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I am a hardcore Google user. I have an android phone and tablet and lots of google stuff online. My phone is getting old, and I was thinking of trying out something new.
Couple questions:
1. Whats the equivalent of "rooting" on wp8, if any?
2. How would you go about "rooting" your phone.
3. Are there any recommend phones for general use+development?
Julian90090 said:
I am a hardcore Google user. I have an android phone and tablet and lots of google stuff online. My phone is getting old, and I was thinking of trying out something new.
Couple questions:
1. Whats the equivalent of "rooting" on wp8, if any?
2. How would you go about "rooting" your phone.
3. Are there any recommend phones for general use+development?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. There is no equivalent of rooting at this time, as Windows Phone is much more locked down than Android (comparable to iOS) and there aren't as many devs working on it
2. Nothing yet, but its very easy to developer unlock it to side load custom made apps
3. You are probably best off getting a Nokia, either a cheap (~$100) Lumia 520 or a higher end like the Lumia 920/925/928 (I'd go with the 1020 if you can afford it). Windows Phone is very efficient, and runs almost as well on lower end hardware like the 520 as it does on higher end.
If you are really a hardcore Google user you are likely to find Windows Phone lacking as Google is intentionally keeping their programs and services off the platform (at least first party, nearly everything can be accessed through third party apps).
I made the switch, and I love it, but Windows Phone is not for people that want to constantly tweak everything because it is locked down. I used to love to tinker, now I love that I can't.
Yeah... WP7 was eventually broken wide open, but WP8's lockdown has been harder to bypass. There's a few devices (Huawei W1?) for which people have reported being able to edit the stock ROM somewhat, which is probably usable for "rooting" the phone, but none of the high-end devices have a known working exploit yet.
Developer-unlock, which will allow sideloading low-permission (no special capabilities, just the standard public ones) apps, is available for free, but you have to use PC tools to do it. Get the WP8 SDK from Microsoft (free, but a big download) and run the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool. Unless you pay for a developer account, there will be a very low limit on the number of apps you can sideload.
I'm actually personally pretty happy with the Samsung ATIV S phones; they have the best hardware in many ways (biggest battery, biggest and nearly highest-resolution displays, biggest internal storage that also has an SD card slot, best currently-available-in-WP8 CPUs) and you can install many of the Nokia apps anyhow (you can also install the Samsung apps on Nokia phones, same for HTC, etc.) using a proxy to modify the store requests. However, for a budget phone, the Nokia Lumia 52x line is hard to beat, and for camera quality, the Lumia 1020 is the best smartphone available, bar none.
There's plenty to do if you like to tinker with the phone... the problem is, you have to find it all yourself. There's not that much, aside from things like using a proxy to get apps intended for different OEMs' phones, that we've found to work so far. I've written a neat app that lets you browse the visible parts of the WP8 file system and registry from your PC (see my signature, it's the webserver app) which I hope will help people find something exploitable to get full Admin privileges on the phone, but so far, that hasn't happened. There's lots of other potential exploit vectors too; people just need to find them and make them usable!
Like GoodDayToDie said, it's NOT rootable. End of story.
As an experience goes, though, I switched iOS -> Android earlier this year because I was firmly in camp Google. I seemed to have problems that most other users did not, but all in all it was a miserable experience. After about 4mo switched to WP8.
For reference, on the phone; I use Google Maps, Google Voice, GMail, Contacts, Calendar, and search.
Contacts, Calendar, and mail all sync smoothly with built-in stuff. Search is an app, and it can't take Bing's place on the search button.
There's not an official Google Maps app, but there are apps in the Store that offer it. After about 6w now, I'm mostly using Nokia's Here stuff for mapping though.
Google Voice is available as a third party app. I was using Metrotalk. It was better than GV on iOS but inferior to GV on Android.
For what it's worth.
Except, you know, the part where it's nothing at all like a desktop OS.
