About The Homebrew NoDo Update

If you’ve been watching the WP7 updates you are probably well aware that Chris Walsh took an MS tool designed to fix a bug in Samsung phones and was able to push NoDo onto any Windows Phone regardless of carrier. Microsoft warned that there could be consequences to this and Chris pulled the tool after about 25,000 people downloaded it. Well Chris has just provided some detail about it:

tl;dr: Do not use my tool to update your phone.

On Monday, I released a homebrew utility that attempted to install unreleased updates to Windows Phone devices. The tool successfully passed my own tests involving multiple update scenarios.

I was later informed by Microsoft that there were several problems with my tool and the manner in which it changes phones.

Despite the fact that all outward signs indicate the phone has been updated to build 7390, Microsoft tells me otherwise. Part of the problem, the company says, is that I incorrectly used an undocumented API to deliver updates.

Most problematic, Microsoft tells me that updating in this manner will place devices in a "non-serviceable state". In its blog post describing the situation, Microsoft instead says devices updated in this manner "may" no longer receive updates

Because the tool is, in Microsoft”s words, "breaking phones", I have taken it offline at their request.

While the number of users impacted by this utility is small, I would at least like to communicate that I”m sorry if this tool causes any issues down the road. In a follow-up post, I’ll detail what your next steps should be as official support isn’t an option at this time.

What does this all mean? Well not much actually. There’ still noting from Microsoft actually confirming that this ‘does’ break phones. Of course, it would be imprudent with what we know to use the tool now but I’m not prepared to run around and panic if you used his tool. Let’s recall that when the original Chevron tool was released Microsoft stated “Attempting to unlock a device could void the warranty, disable phone functionality, interrupt access to Windows Phone 7 services or render the phone permanently unusable.”

Obviously we all take risks when we modify our phones outside of the packages that are intended for it but if I were betting on this, I’d guess that the tool works fine, phones will update as expected and Microsoft is just trying to not be embarrassed that NoDo works fine on AT&T phones even though we’re still not getting an official push.

And Chris is still a legend for what he’ pulled off…