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Microsoft’s Windows marketplace or Zune Player doesn’t allow you to download XAP files (Windows Phone apps/games file extension) directly to your PC. It makes previously downloaded Windows Phone XAP files useless as you have to re-download them in case if you’ve lost your precious data (syncing might help but we’re considering the case where you’ve forgotten to sync your device with Zune). It is very troublesome for many users as Windows phone marketplace is not active in all the countries. For example Indian users have no other option but to wait for Microsoft to enable the marketplace.
In such cases it is extremely important to get WP7 apps/games directly to our PC without any interference of Zune. There is already a trick available to make Windows phone marketplace working even if it is not available in your country (hint: change the country in settings). However, we are not here to discuss on this topic. There is a nifty application available called XGENO which lets you search and download free Windows Phone XAP files directly to your PC. It is an extremely useful utility and comes to rescue of many users where marketplace is still not available.
One of the major advantage of using XGENO is that you don’t even need to have Zune player or sign-in into your Windows Live ID to download apps from marketplace. This application itself is pretty simple. Its metro UI will give you a similar experience like native marketplace application on your device. Better side is that, this application is available for free to download.
How to Use XGENO
Download XGENO from the link give at the bottom of this article. Extract the zip content and run the program directly (you need not to install this program…windows 7 users should run this application as an “Administrator“). Once you’ve downloaded this application you need to go to “Setting” option to set the download path. Your downloaded files will be saved to this location on your PC. You need to set the path every time you launch this application. There is also a provision for Proxy server setting to download the app/game anonymously. In case if you want to download WP7 apps behind proxy, then you should enter your proxy server address in this field. Later you can use XAP installer to install or transfer the file to your Windows Phone 7. There are already few applications available in the XDA developer forum which can do the similar let you install XAP file(s).
XGENO comes in handy when you’re bit skeptic about trying the application directly on your Windows Phone. You can use developer tool to run it on emulator and later you can send it to actual device. One of the down-side of using XGENO is that the application or XAP file is not saved by the application name in marketplace but rather by application ID. It is quite difficult to recognize the application by merely looking at the application ID, so you should the XAP file every time you download them. XGENO lets you download only one WP7 app at a time. At times you may feel that the app is hanging, but it is normal.
Do let us know if you’re having trouble in downloading XAP files from marketplace directly.
Download XGENO
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