No support for arbitrary applications or running as Admin. No file browser or registry editor. No command prompt or built-in scripting engine. No third-party background services (officially, at least; unofficially it's possible if you can work with the low permissions) or multiple windows at once. No task manager or management console. No device manager or third-party drivers. No user installer or recovery tools. No way to uninstall updates or make disk backups. No way to pass a file directly to another application (it must go through a registered extension handler, which the other app must be selected as the handler for). No multi-user support. None of the standard Windows power management tools. No OpenGL support, or ability to manually update the drivers. No support for external mice (or really for any mice, properly speaking). No support for USB host mode (that I can see, at least not in the base OS). No support for Windows networking or VPNs. No (built-in) support for remote desktop. No printing. The included version of Office is very limited compared to the full thing. No way to change the default web browser, email client, or several other such things. No support for installing new system media codecs or fonts. No way to choose what store a certificate is saved into, to export a saved cert, or to delete a saved cert.Browser has a limit of six tabs, no Flashplayer, and no Tracking Protection [Lists] feature.
Windows Phone 8 has about as much to do with Windows 8 as Android has to do with Ubuntu. In fact, it has significantly less, from the user's perspective.
some Noob's experience with WP8/ Nokia 928
Some other problemsthat i have stumbled on while trying WP8 for past 2 days, Nokia 928.
1. Ringtones and txt messages are changeable but notifications sounds for other programs are not (i.e. metrotalk - client)
2. Using public wifi that requires a comfirmatory click on their acceptable use page - Broken - works first time for me, then every time after it constantly loads up "w w w.msftncsi.com/nsci.txt" and the phone is constantly asking if I want to continue connecting to that wifi hotspot - Annoying.
3. Internet explorer is the builtin browser ( with some 3rd party UC browser, Surfcube 3D browser) but NO chrome nor firefox, - some pages load weird, especially if you choose desktop mode.
Images that appears in the browser search in IE 10 or UC browser, using bing or google comes back blurry, until you choose to open that one pic in full size image , but then you can't scroll through the result of images until you go back, at which time the images will sometimes not load, mind you this is on wifi.
4. No native Google voice apps - Metrotalk is good but you have to go through some hoops to setup push notification (ie having the app be able to notify you of txt and voicemail without actually having that app open), and you can't change the notification sound of Metrotalk as stated above
5. No file browsers
As I said, this is my experience with the phone and WP8 for the last 2 days, YMMV
I'm considering a move from another OS to a Lumia 925, I won't say which one because I tend to find that people have preconceived notions of what iPhone and Android people are looking for and whether they'll be able to deal with the way Windows does it.
Just some questions...
1. I'm entirely in the Windows world for productivity (Word, Excel, Outlook, SkyDrive) so I imagine that will be seamless on a Windows Phone? I mean, is there anything that is actually not doable when operating documents, spreadsheets, etc? I just want to make sure it's not like with Google Drive/QuickOffice where you technically CAN open and work on docs but there are always formatting issues and tiny bugs that crop up from time to time.
2. How does file management work? I'm referring to copying files, music, pictures to and from the phone.
3. Can one save email attachments, attach anything one wants to an email, open any kind of file (pdf, office, images, audio, video, etc)
4. Can I use my own music files and set them as ringtones and notifications?
5. Will the email app allow for an IMAP account from my own email server and let me see all of its folder and subfolder structure?
6. If my wife and I both have Windows Phones and I assume we each will have our own accounts on our phones, how can we each connect to our PC at home? Will it mean having to have two different profiles of Windows on the tower?
7. Is there a way to know which phones will get the 8.1 update? I want to make sure the Lumia 925 gets it.
If anyone can help with these things, I'd really appreciate it. Unfortunately, mobile phone customer service reps in stores simply don't know these things well enough to give any kind of help and these are the kinds of things that really matter to me, not how many apps there are in the market or whether a phone's camera has a certain number of megapixels.
Thanks!
Here are some answers to the questions you have.
