Database Develop

[Q] lumia 521 metropcs

is there anyway to root or jailbreak the lumia 521?
only had it for one day and i hate it.. anyone find a root or jailbreak?

1) Learn to search.
2) Not yet (duh, if you'd searched you'd know).
3) Why the heck did you get a phone without doing even basic research?
4) Is there something *specific* you want to do? There are some tricks possible with stock dev-unlock.

All of the above and what do you think your going to be able to do once its "broken" ...there's not a lot really hidden from you at the moment. One of the beauties of WM is there's practically no real need to root it or at least no huge gain atm.
Sent from my RM-878_nam_usa_100 using Tapatalk

Oh, I *quite* disagree with that last statement. Things that I've done, even with the limited control available right now:
Moved the map data folder to the SD card.
Made my ATIV S show three normal tile columns on Start.
Been able to sideload more than 10 applications at once (and 10 is the limit for a paid account; free ones get 2 or 3).
Been able to directly sideload my ebooks.
Make an app to enable wired tethering on my phone (isn't limited like WiFi tethering, which doesn't work for me anyhow... another thing I hope to fix, though).
Set up custom theme colors.
Access the certificate store.
Edit the HOSTS file.
Add IE favorites easily.
There's a ton more that I'm still investigating, too:
Changing file associations, even ones that are supposed to be locked to built-in apps (like .MP3).
Custom system components (replace or modify the keyboard or Start screen).
Port Win32 programs, even ones that require drivers such as openvpn.
Change the default search engine.
Make the ringtone volume controllable separately from the system volume.
Toggle services on and off with one tap.
Enable raw network sockets (support other protocols than TCP and UDP, do security testing from my phone, etc.)
Lots more...

GoodDayToDie said:
Oh, I *quite* disagree with that last statement. Things that I've done, even with the limited control available right now:
Moved the map data folder to the SD card.
Made my ATIV S show three normal tile columns on Start.
Been able to sideload more than 10 applications at once (and 10 is the limit for a paid account; free ones get 2 or 3).
Been able to directly sideload my ebooks.
Make an app to enable wired tethering on my phone (isn't limited like WiFi tethering, which doesn't work for me anyhow... another thing I hope to fix, though).
Set up custom theme colors.
Access the certificate store.
Edit the HOSTS file.
Add IE favorites easily.
There's a ton more that I'm still investigating, too:
Changing file associations, even ones that are supposed to be locked to built-in apps (like .MP3).
Custom system components (replace or modify the keyboard or Start screen).
Port Win32 programs, even ones that require drivers such as openvpn.
Change the default search engine.
Make the ringtone volume controllable separately from the system volume.
Toggle services on and off with one tap.
Enable raw network sockets (support other protocols than TCP and UDP, do security testing from my phone, etc.)
Lots more...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was trying to find the practicality on doing it for WP8, but I couldn't recall exactly what all was added feature wise on WP7. This kind of clears things up why InteropUnlock is so valuable.

[Q] Message Access Profile [MAP] on Windows Phone 8?

Is MAP (to sync SMS and E-Mails, possibly the Calendar to devices such as Navigation Systems (Kenwood, Ford, BMW) or Smartwatches (Pebble)) functional on any WP 8 device in any version (GDR2 / GDR3)?
According to some articles, Nokia wanted to (or did already) implement MAP as part of the "Transfer My Data" App?
(e.g.) wpcentral.com/nokia-adding-bluetooth-support-message-access-profile-map-future-update
Wondering if I could get, or expect MAP Support for my Ativ S.

Transfer My Data is indeed supposedly capable of transferring SMS. It's possible to install it using a proxy to spoof the device ID.
I don't know how easy it is access such things through third-party apps, though. I also don't know about support for any of the devices you mention. If it's not available now, it's probably coming in WP8.1, expected early next year (about when GDR4 would otherwise be released) although I suppose it's possible that it's part of the next "service pack" style update, which mostly adds a bunch of business-y stuff (S/MIME email, mobile device management rules, VPNs, etc.)

