Say what you wish about HTC and their recent shenanigans, but despite their recently announced and frankly staggering drop in profits, they still make devices that many people cannot wait to get their hands on. They usually follow this up by releasing another version with a random letter placed at the end of its name. Jokes aside, their latest flagship Windows Phone device, the HTC 8X, was no exception and proved to be a hit with WP users.

One of the biggest bugbears that power users have with the Windows Phone platform is the lack of custom firmwares for many devices. Some are effectively stuck on whichever carrier branded ROM the phone is shipped with. Thankfully for 8X users though, XDA Elite Recognized Developer xboxmod has devised a way to unbrand the device and install an unmodified stock HTC firmware. The process is applicable to all PM232***/c620e devices with a bootloader of version 162966 or below. This method bypasses the CID check and can also fix a bad flash or bootloop, so it may be handy to know even if you have no intention of unbranding.

You'll need a few things before you start, namely a Y cable, SD card or flash drive, and the appropriate .nbh files provided in the guide thread. After that, it's essentially a case of flashing the right thing in the right order. Once complete, you should have a fresh ROM free of any carrier enforced bloatware.

Check out the forum thread for more information.