1. The Office suite on WP8 is obviously a stripped-down version compared to the desktop counterparts. However as long as you don't use anything advanced you should be fine. On the phone you will have Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote available. OneNote is especially useful on a phone.
2. It's different. Once you connect the phone to the PC you will find the following pre-defined folders:
- Documents - for Word, Excel, Powerpoint files
- Music - for.. well, music
- Pictures
- Ringtones - for ringtones and notification sounds
- Videos
There is no file manager on the phone itself, however there are apps, which handle files from each of these folders, through which you can rearrange or delete these file types. The system has an API (thus some apps developed as well) for handling new file types like zip, rar, ebook types, etc., which can be registered. You may attempt to open any file type you just downloaded, if an app on your phone is registered to it, it will open the file using it.
Copying the files into the folders I just listed is as straightforward as copying any file using your favorite Windows file manager.
3. Saving email attachments isn't supported out of the box - however you can open them if an app is registered for that file type, and if the app supports saving the file, then you may do that there too (this will save the file to the app's work folder). Once you're in the email app you can only attach photos, but I'm pretty sure you can attach other file types using their own apps and the share button (if any).
4. The short answer is yes. I haven't actually tried this, but I know music ringtones are supported and custom notification sounds are/will be supported with GDR3 (which is an update you can already download if you're a developer or will be getting soon through OTA updates). The way to actually do it is by copying the files to the Ringtones folder, but I think there are some apps, which automate this process (I'm not sure).
5. I'm currently using 2 google IMAP email accounts. I'm pretty sure you should be fine here.
6. Yes, you will have different accounts on the phones, but you don't HAVE to have different ones. I never actually tried sharing accounts, but I know logging in from the same account on several phones is possible, this way you'll get synced contact list, app list, you'll only need to purchase an app once for both of you, and some other benefits. No, you won't necessarily need two different accounts for it on the PC. I use the same account on my phone and on my home (and work) PCs (running Windows 8 and 8.1) and I haven't really seen much syncing between the phone and the computer other than the contact list and account list (email accounts, facebook, twitter, linkedin, microsoft accounts).
7. We're in the same ballpark here, I'm currently enjoying my Lumia 925, I personally think it's a great phone. All of the current devices running WP8 were promised to get 8.1, however we don't really know much details about the update.
People coming from a different major OS generally experience Windows Phones differently, than people coming from feature phones. Android users usually miss the Notification Center and Multitasking, which works differently here (the Live Tiles are your notification center and multitasking works by different rules), and iOS users might miss Siri? Actually I have no idea, since I've never actually owned one.
The sheer number of apps in the store is considerably lower, however there are hardly any apps, which don't have a counterpart in the WP8 store, some are even better than the originals on Android/iOS.
I wish you the best and I hope I helped. Choose wisely
That's a great overall description! A few more comments:
1) The phone should be able to *open* any Office document just fine, but you won't have anything close to the full Office suite's power to make changes; it's mostly basic edits only. For example, you can add or delete slides to a Powerpoint deck, and edit their text, but I don't think you can create or edit custom themes.
2) Documents, music, and pictures are no problem. The phone connects via Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), same as most modern Android phones do; all major OSes can access it, but it is *not* the same as USB Mass Storage. You can't just use it as a USB drive. Additionally, this kind of access only works for the built-in "Libraries" (in the Windows "My Documents", "My Music", etc. sense) on the phone; if you, for example, use a third-party app to handle a file type, that won't show up. One example is ebooks; you can open ebook files on the phone if you download them from the web or open them from attachments, but you can't just copy a bunch of .MOBI files into (or out of) the Kindle folder, for example. Note that this assumes no special hacks; we've been able to get full filesystem access on Samsung phones (such as the ATIV S, which I have).
