Springboard Series Blog : App Compat

New Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals

Stephen L Rose — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:32:00 GMT

Until now there were a couple of ways to determine if your applications were compatible with Windows 7 – you can test everything, look them up one-by-one in the Windows Compatibility Center, or inventory your production machines using the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 and synchronize your inventory with hosted compatibility data from Microsoft and ISVs. For about a year, we’ve been posting regular updates to the Windows Vista Application Compatibility List for IT pros and even though compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7 is pretty high, there has still been huge demand for a Windows 7-specific list. If you already have a list or inventory of the applications you want to move forward in a Windows 7 deployment, the new Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals lets you download a spreadsheet of known vendor-supported applications so that you can query the list against your pre-existing application inventory. This list represents a sample of the total ecosystem focusing on top products as defined by customers and deployments with a public statement of support provided by the vendor.

As you can see, there is compatibility status listed for both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, plus each application’s major and minor version numbers are listed to help normalize your data queries. Since October (yes, last month) we have already collected more than 5500 applications and the list is growing every day. If you are working through a list of hundreds or thousands of applications, this list will help you validate your applications more quickly. We will be updating this list regularly, so keep checking back to avoid any unnecessary testing. Click here to download the spreadsheet and get started.

If you are in the process of testing in-house developed applications, download the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) and use its in-box evaluators and test tools. Although we released ACT 5.5 back in April coinciding with Windows 7’s RC release, there were no changes needed to support the RTM version of Windows 7. Even though you will see an occasional “RC” in ACT’s reports, ACT 5.5 is the RTM-supporting version.

To access these and other application compatibility resources, check out the Springboard Application Compatibility Zone where we host the latest application compatibility content for Windows 7.

Jeremy Chapman
Windows Deployment

Application Compatibility VRT Questions Answered

Stephen L Rose — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:09:01 GMT

Thank you again for all of you who tuned in live for our most recent virtual roundtable. We had so many questions asked during the broadcast, we were unable to get to all of them so I am dedicating this blog post to the questions and to the answers provided by our product teams involved in the broadcast.

To view all the questions and answers, click here.

For more information and resources on application compatibility with Windows 7, please visit our page on TechNet here.

Missed Our Application Compatibility Virtual Roundtable?

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:40:05 GMT

Did our VRT wrap-up post wet your appetite for more? Looking to learn about virtualization as a application compatibility tool? No need to worry if you missed the live event as the is now available to stream or download here.

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2: Virtualization

In part two of this Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable on Windows 7 Application Compatibility, you'll hear from Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich and a panel of experts on how virtualization tools can help you with application compatibility concerns whether you're migrating from Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Here’s your chance to get powerful insight into how presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization can reduce testing times, expedite deployment, and ultimately help you streamline PC management. Also covered are the latest desktop virtualization technologies from Microsoft including Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), and Windows XP Mode for Windows 7.

To see part one of this Virtual Roundtable or to view any of our previous roundtables, click here.

As always, visit the Springboard Series for the latest tools, walkthroughs, FAQs and information for IT pros around Windows 7 and visit our Talking About Windows Event Portal to see all the latest IT pro events worldwide on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 in your area. More events are being added every day!

Application Compatibility Roundtable with Mark Russinovich Wrap-up

Stephen L Rose — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:02:58 GMT

Thank you to all of you who tuned in and posted or sent in questions for our most recent roundtable and made it another huge success. We will be posting all the questions and answers in the next few days so keep an eye out.

Missed the VRT? Here is the promo of what you can look forward to when the replay become available later this week.

To be the first to know when the replay goes live, follow our Twitter feed @MSSpringboard or watch for our blog post here.

Reminder: Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2: Virtualization with your host Mark Russinovich

Stephen L Rose — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:36:02 GMT

Date: Thursday, September 24
Time: 9:00am Pacific Time

https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard

Hear Mark Russinovich, Chris Jackson, Jeremy Chapman and our panel of experts chat about how virtualization tools can help you with application compatibility concerns whether you’re migrating from Windows Vista or Windows XP. Join us to discuss how presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization can reduce testing times, expedite deployment and ultimately help you streamline PC management.