[Q] New at WP8, questions not stored in FAQ

Hello,
I'm just starting my dev journey with WP8 with my new T-Mobile Lumia 520.
First what I need to do is to debrand my lumia - for faster updates. T-Mobile is not offering yet the next release of fw which allows to disable images in IE, and as dev I need to be up-to-date as fast as possible. I need to download the FW, but I don't know which one - localized for sure, but what GDR is? What Amber means? I can't decide which one do I need to download and flash. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2515453 This instruction doesn't show the moment of decision).
Next question is about unlocking. I'm downloading music from Soundcloud via Cloudoh and I want to access them from my PC, same as files located inside of other apps - do I need to unlock the device to do that? For example - how to upload a pdf from PC to winpho pdf reader?
Windows Store allows me to download installable files at PC and install them via SD Card. Some apps aren't supposed to work with my device. Is there any solution how to install them at my risk?
And the last question, but not least - I have my dev account but its time limited and app-count-limited. Is there any way how to check if my Lumia is dev-unlocked, how long this unlock lasts and what is my current app-limit? Just for my information - I like to have the ways to check everything.
Please, help me

GDR = General Distribution Release (a brief web search would have told you this). Microsoft-ese for a post-initial-release update (think of service packs for other MS software). The current version is GDR3, also called Update 3. "Amber" is Nokia's codename for the firmware version that they ship along with GDR2. "Black" is Nokia's firmware name for GDR3. Note that OEM firmware (such as Amber or Black) are different from Microsoft OS updates (such as GDR2 or Update 3), although they are typically delivered together. If you're already on at least GDR2, you can get Update 3 directly from Microsoft without waiting for T-Mobile or Nokia; search the Store for "Preview for Developers".
You cannot access files stored inside an app from anywhere else, either a PC or another app, unless the app explicitly makes them available by including a method to export them. Most apps don't implement this. The only exceptions to this rule are for images (which can be stored in the Pictures Library of the phone, much like the built-in camera app or screenshot functions) and OEM apps, which can have extra permissions (Capabilities, such as ID_CAP_PUBLIC_FOLDER_FULL) that aren't allowed for third-party developers. However, for development apps (that is, ones which were sideloaded to your phone from an unsigned XAP file), you can access their Isolated Storage from your PC using the aptly-named Isolated Storage Explorer Tool (or any other program that implements the required APIs, such as Windows Phone Power Tools).
To upload a PDF to the phone, you can do any number of things. Over USB, copy it to the Documents folder on the phone using any MTP software (Windows Explorer works). Over Bluetooth, just send the file directly. Over email, just attach the PDF. Over the Internet, you can use SkyDrive, or any other "cloud" app, or if it's on a web server you can get it from the phone's browser...
I'm not aware of any work-around for the minimum-memory restriction on some apps. I believe it mostly only applies to large games? In any case, you have one of the lowest-end WP8 devices on the market; there are limits which come with that.
The official way to tell if your phone is dev-unlocked is to use the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool, the same one you use to do the dev-unlock in the first place. A paid developer account always gives a limit of 10 apps (the free one is 2 apps). There's no official way to tell how many apps you have remaining, but it's simple enough to tell if you have any space left; just try sideloading any app that isn't already installed!

GoodDayToDie said:
GDR = General Distribution Release (a brief web search would have told you this).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I did some sort of search on forums and Google and I haven't found anything.
GoodDayToDie said:
You cannot access files stored inside an app from anywhere else, either a PC or another app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After unlock it is still unaccessible? I had to jailbreak my iPad because without jb it is not easy to operate. I thought about something like this for Lumia. I think it is only the need of time for others to omit this problem
Disney offered lastly a promotion for its games. I was interested with some of them, but only one was accessible for my device. xap file needed only 70 mb of space. I think there was a problem with performance, but if I want see a laggy game I should have the ability to install it despite everything.

There's no jailbreak available for Lumia phones yet. Something like that should, indeed, allow accessing the storage of the apps (and everything else) but we don't have one...
The size of the XAP has very little to do with the runtime requirements of the app (RAM and CPU). I have written apps of only a few kilobytes that required over 10 gigs of RAM to run (not a phone app, obviously). To avoid people with low-end phones getting annoying with the platform and thinking it's the fault of either Microsoft or the app developer when an app crashes from running out of RAM, they've prohibited installing high-RAM apps on low-RAM devices.

You mean T-Mobile's Lumia 521 right? There's no other ROM you can flash to it that might have the update.