3) Generally, opening any kind of attachment is possible. If the phone doesn't have an app to do it yet, it will offer to search the Store for compatible apps. If it has multiple compatible apps, it will ask which one to use. However, where attachments get saved is up to the app. The built-in Office programs and image viewer can save to the system libraries. Not so sure about videos or music, although they will open using the built-in apps (for recognized formats, at least).
4) Yes, using your own music works fine. Copy the clips to the Ringtones "folder" over USB, or use one of the many apps (they can do things like trim the file for you, too). Some notification types require GDR3, which your phone may or may no come with but which you can upgrade to easily.
5) IMAP works great. Switching folders is a *bit* more annoying than I'd like - three taps - but it works, and you can control which ones automatically sync to the phone. I use a private IMAP server without any trouble.
6) You really *should* have different user profiles on the PC (for unrelated reasons), but the phone OS doesn't require it. I don't know for sure how well the "Windows Phone App" handles the situation, but I do all the stuff manually anyhow (using Windows Explorer and other tools) and that works fine with multiple phones.
7) No way to know for sure. It's pretty well guaranteed that a phone released so recently as the 925 will get the update, though, and these days Microsoft allows developers and enthusiasts to get updates without waiting for them to finish carrier testing and customization (you'll get the customizations once they're released too). T-Mobile US is pretty good about releasing updates anyhow, though, and the phone's specs are easily good enough.
If it helps, the Samsung ATIV S (SGH-T899M, not the other models) works great on T-Mobile frequencies. The only problem I've had is with the WiFi tethering (USB tethering is unofficial but works fine and is built in if you can find it; instructions are on the forum) and everything else works including LTE. Can't get the loan from TMo for it, but you can find a SIM-unlocked one online for cheaper than the 925 anyhow.
Many people asked me to be more specific on these questions on a WP forum I found so I'll paste those more specific questions here just in case someone can help further...
I'm coming from 3 years on Android after 3 years on Windows Mobile. I've rooted every phone I've ever had, principally to be able to flash a different ROM to the stock version on the phone. There are any number of features you can play with on a custom ROM but my only concern was to get rid of Touchwiz, HTC Sense, and other ROMs I hated in favour of a more pure Android experience. So, no I wasn't rooting my phone for access to millions of "hack-y" applications.
I'm concerned about burdening people with a long post but I'll try to expand on my questions.
1. Office - Aside from the obvious limitations of not being able to put an ENTIRE version of the Office programs into app form on a phone (cause you'd need a computer) do all the Office apps offer view, edit, create, email, save to phone/cloud, share to other apps.
2. Files - Basically, can I take (non-DRM) an ebook file, music, video, document, pdf, photo on and off the phone by using a USB cable and Windows File Explorer on my PC/laptop.
3. Email attach - Can I get an email with any doc, pdf, photo, image and open/save it. Can I attach any file from my phone into an email? Even if it means doing it from within the adjoining app. A PDF by sharing through a PDF viewer, a photo(s) through the WP gallery app or other camera/photo apps, an Office document through Word.
4. Ringtones - I think I got the answer I wanted but I have several ringtone mp3s I've used for years for specific people, SMS, Email, Whatsapp that I'd like to keep using by copying to the phone. Yes? No?
5. Email - I have a private email server on bluehost. I have found very often that some email clients that are too basic will let me add these accounts with IMAP but won't let me define the IMAP Path Prefix for folders and subfolders to appear correctly. If you've done this and you have slightly nerdy email organisation, you know what I'm talking about. It comes down to all the email folders appearing as they do on your Windows email programs/clients as opposed to appearing as though all those folders are floating within the phone's inbox. It looks like hell and creates a very messy email experience.
