Windows Phone 7.8 rollout resumed, Live Tiles bug fixed

Posted on 15 Mar 2013 at 09:44, by Gareth Halfacree

Microsoft has resumed rolling out its Windows Phone 7.8 software update to handsets running the last-generation Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, after halting the release due to a flaw that disabled the Live Tiles feature.

Windows Phone 7.8 is Microsoft's attempt to appease those who splashed out on Windows Phone 7.5 devices, like the Nokia Lumia 900, only to learn that they would not be receiving an upgrade to the latest Windows Phone 8 version. While still Windows Phone 7.5 at its heart, Windows Phone 7.8 includes as many of Windows Phone 8's new features as was possible.

Sadly, plans to release the software earlier this year had to be put on hold when it was discovered that installing Windows Phone 7.8 caused a handset's Live Tiles - homescreen widgets that can refresh their appearance based on information downloaded from the internet, such as weather data or sports scores - to stop updating altogether.

After an impressively long silence, Microsoft confirmed the problem earlier this month and promised that a fix for the flaw - along with another affecting the amount of free storage on Windows Phone 8 devices - would be addressed in a future update.

The Live Tiles issue, at least, appears to now be resolved, with Microsoft restarting the software update at version 7.10.8862.144. The highlight of the release is a fix for the Live Tiles bug, but the software also includes additional tweaks including resizeable Live Tiles, a wider range of accent colours, an improved lock screen, improved Chinese and Arabic fonts, and an expansion of the countries supported by the Windows Phone Marketplace and Xbox.

The update is rolling out internationally now, and should soon hit handsets that had stuck with Windows Phone 7.5 until the bugs were ironed out as well as those unlucky few who picked up the flawed Windows Phone 7.8 update before Microsoft pulled the plug.

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