How to update to Mango without being a Windows Phone developer

You’ve seen the extensive Mango walkthroughs, seen developers on Twitter gloating about being able to update to the Mango beta and wondered how you were going to make it until the fall release. Some industrious individuals, both at XDA and Windows Phone Hacker, have compiled a few tools to help the common folk make the update to Mango beta. We make no claims as to what this will do to your phone, so urge you to proceed with the utmost caution. If you recall, the previous non-official path to NoDo was met with a statement from Microsoft indicating those phones would not be upgradable. In the end, they updated just fine, but we’re simply advising you of the perils that exist. If you comfortable with that, follow this short guide to make the jump to Mango.

Proceed with caution if you plan to follow these steps to update your Windows Phone to Mango

1. You’ll need Zune software installed, but we’re guessing you knew that.
2. Download and install Windows Phone Developer Tools. x64 Windows / x86
3. You need to download this Zune backup tool, which will require this file.
4. Make sure you’ve quit Zune and run the backup tool. You will need to show the file you downloaded in the previous step.
5. Proceed with backing up your phone. Note: This is critical. Without this backup, you cannot update your phone when the retail version of Mango becomes available.
6. Finally, this updater tool is available from Windows Phone Hacker. Run this and you will then have the option to update to the beta release of Mango within Zune.

We’ve tested 5 of the 6 steps and have a backup of our phone. We make zero claims of how this will affect your phone. If you are daring, understand the risks, then by all means go for it. Let us know in the comments or in this dedicated discussion thread, “Install Mango on your Windows Phone without being a developer“, how you make out.

via Windows Phone Hacker