6. Accounts - This is something that comes from being an Android user that never sat well with me for various reasons. For those that don't know, the entire Android experience is based on your phone being constantly connected to one gmail account at a time which is tied to your all apps and basically all other user info on the phone. Logout, everything is gone. The question is... at home we like using Windows without having to keep two different profiles/accounts/etc. except for in Outlook. Android doesn't really play well directly with the Windows productivity world (one of the reasons we don't want Android anymore). But now that Office and other elements of Skydrive will sync for us beautifully, we want the link to be easy as possible. So, to that end, does Windows Phone have the same concept of signing into your phone to operate it and how does that affect BOTH of us having instant access to all of Windows on our PC and Laptop? Will we each have to sign in to Word when we're sitting here? Will only the profile logged into in Windows see their files? Will we be constantly logging into and out of Windows? If I'm logged in will my wife not see her files? Hope that makes it clear?
Additional things...
- I'm going to the Lumia 925 from the Galaxy S3. I was on a Google AOSP ROM so there is nothing TouchWiz that I'll be missing. I don't even know what was on there to be honest. It was flashed pretty quickly. Anyway, if there are any opinions about the 925, limitations, problems.
- Most important, crucial must-haves for us on a phone are: strong camera quality, photo apps, phone call quality, good maps app, email and web browsing. Pretty much nothing else.
- My use is about 95% camera, ebook reading, web browsing, Twitter, light gaming, Whatsapp, SMS, note taking, recipe saving and working on documents. I never use mobile phones for any kind of music or video playing. I don't watch video on anything smaller than a TV, and I only listen to music on a dedicated audio media player that plays specific file formats.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you do. I appreciate it.
Nevermind.. mistake post
tinpanalley said:
1. Office - Aside from the obvious limitations of not being able to put an ENTIRE version of the Office programs into app form on a phone (cause you'd need a computer) do all the Office apps offer view, edit, create, email, save to phone/cloud, share to other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can. Currently I could use the Share feature for email or bluetooth, but I suppose it's possible for other apps to show up there if installed.
tinpanalley said:
2. Files - Basically, can I take (non-DRM) an ebook file, music, video, document, pdf, photo on and off the phone by using a USB cable and Windows File Explorer on my PC/laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer is: no, yes, yes, yes, yes(only through the office application if placed in the documents folder), yes; but remember, these answers are for STRICTLY using the Windows File Exporer.
The easiest ways to handle file transfer for ANY file type is either SkyDrive or downloading the file from the internet(for example: through a web-browser using an ftp server over local Wi-Fi). Pocket File Manager is a great app for downloading stuff (and opening) from anywhere including ftp, SkyDrive, GDrive, Dropbox, etc.
tinpanalley said:
3. Email attach - Can I get an email with any doc, pdf, photo, image and open/save it. Can I attach any file from my phone into an email? Even if it means doing it from within the adjoining app. A PDF by sharing through a PDF viewer, a photo(s) through the WP gallery app or other camera/photo apps, an Office document through Word.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can attach anything if you have a handler app for the specific file type, which supports sharing through email (like the Office app for office documents).
tinpanalley said:
4. Ringtones - I think I got the answer I wanted but I have several ringtone mp3s I've used for years for specific people, SMS, Email, Whatsapp that I'd like to keep using by copying to the phone. Yes? No?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have the option to select ringtones and SMS sounds for individuals using the People hub. I haven't used Whatsapp, so I can't help you there.
tinpanalley said:
6. Accounts - This is something that comes from being an Android user that never sat well with me for various reasons. For those that don't know, the entire Android experience is based on your phone being constantly connected to one gmail account at a time which is tied to your all apps and basically all other user info on the phone. Logout, everything is gone. The question is... at home we like using Windows without having to keep two different profiles/accounts/etc. except for in Outlook. Android doesn't really play well directly with the Windows productivity world (one of the reasons we don't want Android anymore). But now that Office and other elements of SkyDrive will sync for us beautifully, we want the link to be easy as possible. So, to that end, does Windows Phone have the same concept of signing into your phone to operate it and how does that affect BOTH of us having instant access to all of Windows on our PC and Laptop? Will we each have to sign in to Word when we're sitting here? Will only the profile logged into in Windows see their files? Will we be constantly logging into and out of Windows? If I'm logged in will my wife not see her files? Hope that makes it clear?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the limitation here is the computer/laptop. I just read up on having multiple SkyDrive accounts and it seems it's not officially possible without logging in/out for each switch. HOWEVER you can actually choose which SkyDrive account you want to log in to from the phone(using the official SkyDrive app or the Pocket File Manager app, or others), it doesn't necessarily have to be the same as your phone's microsoft account.
