Windows Mobile and Microsoft fans (yes, it is okay to be a fan) have a lot to rejoice for today.  For starters, the long awaited official app store, known as Windows Marketplace for Mobile,  from Microsoft goes live today.  Windows Marketplace support is built into the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM’s, meaning that officially the service is only available to those who run out to get a new device in the near future.  Within the near future, however, an official Microsoft solution for users of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 is supposed to be available.

In the meantime, you may want to check to see if you can run a version of the Marketplace app that comes from the stock WM 6.5 ROM.  You can find more information below in the article from our friends over at WMExperts.

For those who want to use Windows Marketplace for Mobile now and have an older device (Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1) or Windows Mobile 6.5 with the store not already on the in ROM, drellisdee over at PPC Geeks has managed to pull out the .CAB for the rest of us:

I made it from 23053 skymarket. Its for WWE only and only for devices that have a bootlauncher (IE no apache.) Let me know if it doesn’t work on stock roms as its not signed as I’m not sure if signature is required but it will run on cooked roms with full kernel trust enabled.

Luckily my cooked WM6.5 ROM for the Snap did not have the store built in and so far it seems to be running just fine, as can be seen above. Basically the .CAB installs the link, which then hops to the store via your browser to download the latest store software.

So how’s it working for you? Take the poll and let us know in comments! And remember that we’re not officially expecting the Marketplace for older devices until next month.  Grab the file here at PPC Geeks.