I know that I possibly shouldn’t say this, but I downloaded the hacked WP7 emulator image and started using that while developing. Why? Well, I wanted to try out some of the OS integration that wouldn’t be possible with the regular emulator. So I did it…I admit it…
And it is kind of cool to be able to see more of the phone functionality in the emulator…even if I don’t have a touch screen. And to be honest, the interface gets a little clunky compared to the real thing with a touch interface when using a mouse…
But do remember that it is NOT the original image. So even if it looks as though it is just an unlocked version of the original image, it is actually a bit different. I haven’t found a lot of things that are different, but push notifications are unfortunately farked on the hacked version. It doesn’t throw an exception or anything. It just swallows the request for a new channel Uri.
I’m not sure if it is only me, or if it is like this for everyone running the hacked version, but it can be a thing to keep in mind if things aren’t working as they should…
Having that said, I probably should also mention that my computer has issues loading up the original emulator as well. It is VERY slow to start. Or rather, it starts quickly, but it takes ages for VS to deploy to it the first time. I think it might be due to some hardware issues on my machine or something, because I am not seeing the same issue on my office computer.
So I assume that this could possibly have an effect on the hacked emulator…but I haven’t been able to confirm this as I am not using the hacked version at the office…