Accessing features in Windows phone 8(.1) development

When developing an application for desktop windows, there's always a way to access functionality - sometimes through back doors like the registry, etc... I'm developing an application for Windows Phone 8.1, but there are certain pieces of functionality that aren't exposed in the PRT APIset that is available to me. For example, we want to ensure that the user has password protection on the lock screen when using the application. There doesn't seem to be any associated APIs to readily use. So my question is, are there back door ways to do such things? How? Is there a way to access ALL system settings - like a registry or something of the like?

proch said:
When developing an application for desktop windows, there's always a way to access functionality - sometimes through back doors like the registry, etc... I'm developing an application for Windows Phone 8.1, but there are certain pieces of functionality that aren't exposed in the PRT APIset that is available to me. For example, we want to ensure that the user has password protection on the lock screen when using the application. There doesn't seem to be any associated APIs to readily use. So my question is, are there back door ways to do such things? How? Is there a way to access ALL system settings - like a registry or something of the like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another question would be - if something like intune can enforce lock screen password policies, shouldn't I be able to do it the same way that intune does it? If so, how? If not - why not?

It's not possible to check if user enabled lock screen password or not as far as I know
but if you want to made your app secure (because it may include important data)
you can create a password for your own application !
I did it in a little notepad app my password page allow user to set a password with all English and Persian Characters , numbers and special Chars like [email protected]#$ and etc.

Sent from my RM-994_eu_poland_1183 using Tapatalk

It's pretty easy to check, using the registry, but at least in 8.0 that's not allowed at all for store apps (your app would get rejected). I don't know if the rules changed for 8.1. There are ways to sneak past the store checks, but they could pull your app from the store if they ever found out. I know of at least three ways to access the registry APIs (4 in WP8.1) and two of them are pretty hard to detect unless somebody checks for them specifically... but they're the kind of technique that malware uses, so such checks may be in place.
I don't know what InTune is doing, specifically - I'd need to pull the app apart to see - but there are special application capabilities (not normally available to third-party developers) that can query and even set policies. Apps without those capabilities will get Access Denied if they try to use the same methods though, and normally you can't add those capabilities to your app.

GoodDayToDie said:
It's pretty easy to check, using the registry, but at least in 8.0 that's not allowed at all for store apps (your app would get rejected). I don't know if the rules changed for 8.1. There are ways to sneak past the store checks, but they could pull your app from the store if they ever found out. I know of at least three ways to access the registry APIs (4 in WP8.1) and two of them are pretty hard to detect unless somebody checks for them specifically... but they're the kind of technique that malware uses, so such checks may be in place.
I don't know what InTune is doing, specifically - I'd need to pull the app apart to see - but there are special application capabilities (not normally available to third-party developers) that can query and even set policies. Apps without those capabilities will get Access Denied if they try to use the same methods though, and normally you can't add those capabilities to your app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this great and detailed information. See, that's exactly what I'd do if I were developing a desktop app - since i know that intune does it, I'd figure out how intune does it and voila. I'm finally getting over the idea that the same methodologies apply to windows phone development.
For my own educational purposes (since I want to understand this platform better), I would really like to know specifically how you go about accessing the registry APIs (for example). If there's any way for you to describe any number of these methods, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again!

My NativeAccess libraries (check my signature, or search on the forum or on Codeplex) contain an example of one way to access the registry. The code is open-source; you may use the libraries as-is (don't expect to get them into the store, though I won't stop you from trying), use the source code as a reference, or modify/build them yourself; the license is very liberal (MS Permissive). The functions I use are generally documented on MSDN, in the desktop APIs section; the phone has the same functions, although the DLL names are changed and the header files hide them.

Windows phone security- is there one and if so, how does it work?

Hi,
So, Android has a permission system which albeit somewhat flawed (malware can gain permissions not intended for it) and not very suitable for laymen (non rooted phones have to either accept all permissions or be denied from the app. In many programs people don't have the luxury of not using them) theoretically has merit. IOS has...well actually I'm not sure how it works security wise but I pressume it creates sandboxes for each app, layman wise it is reasonable since you (theoretically) can deny access for all programs to certain components (no need to jailbreak).
How does WP works?
Thank you.

Security is different, apps can't do as much as on android. But iOS is better in this, because capabilities are like in Android: you can see what the apps want prior to installing them, but blocking some of them isn't possible.

I am very saddened to hear this.
Is there an ability in place similar to Androids rooting?
Also, what do you mean by "apps can't do as much as on android"?
Thank you!

