get WP7 working on an HD2 -- a lot more effort than upgrading to an HD7, and after the hack some of the HD2 features will be buggy. The WPcentral blog reports that most of them will work fine, including the Accelerometer, Office apps and Internet Explorer. You also have to consider that you can pick up a HD7 for about $200 right now and Microsoft and T-Mobile are still running the Black Friday buy-one get-one-free deal for it from T-Mobile retail stores.

Despite all that, if you are still determined to give it go here's the demo video DFT posted on YouTube.