Back in April I shared my custom Windows Phone Emulator theme/skin files that made the emulator look like an AT&T phone, the Samsung Focus. I recently realized that the newer Windows Phone Marketing resources on the MSDN site include a much nicer looking chassis mock-up, without branding, and thought I would move to start using something based on it for my development work & presentations that I give.

I’m sharing this with the community, I hope you enjoy! It makes the emulator look great I must say.

Download and install the theme

• Download a zip file of these these resources (158 KB)
• Ensure the emulator is closed
• Locate the emulator directory – usually something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\1.0\
• Backup the existing WM7_Skin.xml file if you may want to go back
• Extract the files into the emulator directory – note that you will need administrative permissions to overwrite the files
• Start up the emulator!

Enjoy!