@th0mas96's post is technically *mostly* accurate but very confusing and doesn't actually answer your question at all.
The short version is that WP apps use a capability-and-sandbox system much like iOS and Android, with each app getting a sandbox that gives it read-only access to the app-specific install directory and the global system directory, read/write access to the app-specific data directory, and access to whatever other stuff is specified in the capabilities. Capabilities are currently all-or-nothing; you can't reject or disable any capability except by just not installing the app.
I could go into the technical implementation of the system a bit, but the short version is that WP8 apps use fairly standard NT (as in the NT kernel that is at the core of PC Windows versions) security features: each app has a unique token (rather than inheriting the token of the process that crated it, the way it normally works on PC but very much like how Windows Store apps work on Win8) which contains the app-specific Security IDentifier (SID) that gives access to the app directories, plus the SIDs of the various capabilities that the app has.
What @th0mas96 was talking about is that WP capabilities usable by third-party developers are much more restrictive than they are on Android. For example, Android allows an app have full read-write access to your contacts or to send SMS directly. WP8 doesn't allow that unless you use capabilities that are normally neither allowed on the store nor allowed in sideloaded apps (Microsoft's code can have them, of course - that's how the built-in SMS app works - but not Joe Random Dev). The downside of this is obvious; some app behaviors (like a full replacement for the SMS app or phone dialer) are not possible. The upside is that apps are *way* more limited in how malicious they can be; the most common way that Android malware makes money (remember, the vast majority of malware is for profit) is by sending SMS to "premium" numbers. On WP8, an app could *compose* such a message, but it couldn't *send* it for you (unless it had a capability that third-party apps normally can't have) so you'd have a chance to see what the app was doing and decide not to send that message after all.
This means that the ability to disable capabilities is much less important on WP8 than on Android.

Oh, then those restrictions are actually good news.
Aside from from your typical run-of-the-mill malware my main concern was actually privacy. I have a huge displeasure from apps like Whatsapp which on android takes a whole plethora of liberties and was hoping that perhaps some other system may contain their user data voracity and their ability to control the divice their on.
Is there any link in which I could see the full list of those restrictions?
I'm still downhearted from not having a more fine grained control of the system but maybe it still has it uses in some scenarios...
Also, thank you very much for your comprehensive explanation!

i found a tiny file stored inside some of the unbranded htc accord RUUs. its call disablewriteprotect.test. the only thing the file contains is a sentence stating write protection will be disabled until this file is removed. followed by a music note and some other symbol. so there you go thats how you make your entire htc 8x read and write. one file less than 1kb in size. ROOT!
but how can we flash this file. im still working on it. this file is located within the efi partition which also houses the ffuloader.efi, and severl other efi executables. check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53687985#post53687985
you wont find that on google search.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app

Window phone Security Issues
Your Windows Phone is secure by design. Many security features are turned on by default. For example, apps you download from the Windows Phone Store are tested by Microsoft and encrypted to make sure you don't accidentally install malicious software on your Windows phone.
Set a password
Setting up Kid's Corner
If you've ever handed your smartphone to a child, you know that they can quickly get into all sorts of apps and settings they shouldn't. No such worries with Kid's Corner, a place on your phone where your child can play with the games, apps, music and videos
Use the free Find My Phone service
Say yes to updates . check out more at Master Software Solutions - Windows Phone Update

grilledcheesesandwich said:
i found a tiny file stored inside some of the unbranded htc accord RUUs. its call disablewriteprotect.test. the only thing the file contains is a sentence stating write protection will be disabled until this file is removed. followed by a music note and some other symbol. so there you go thats how you make your entire htc 8x read and write. one file less than 1kb in size. ROOT!
but how can we flash this file. im still working on it. this file is located within the efi partition which also houses the ffuloader.efi, and severl other efi executables. check this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53687985#post53687985
you wont find that on google search.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds interesting.
Not something I'd try )) but interesting.
Aman Raien said:
Your Windows Phone is secure by design. Many security features are turned on by default. For example, apps you download from the Windows Phone Store are tested by Microsoft and encrypted to make sure you don't accidentally install malicious software on your Windows phone.
Set a password
Setting up Kid's Corner
If you've ever handed your smartphone to a child, you know that they can quickly get into all sorts of apps and settings they shouldn't. No such worries with Kid's Corner, a place on your phone where your child can play with the games, apps, music and videos
Use the free Find My Phone service
Say yes to updates . check out more at Master Software Solutions - Windows Phone Update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pressume this is an advert for Master Software Solutions, but nevertheless I did google the term you suggested and got nil results. I also browsed the main site of the company itself but haven't found anything related, nor did I find anything on their facebook page.
Regardless, I checked out this Kids corner thing, it's cute but not really security related...
Thx anyway.