How to hack your Windows Phone 7 handset to turn on tethering

If you are into modifying your phone to turn on goodies that your carrier does not think that you are worthy of, we have just the thing for you. If you have an HTC or Dell WP7 handset, you can make it tether.

Fair warning: we are not endorsing modifying your phone. If you break it, that is too bad, don’t whine to us. Know that this sort of thing can void your warranty and contract before you make a move. That said, let’s have some fun. [Update: you need an unlocked phone, so dredge up a copy of ChevronWP7 before you get going.]

To tether your HTC handset, execute the following steps:

1. Download XAP file here
2. Download HTC Sync for Android from HTC for USB Modem driver from HTC’s site (the whole package) or just the driver here
3. Deploy XAP file to your phone
4. Turn of your Data connection in your phone.
5. Run DFRouter and click on “HTC Modem”
6. If you only downloaded driver package just unzip to any folder, then Open Device Manager (recommended for Win7 64bit). If you installed the HTC Android package skip to step 10.
7. Find USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0EFF&REV_0000&MI_01 and force update driver with HtcUsbMdmV64 (inside unzipped folder)
8. Find USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0EFF&REV_0000&MI_00 and force update driver with HtcVComV64 (inside unzipped folder)
9. You will get two new device HTC USB Modem and HTC Diagnostic Interface (COM8)
10. Connect device to PC, open HTC USB Modem and select Advance Label
11. Add below command +cgdcont=1,”ip”,”APN”
(APN = Your carrier’s APN)
12. Create a new connection with HTC USB Modem, diag number is *99#
13.Just connect without user name and password.

If you have a Dell Venue Pro, these are the directions for you:

Based on your article about tethering for HTC devices, the same can be done with the Dell Venue Pro. The trick is to modify the driver INF files – I edited both HtcUsbMdmV64.inf and HtcVComV64.inf. Replace the HTC device IDs with VID_05c6&PID_3199. Leave the &MI_00.

To get into tethering mode for the DVP, open up EM (##634#), and go to Service Center. Switch to composite mode – password is *#301#. After rebooting the phone, open device manager. Select the first unknown device (USB\VID_05C6&PID_3199&REV_0000&MI_00). Select update driver and point to the root of the two folders (it looks like it’s using HtcUsbMdmV64).

Once that’s installed, follow the XDA guide – the T-Mobile APN is epc.tmobile.com. You can safely ignore all the other unknown devices.

We have our standard request: if you decide to go through with the hack, let us know in the comments how it goes. For what it’s worth, when the first tethering hack came out for iPhone I pulled the trigger and loved it until I dropped the phone and shattered it.