Microsoft Locks Down Windows Phone 7 to Prevent Custom ROMs
It looks like custom ROMs right now won’t be a possibility on devices launching with Windows Phone 7 until someone can figure out Microsoft’s PVK system. PVK, which is a security key that ties the Windows Phone 7 operating system to the hardware or smartphone. If the PVK cannot be found, certain parts of the operating system can still work, but some components, such as Xbox, Marketplace (the app store for Windows Phone 7), Windows Live, Zune, and other Microsoft services may not work.
PVK is an encryption key within the OS that communicates with the device’s motherboard. According to an HTC service advisory notification, a valid PVK key is essential to access Microsoft services.
During the Windows Mobile days, which is the mobile smartphone operating system that precedes Windows Phone 7, hackers and developers would often create custom ROMs, which is essentially a variant of the Windows Mobile OS with some tweaks and hacks applied to it to make it speedier for the device along with pre-bundled apps and software, custom backgrounds, icons and graphics, and other customizations. Those who created custom ROMs were called ROM chefs or ROM cooks.
