Saturday 5 July 2008

Another look...

OK, so we had a nice (but brief) Introduction to the problem of application compatibility on Windows XP and Vista. So where do we go from here? And, what help is out there right now?

Microsoft has done a pretty good job of trying to manage application compatibility issues since Windows 2000 with the introduction of the Application Compatibility Tool-kit (now at version 5 for Vista) which is available here: www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/appcompat/toolkit.mspx

In addition, Microsoft offers some pretty in-depth advice for software developers on how to ensure that your application will comply with the Logo certification program. You can find the latest version here that details the requirements for Windows Vista and Windows 2003: http://msdn.microsoft.com/certification/appspec.asp

There are plenty of other, more detailed resources including:

Low-level System Compatibility located at: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/vista/default.mspx
and Developer Best Practices for working in a least privileged environment: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480150.aspx

And my favorite is the Developers Story - Compatibility cookbook is located here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480152.aspx

This is the THE bible for getting applications working under Vista, working through the security restrictions with Windows XP Service Pack (XPSP2). This rather lengthy document details not only what the issues are, but provides some clues as to what is causing the problems. As GI Joe said, "Knowing the problem, is half the problem."


More details coming soon...

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