Does anyone know if it is possible to load a windows phone 7 XAP file into the emulator without the solution or source files? In other words, can I send somebody just a XAP file
In the current CTP, XAPs can only be deployed from a project. So the only way of sharing your application with someone else, is to share the source.
Yes, you can deploy the XAP file for WP7 or WP8 in emulator without having the source file!! Please follow the steps:
Run this:
D:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Tools\XAP Deployment\XapDeploy.exe
There now seems to be a solution to this in the beta release, according to the windows phone developer blog - the following two tools ought to be able to address this problem (although I have yet to try this):
• Developer Registration Utility – Now you can unlock you Windows Phone 7 device for development purposes.
• XAP Deployment Tool – if you want to deploy XAP files directly to an unlocked device, now you can.
Yes it can be deployed on any emulator.
And here the way to do it
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsphone7series/thread/023d5f73-0528-47ee-add4-9f57f7d29815
Regards
Here's the best and easiest way. Go to the start button and navigate to the "Windows Phone Developer Tools" folder. Inside you'll see a program called "Application Deployment" that you can open and use to install the xap file. It will ask you for the location of the .xap and will give the option of deploying to the emulator or to an unlocked device. Here is the source website: http://www.imaginativeuniversal.com/blog/post/2010/12/15/Windows-Phone-7-Side-Loading.aspx