Windows 10 mobile end of support: faq

With the Surface Duo launching, it"s perhaps an ironic time to be pulling out a Windows Phone: it"s a platform that even its fondest fans have lớn accept is a dead phone walking, but it hasn"t yet reached the vintage of classics like Commodore or đài truyền hình bbc Micro models that warrant the techno-archaeology of being brought back to life. 

But if you come across a Windows Phone handset, can you still get it mix up? Having been given the shiny red version of the Lumia 1520 I still use regularly, I wanted khổng lồ see if I could get it working.

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The Windows Phone 8.1 Store has been turned off since December 2019, so if you have a Windows Phone that you could update to lớn Windows 10 điện thoại using the nâng cấp Advisor tiện ích but didn"t get around to lớn that in time, you can"t get it from the Store any more. (If you"re getting an 805a0190 error code on a Windows Phone, that"s why.) 

SEE: 5G smartphones: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

But if you have a phone that"s capable of running Windows 10 thiết bị di động (which includes models like the Lumia 1520 that were never officially supported, but not devices that have only 512MB of memory), there"s a little-known enterprise update tool that you can still use to bởi the update: the Over-the-cable updater. If you have a phone that"s already mix up with your account and you just want the new OS, it"s straightforward. 

If there"s a pin sạc on the phone, you need lớn turn it off before you start. If it"s an enterprise device & USB connectivity has been disabled using a policy setting or assigned access, enable USB again. If the phone was on an insider version of Windows, you"ll need khổng lồ flash it back khổng lồ a retail version using the Windows Device Recovery Tool.

If it"s a secondhand phone lượt thích mine or you don"t know the PIN, you can reset the phone lớn remove it – but you don"t need to vị a reset otherwise. 

(If you vì chưng need lớn reset, make sure it"s charged then unplug it and power it down; once it"s off, hold down the Volume Down key và plug it in (which makes it restart automatically) – keep holding down Volume Down until you see an exclamation mark on screen. Let go of the Volume Down key and then press each of these keys in order: Volume Up, Volume Down and then Power. That will restart the phone again and the spinning cogs will appear. Follow the instructions that appear for setting up the phone until you get lớn the step about signing into or creating a new Microsoft account. That won"t work, so don"t bother. Don"t bother enabling Wi-Fi or putting in a SIM at this stage, either; the phone needs lớn be in airplane mode for the update.)

Make sure the phone has at least 40% charge, and check Settings, Phone Update khổng lồ make sure there isn"t an update in progress (Windows Phone 8 devices that you reset and turn on will get a Windows Phone 8.1 update và you need lớn let that run, but put the phone into airplane mode so you don"t waste time downloading any other updates).

Plug the phone into a PC running a supported version of Windows 10 (with .Net 4.0 installed và network connectivity). When you run the OtcUpdaterZip.exe tệp tin it unzips several files, including a ReadMe with full instructions. Khổng lồ update a phone, run OTCUpdater.exe. Once it"s retrieved the necessary files – the same ones an Over The Air update using the tăng cấp Advisor would have downloaded – it sends them khổng lồ the phone and you"ll see a message telling you to unplug the device. The tăng cấp will then proceed as usual (spinning cogs on screen for a while & then a progress bar). You can bởi vì any extra thiết lập required & the phone will tải về subsequent updates over the air as usual.

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If you only have one phone khổng lồ update, or if all the phones you want to update are already plugged in, run OTCUpdater.exe /batch và the updater tool will exit automatically after updating the connected phones.

Why would you even try?

What you get after updating a Windows Phone to lớn Windows 10 sản phẩm điện thoại is still an old phone. Windows 10 thiết bị di động went out of support in December 2019, which means no new fixes or support. At the moment, though, photos you take still get automatically uploaded to lớn OneDrive và that should work until the end of 2020. Microsoft says that a Windows 10 mobile you"re using now won"t create device backups that you can use to lớn set up a new device with all the same apps & accounts, but we"re seeing backups with today"s date being created và they still restore. That means you can also still use existing device backups khổng lồ set up a new phone: you can"t vì chưng that as part of the OTC update but once the phone is upgraded khổng lồ Windows 10 sản phẩm điện thoại you can use Settings, System, About lớn reset it và that lets you pick an older backup khổng lồ restore from when you first sign in (again, that should work through the over of this year).

Some apps that can run on this OS have been removed from the Store and you"re going lớn be seeing messages from Microsoft website sites suggesting that you upgrade lớn the new version of Edge – which won"t be available. 

But if you still want to use Windows Phone, it"s probably for a reason and you know that you aren"t getting new apps or security updates (although it"s probably safer than keeping a Windows XP system going). The Office apps still run; OneNote và Microsoft To vì are even still getting updates because they were built as true universal apps. 

SEE: Inside the Microsoft Surface Duo (in pictures)

Maybe you need an emergency handset lớn get email and make phone calls with: we sent a failed Samsung phone that was in warranty off lớn the mobile operator it came from seven months ago và it still hasn"t been sent back or replaced. Maybe a simple drawing game would amuse a toddler for a few minutes and give a busy parent a quick break (and if they drop an old Windows Phone, it doesn"t matter as much). Maybe one more screen is just useful right now, and if you"re mostly at home, you can use it on Wi-Fi so you don"t even need lớn put a SIM in it.

However much you loved Windows Phone, you can"t keep these devices working forever, but you can keep them out of the e-waste system for a few more months. So if you need a spare device lớn try something out while you"re working from trang chủ and you find an old Windows Phone in the drawer, or you"re still plugging away with Windows Phone và someone offers you the old phone they found to lớn replace yours because you managed to lớn crack the screen, it"s nice lớn know that there"s a tool that still works for now. I use Android & iOS too, but I still find it faster to bởi the basics of email, calendar, phone calls, to bởi vì lists & OneNote on a Windows phone so I use one regularly still. Plus, I always wanted the bright red Lumia 1520, & now I have one.