We’ll cover the latest desktop virtualization technologies from Microsoft, including App-V, MED-V and XP Mode for Windows 7. Plus we share tips and tricks and demonstrate free tools to analyze and fix applications while answering your questions live during the event. Join live on Thursday, September 24^th, 2009, 9:00am Pacific Time. Missed Part 1? Watch the replay.

For IT Pro tips, tricks and resources for Windows 7, visit the Springboard Series

As part of the “virtual” experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate Update

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:11:22 GMT

I just wanted to take a moment and post a few quick reminders.

The Windows 7 Beta expires on August 1^st.
The Release Candidate download ends on August 20^th. You will still be able to get a product key beyond that date but, downloads will not be available. So if you have not downloaded the release candidate, please do so soon.
Looking to start a Windows 7 deployment? Questions on application compatibility? Check out these key resources

As always, your key source for Discovering, Exploring, Piloting, Deploying and Managing Windows 7 are available on Springboard at www.microsoft.com/springboard.

For the latest tips and trick, follow us on Twitter at @MSspringboard

The Springboard Application Compatibility VRT rebroadcast is live!

Stephen L Rose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:04:00 GMT

Last week we posted the promo teaser here on the Springboard Blog for the Virtual Roundtable on Application Compatibility. As of today, the rebroadcast is live and ready for you to view.

If you missed the live broadcast, here’s your chance to hear Aaron Margosis, Paul Schnell; Darren Baker (also watch for Darren’s interview on TalkingAboutWindows next week), Greg Lambert Michael Sciacqua, Gov Maharaj, Celine Allee, Jeremy Chapman, and of course Mark Russinovich discuss the issues in getting your Windows XP and Windows Vista applications to work with Windows 7 quickly and effectively. From ACT 5.5 and Shims to discussions on key resources and tools, this VRT is a must see for those IT pros looking to make the jump to Windows 7.

To view the complete VRT, click here.

Also, here are some of our previous VRTs you can view as well.

Application Compatibility Roundtable Promo

Stephen L Rose — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:00:52 GMT

Our latest Virtual Roundtable on Application Compatibility was another great success. Thank you to all our viewers who tuned in live to watch it last week.

Missed it? Well, here is a promo video of some of the highlights. Watch for details later this week here on where to view the full program.

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=7372d3d7-4c99-4561-9591-7fd338650d58" target="_new" title="VRT Promo">Video: VRT Promo</a>

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable on June 18th with Mark Russinovich

Stephen L Rose — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:17:00 GMT

Join Mark Russinovich, Jeremy Chapman, Aaron Margosis and more for our Windows 7 Virtual Round Table on Application Compatibility, live on Thursday June 18th.

Windows 7, is approaching fast and from the application standpoint is very similar to Windows Vista. We're going to examine Windows 7 application compatibility not only from the perspective of moving from Windows Vista, but also for those coming from Windows XP. Join us to discuss the most common challenges around application compatibility when coming from a legacy operating system, why changes were made along the way, compatibility technologies inside the OS and methods for getting incompatible applications to run on Windows 7. Along the way we share tips and tricks, demonstrate free tools to analyze and fix applications and answer your specific questions about application compatibility live.

In Part 2 of this Virtual Round Table discussion (planned for later this Summer/Fall), we'll discuss the options and approaches for using virtualization tools In depth to address application incompatibilities - including presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization. We'll be sending out more details and posting information to www.microsoft.com/springboard for part 2 as the dates are finalized.

As part of the "virtual" experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event-or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

Event Details:
Title: Windows 7 Application Compatibility: Your Questions Answered (Part 1)
Date: Thursday, June 18
Time: 11:00am Pacific Time
URL for Live Broadcast: https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard (will not be live till 10:45 am PST on June 18th)

Also don't forget, starting July 1st, the Windows 7 Beta will reboot every two hours. If you have not download and installed the Windows 7 Release Candidiate, please do so now by going here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx