WP7 Primary Live ID

So if you've got a Windows Phone 7 you will be required to create a Microsoft Live ID or use an existing one when you activate the phone. If you change your primary Live ID username (email address), your phone will be unable to do many things, like download a paid app, update apps,. Your Live account is listed under settings - Email+Accounts. You'd think that you could just change the account information like you can with your other accounts. This is not currently the case. No way to change the email address, means you cannot update the Live ID that your phone is connected to. No way to change it in the Zune software, online, or anywhere else.

The only solution is to reset your phone, which wipes all of your settings and information, that is unless you have your phone dev unlocked (I do) and can go thru the steps to update a registry entry on the phone.

I hate to be "one of those" people who is hung up on ancient technology... but my last smartphone was a Palm Pre Plus. The Palm profile saved all of my settings (except passwords) online... upgraded phones simply restore to what the profile says was there last. As if that wasn't convenient enough, there were TWO reset options on my Palm Pre... There was the option to reset and wipe, and the other was to reset and retain all user data. Duh.... that makes sense, right?

So I went from an older open system to an up-to-date modern system... but I'm still shocked by how many details have been left out.

How to change primary LiveID email without resetting WP7 (by sensboston)

On the desktop:
1) Go to http://account.live.com and sign in with your old account;
2) Change your LiveID email (use existing email or get new one from @hotmail.com);
3) Save your changes and re-login with new ID.

On the handset:
1) Using registry editor or provisioning file, change these values:

Code:

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\ActiveSync\Partners\{B2830118-7BC6-4A74-8C9A-3D8B9CEF88E0}]
"Email"=your_new_id@hotmail.com
"User"=your_new_id@hotmail.com

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\Environment\Production]
"DefaultID"=your_new_id@hotmail.com

Custom ringtones for WP7 - ChevronWP7

Before I updated to WP7.5 (mango), I tried using the ChevronWP7 custom ringtone manager to get my ringtones on the phone. This requires an unlocked phone, and when I got it to work, I was able to create a XAP package and "install" the ChevronWP7 ringtones on my phone. Clicking on the "app" would simply list the 5 ringtone files that I installed, but I could never figure out how to get those files to show up in my ringtone list.

Microsoft's WP deployment tool worked, the XAP creator worked, and the app installed, but no ringtones. I've seen no answer to why this may be. Since 7.5 mango came out we can simply roll our ringtones out to WP7.5 via the Zune software.

Custom Ringtones for WP7.5 (mango)

I upgraded to a WP7 device from a Palm Pre Plus and the device was inherently wide-open. Microsoft isn't quite that nice, unfortunately, and it gripes my ass. First thing I wanted to do was load up custom ringtones.

With WP7.5 (mango) it's simple. Ringtones must be:

1. 39 seconds or shorter
2. smaller than 1 megabyte (1MB)
3. saved in MP3 or WMA format
4. not copy-protected (i.e. DRM free)

Change the genre tag on those files to "Ringtone" and then synch them with your phone via the Zune software. The downside is that they only show up under the "Ringtone" list, which is the list of ringtones for your *phone ringer*. Nothing under the alerts for email, SMS, VM, etc. I'm still looking into making the alerts show up as well.