Short: Generate a Windows Phone 7 application link that’s phone and PC compatible

Right now, developers are linking to their Windows Phone 7 applications via a hacky Zune application-specific URL. Opening this on the phone, however, isn’t pretty. I took a quick look at how the Xbox tile links to the Xbox Live Extras application and was surprised at the sneaky work around. Microsoft added support for the zune:// protocol, but only via script -- not the browser directly. On your webpage, simply use a bit of Javascript to change the location.href and you’re done. Example code (and link) below. (I'm sure some Javascript ninjas will optimize this.)

Easier: You can throw the URL into your href. I didn’t write about it initially because my test failed. Upon closer review, I made a typo. Whoops.

Example: Download Fruit Ninja

function redir(id)
{
  location.href = 'zune://navigate/?appid=' + id;
}

// ...

<a href='#' onclick="redir('49c69a08-60fe-df11-9264-00237de2db9e')">Download Fruit Ninja</a>