The Lumia 925 is an awesome phone, has great camera quality, has included navigation with offline maps, has lens apps(for photo modifications), has photo post-processing apps in the store, it has 4G LTE for quite a few networks. Overall, I love this phone and I hope you'll love it just as much
GoodDayToDie said:
You can open ebook files on the phone if you download them from the web or open them from attachments, but you can't just copy a bunch of .MOBI files into (or out of) the Kindle folder, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is there not an ebook app that will read any .mobi or .epub files you place on the phone somehow? There's really no way to do this at all?
Not without hacks, no. I use Bluetooth to transfer them, rather than USB; the phone accepts files via BT and opens the appropriate app to handle them, and there are several apps that can do that handling. However, while the apps can save the files to their local folders, those files can't be subsequently accessed either from the PC or from other apps.
The exception to this limitation is SD cards. Apps can open files on SD cards if those files are of the same extension that the app registered for (such as .MOBI, .PRC, .EPUB). You can also load up the phone's SD card over USB from the PC. Of course, if your phone doesn't *have* an SD card, that's not much use.
GoodDayToDie said:
Not without hacks, no. I use Bluetooth to transfer them, rather than USB; the phone accepts files via BT and opens the appropriate app to handle them, and there are several apps that can do that handling. However, while the apps can save the files to their local folders, those files can't be subsequently accessed either from the PC or from other apps.
The exception to this limitation is SD cards. Apps can open files on SD cards if those files are of the same extension that the app registered for (such as .MOBI, .PRC, .EPUB). You can also load up the phone's SD card over USB from the PC. Of course, if your phone doesn't *have* an SD card, that's not much use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So strange, I just read about 2 apps that can read epub and mobi files off SkyDrive and Dropbox and without the need to use sd cards. Freda and Raccoon Reader.
That's not on the phone in any way, shape, or form. Of course any app that wants to (assuming the ubiquitously declared ID_CAP_NETWORKING) can open a TCP socket to dropbox.com and send some HTTP traffic over it and download files. That has nothing to do with the OS capabilities, though. The question was about "files you place on the phone somehow" and my butt doesn't count.
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
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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.
Hello - I am doing a pen test for a customer. They are not giving me the xap files like they did last time. Is there a way to pull the xap file off the phone and on to your PC? I have a dev unlocked phone which I can sideload apps using power tools. I have done some research and it doesn't sound like this option is available, but I wanted to ask.
Thanks in advance.
First of all, the phone doesn't store the XAP files (PLEASE search before posting! This question gets asked a lot). I assume all you really care about is the app binaries and manifest file, though. (You can rebuild an installable XAP from these if needed.)
There's a complicated series of hacks for doing it on 8.1 via the ability to install apps to the SD card. If you don't have 8.1, don't have an SD card, can't install the relevant versions of specific apps, or if the app is marked to not allow installation to SD, then that method won't work for you.
The other approach, which in my experience is standard in the pentesting world (which is my field as well), is to use a hacked/jailbroken/unlocked phone. Samsung (unless it has the very newest firmware versions) and Huawei phones can be unlocked by flashing modified ROMs. The unlock lets you sideload apps with vastly more privileges, such as the ability to read and write the install directory of any app. Using that, it's pretty easy to get the files you want. Such unlocks are also possible with some Nokia phones via JTAG, and possibly some other models too, but the Samsung unlock (which I and -W_O_L_F- found) and the ability to flash customized ROMs for Huawei are the easiest approaches.
