I've just found this out. Unlike the Iphone you can't just plug in your windows phone to a windows computer and use it like a Hard drive for pics etc.

Instead you need software first.

I know there are programs you can download and hacks to be done but that seems crazy when Iphones just work straight off even on Windows.

What are Microsoft thinking.

If I knew what Microsoft were thinking I would be a very rich man!

Not sure what's wrong with your phone but when I had one mine could be used as a USB drive and I could drop video, music and pictures on it.

Is it not iTunes connecting to your iPhone, not the PC.

And similarly, maybe you need Windows Media Player etc to get some similar ad-hoc sort of functionality.

No. iPhones present themselves to Windows (and other PC operating systems) as MTP devices, just as Android 3.0+ and Windows Phone 8 devices do.

This really isn't anything new at all.

Ditto.

You need Zune for WP7 phones, you don't need anything for WP8 phones, they appear in Explorer with folders for media files.

Under VM settings/USB, see if show all USB devices is checked.