Homebrew hack finally allows for screen capture on WP7

Perhaps the most annoying, niggling problem that remains in the Windows Phone 7 platform today is the lack of ability for a user to take a screenshot.

You might think that something so simple would have been officially corrected, but you would be wrong. Happily, at the hands of the excellent homebrew community, a solution has been created.

As with everything homebrew, this new tool requires some technological know-how, so proceed with caution. If you brick your phone, TNW is sorry, but is not at fault. That aside, you are going to need to have the Jaxbot Dehydrate hack in place on your phone. This will enable fast app switching. It’s dead useful, but again, be careful.

Once you have that installed and set up, head here to snag the actual application, and then follow these steps:

Open up the app

Navigate to the app/screen you want to capture (no more than 2 apps in between (this app will be killed by “Watchdog”))

Hold “focus” (not click, >focus), for at least 500ms

Wait for message box to verify capture

(SUCCESS) > Located under “Pictures > All > Saved Pictures”

According to followup comments on the XDA forums, the app works as promised. Sound off in the comments if you went through with the installation, and tell us how it went.

We wonder why Microsoft just won’t solve this feature-gap themselves, but hey, this is why we love third-party guys, right?