This is one of the first Blog entries for the ChangeBASE website and I hope that everyone is a little patient with me. Getting my "writing style" up to the right level will take a little while but I really hope that the topic of application compatibility will be well represented here.

Working with the fine technical people Microsoft it appears that most application compatibility issues will stem from the following issues;

1. Driver incompatibility (Display, Printer peripheral devices)
2. Legacy 16-bit Memory Issues
3. Networking Restrictions
4. Security Restrictions


If you are using specific drivers for DVD writers or relying on TWAIN drivers for your Scanner, you will probably have to get an upgrade from the software vendor. And if you are still dependant on the really old 16-bit applications (poor you) there is a solution for you - it's called SoftGrid but more on that topic later. Network restrictions will cause some applications to behave in unexpected ways, but my belief is that this will be quite a rare occurrence.

Security restrictions under Vista are very similar to those imposed on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and will be the root cause of most failed installations and expected behaviors. Which, is great news for us application packagers, deployment engineers, and sysadmins. It means that for the most part, Microsoft has provided (or allowed) work-arounds through Shims (through the Application Compatibility toolkit), registry configurations or through the create of manifest security files.

And, this follows the approach of ChangeBASE on application Compatibility. My feeling is that if we can report on an application compatibility issue; we should be able to fix it - meaning to get that application successfully deployed to the target platform (server or desktop) and get the desired functionality user standard user privileges. Quite a challenge, eh?