Want #Mango #WP7 now? But your network connection is not immediately adjacent to your desk, or awkward to break. #PowerShell

Mango is now available, and there is a cheat that seems to bypass the “wait until Microsoft/Your Carrier” make it available to you.  Read more here: http://www.wpcentral.com/force-mango-update-early-through-zune-software

However the trick relies on disconnecting your internet connection within a few seconds.  This is fine and dandy if the cable is right by your keyboard, mouse and monitor, but not if it isn’t.

Obviously you can enable/disable the NIC, but Windows 7 (at least here) takes a variable amount of time to perform the disconnect.  Factor in UAC asking you for permission to disconnect then you have a bigger timing problem.

So a quick jump to the internet.  The following lines of code sort it out.

Firstly, start a PowerShell session (ISE or prompt), but with Run as Administrator rights to avoid issues.

Then use the line:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapter | Format-Table Name, NetEnabled, NetConnectionStatus, DeviceId –auto

This lists all your network connections, (extract below)

Name                                       NetEnabled NetConnectionStatus DeviceId

----                                       ---------- ------------------- --------

<snipped>

WAN Miniport (Network Monitor)                                            6      

Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Server Connection     True       2                   7      

<snipped>

Identify the Device ID for your network connection.  In this case 7.

The following lines of code needs to run once only in your ISE session

$Nic = Get-WmiObject win32_networkadapter -computerName LocalHost -filter "DeviceId = 7"

Note that the number 7 at the end will need to be changed for your environment.

Then finally –

$Nic.enable()

or

$Nic.disable()

As you wish to switch your NIC on and off. 

So, having prepped all that, a quick click on linking on the Zune screen below

Followed by a click on UPDATE, and then immediately run the disable command, and Robert’s your mother’s brother.  When you click on the presented choice to download an update – don’t forget to enable your link again.
Note you may need to update teh Zune software, so you'll get a bit of this:
 

For a bit.


But then you should see an update offered, something like this.

7403 offered to user

7403 ready to download

Repeat until you have Mango installed

Enjoy!