On the offhand chance you're part of NCC group, PM me and I'll send you my work email address. If you're with one of our competitors... well, I actually don't mind helping a competitor that much either; some Deja Vu folks gave me a good tip lately though, and I've got friends at SI as well.
GoodDayToDie said:
First of all, the phone doesn't store the XAP files (PLEASE search before posting! This question gets asked a lot). I assume all you really care about is the app binaries and manifest file, though. (You can rebuild an installable XAP from these if needed.)
There's a complicated series of hacks for doing it on 8.1 via the ability to install apps to the SD card. If you don't have 8.1, don't have an SD card, can't install the relevant versions of specific apps, or if the app is marked to not allow installation to SD, then that method won't work for you.
The other approach, which in my experience is standard in the pentesting world (which is my field as well), is to use a hacked/jailbroken/unlocked phone. Samsung (unless it has the very newest firmware versions) and Huawei phones can be unlocked by flashing modified ROMs. The unlock lets you sideload apps with vastly more privileges, such as the ability to read and write the install directory of any app. Using that, it's pretty easy to get the files you want. Such unlocks are also possible with some Nokia phones via JTAG, and possibly some other models too, but the Samsung unlock (which I and -W_O_L_F- found) and the ability to flash customized ROMs for Huawei are the easiest approaches.
On the offhand chance you're part of NCC group, PM me and I'll send you my work email address. If you're with one of our competitors... well, I actually don't mind helping a competitor that much either; some Deja Vu folks gave me a good tip lately though, and I've got friends at SI as well.
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Thanks again for all your help. So my situation is this: I am doing pen testing for a client (and I'm sure we are competitors some what). The have provided me a Nokia Lumia phone running 8.0 and another Lumia running 8.1. The app is installed by their dev team (app is not avail from the store). They are reluctant to provide my the XAP file as they consider it proprietary info. I have done a dev unlock on the phone, but my primary goal is to view the isolated storage/dlls for the app to make sure they are not storing sensitive data. I am using the standard tools for viewing the isolated storage, but for these to work (best of my knowledge) they require you to sideload the application which I cannot due (not XAP file). I am proxying the traffic, but without looking at the file system there is not much I can do. As an aside, they are using MDM with jailbreak detection.
Whoa, somebody actually got around to writing jailbreak detection for WP8? Crazy. I wish I could see that; I'm sure it's trivial to bypass (at least for interop-unlock, the difference between locked and unlocked is changing a registry value and it would be easily possible to re-lock it, launch the app while keeping the editor app open in the background, switch back to the editor, and unlock/jailbreak again) but I'm amused that anybody even bothered trying. Also, the APIs you would need to do the detection aren't even available on 8.0, officially; you're in violation of the store rules if you use them. Then again, maybe this is an internal, "Enterprise" app; those have permissions to do stuff that typical third-party apps do not. Are you sure they don't just mean they have jailbreak detection for iOS? I see something about Office365 MDM offering JB detection, but while I suppose they could have written something for WP8.x as well I feel like I probably would have heard of it?
If the app was sideloaded by the dev team, then you can see its isostore using the official tools or using Windows Phone Power Tools. If it's an enterprise app and the app was installed that way, then things get more difficult (especially if the phone they gave you doesn't have an SD slot). Not giving a pentester access to the binary they're testing is silly on a number of levels; if you succeed in breaking in then you'll get it anyhow, and an attacker will have a lot more than a week or two to poke at it so they're wasting your presumably-paid-by-the-hour time if they want you to see how good their security is without actually examining the app. I bet they used obfuscation, too... Some people just don't get it. "Security" by obscurity... isn't. Sorry, end of mini-rant. Anyhow, there's a guy on the forum who claims to have a non-JTAG unlock for Lumias, but no idea when or if it'll see the light of day.
I know the Store has shut down since last 2 months and most of the Microsoft services for Windows Phone are already dead or cut off. We all know that we can no longer download and install apps in the Store and now we depend on cracked and/or deployable XAP files and APPX/Bundle files on the Internet. But can we share our "surviving" installed marketplace apps thru one app? Like maybe making an ALTERNATE store for WP...
