I ran across a few issues when trying to get the new beta bits (July 12) Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.  I had April CTP installed and tried to install the beta bits.  I got the following warning:

I made the mistake of uninstalling in the wrong order and got the Windows 7 Phone Developer Tools CTP wedged in a bad state.  The first thing you should uninstall is the “Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Refresh”.  When I finally tried to uninstall the CTP, it jumped directly to the install of the components I uninstalled previously.  Ultimately, I was left in a state where the CTP was not able to be removed.  I read a few forums where people uninstalled the OS, etc… (Crazy Talk).

I am currently attending the ESRI UC in San Diego so I took a break (In frustration) to get a cold beer.  The only reason I bring this up is I go get a couple of beers and brought them back to the room.  Have you ever tried to open a Corona without a bottle opener? 

Need to give props to Marriott Harbor in San Diego for the nice view from my room:

OK – I digress.  I can say the Corona helped ! 

I came across Aaron’s blog and he has instructions for running the XNA Game Studio Cleanup which has an option for cleaning up the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP.  Here are the steps I followed:

1.  Download and extract the tool (http://bit.ly/9WfGzV). 

2.  Run the tool and select Windows Phone Developer Tools

3.  Let the process complete.

4.  Download new beta bits from here (http://bit.ly/cuOTDx)

5.  Everything installs correctly.  I did find one artifact. I had to reinstall Silverlight 4 Runtime but this might be due to some of the uninstalls I previously tried.  Other than that, Up and running.

Hope this helps,

Carlos

twitter.com/cfemmer