You know that annoying error you get when you try to deploy an application to a Mango device that uses native code? The one Microsoft created to lock us out? Well, there's good news about that.

The work of Heathcliff74, Contable, and Marvin_S has pointed the prevent at the MaxUnsignedApp value. Normally, it's 10 for developers and 3 for student accounts. But there's a backdoor to it, apparently, that allows special permission for certain developers to have Interop Services enabled in the app. You see, when a device is unlocked, the server tells it how many applications it is allowed to have. This hackish way of preventing Interop applications allows Microsoft to designate different permissions to different accounts. The secret? Set it to 300 or higher.

Yeah, it's that simple. Well, not really. In order to do this, you need access to the registry, which isn't available without native code. Thankfully, if you're on NoDo, you can get provisioning data ready for your trip to Mango, or, if you have a Samsung device, you can use the built-in Samsung Diagnosis app to deploy the registry settings and Interop-unlock your phone.

We'll break all this down for you sometime soon, but just know that hope is on the way for Mango and custom themes, etc. Also, Rafael Rivera has posted on his blog something of interest. Giving the story some coverage, he mentions that his upcoming ChevronWP7 Labs project is a suitable pairing for the hack. That makes sense when considering that the device needs to be unlocked before the hacks can be placed, but it also brings something else to mind. The server that tells the device to unlock itself tells it how many unsigned apps are allowed (as mentioned before), so, in theory, ChevronWP7 Labs could actually do all the dirty work for you. Of course, Microsoft probably wouldn't like that, but hey, it's worth thinking about. Hit up the XDA link below for details on the interop-unlock on Sammy phones.

[Source: XDA, WithinRafael]