Well, Microsoft would (maybe) not care if we do this since Windows Phone is dead so why not give it a try? Sharing our installed apps (by extracting it from their Installation Folder and zipping it/recompile it) to others would help a lot, especially for users who don't have time to bother buying a new non-Windows smartphone.
Also can someone make or share a "Tap the tile to lock phone screen" app? I desperately need one because my power button is broken.
I would share my installed software if I would know how to retrieve them.
Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE @ WindowsPhone 8.1
djinni111 said:
I would share my installed software if I would know how to retrieve them.
Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE @ WindowsPhone 8.1
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You can (for XAP files) using this method from this YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buWOsHd6jdg
The method works for SD card apps.
For Internal, boot phone into Mass Storage Mode (you need to root your phone using WPI). Then, in your PC, go to MainOS > Data > PROGRAMS. Copy either everything or a specific app (via GUID), and do as what the video also show how.
For APPX or APPXBundle apps, go to WINDOWSAPPS folder whilst in PROGRAMS (internal) or WPSystem\Apps (SD) directory. Then, copy the app files.
For APPX, those without any similar names of the app.
For APPXBundle, those with similar names of the app plus the cpu architectures "arm", and "neutral" (there may be two more of those "neutral" ones, but join them also).
Then create (on your PC) a self-signed certificate, pack each package (for APPXBundle, pack them app but put into a seperate folder so that they wont join in the others), sign them one by one, (for APPXBundle, pack them into a bundle, and sign them (again? idk)), and your done.
To check if they're deployable, i recommend deploying them one by one on an emulator or on a separate device. If you deploy one but fails, the tendency of the app with the same app GUID installed on your phone being uninstalled is high.
I know many people still using Wp 8.1 and still need install App for Wp, but Store closed. Waiting for help ! Can some great devoloper do that ? Sorry my bad English !
CreativeGamer03 said:
I know the Store has shut down since last 2 months and most of the Microsoft services for Windows Phone are already dead or cut off. We all know that we can no longer download and install apps in the Store and now we depend on cracked and/or deployable XAP files and APPX/Bundle files on the Internet. But can we share our "surviving" installed marketplace apps thru one app? Like maybe making an ALTERNATE store for WP...
Well, Microsoft would (maybe) not care if we do this since Windows Phone is dead so why not give it a try? Sharing our installed apps (by extracting it from their Installation Folder and zipping it/recompile it) to others would help a lot, especially for users who don't have time to bother buying a new non-Windows smartphone.
Also can someone make or share a "Tap the tile to lock phone screen" app? I desperately need one because my power button is broken.
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Click to collapse
use android :good:
Did anyone try to look how far we can get in replicating the original App Store's backend? Might hit a road block sooner or later with signing etc., but I was surprised to see at least the initial communication is HTTP only:
Code:
GET /v9/catalog/storePages?typeId=DynamicHub.Main&os=8.10.15148.0&cc=DE&lang=de-DE&hw=520190980&dm=RM-984_1001&oemId=NOKIA&moId=&cf=99-1&Flight=&SEG0=%3B&SEG1=&SEG2=&SEG3=&SEG4=&SEG5=&optedOut=true HTTP/1.1
Connection: Keep-Alive
Accept: */*
Accept-Encoding: gzip
User-Agent: ZDM/4.0; Windows Mobile 8.1
X-WP-Client-Config-Version: 81001
X-WP-Device-ID: ******
MUID: *******
X-WP-StorePage-Cookie: *******
Host: cdn.marketplaceedgeservice.windowsphone.com
That request then times out after a while since it goes via akamai and probably tries to hit backend servers that no longer exist (504 Gateway Time-out).
Unfortunately I never captured the traffic while the store was still working, so the question is how to figure out what to reply to this.