Probably the most frequent conversation we end up having these days is with customers who are preparing a migration from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8 (typically as a side-effect of migrating to Windows 7). A lot of the questions are technical...

With relatively little fanfare (in other words, with no fanfare that I am aware of) we released an update to the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6 . One of these was the fact that a piece of the StockViewer app wasn’t working, which was pointed out...

The fact that I debugged this application already has helped at least one other organization, so rather than forcing everyone to figure this out on their own, I figured I would blog about it. I worked with a customer who was using MatLab 7.1 R14 SP3....

We released the Windows 7 application compatibility list a while ago, and have been updating it periodically to add new features. We’ve finally done the same for Internet Explorer 8: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID...

Flipping through my archives, I noticed that I haven’t really spoken a lot about Internet Explorer app compat. Since moving people off of IE6 to IE8 is a pretty big corporate priority right now (trust me, the grass really is greener over here), I figured...

Next week is an internal Microsoft conference for field technical people – TechReady 11. I’m presenting a couple of sessions on migrating from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8, a session on debugging and fixing Win32 applications, and my (now...

A helpful tip I figured I would pass along… I keep copies of various older Microsoft operating systems around. Some of them I keep around for fun (occasionally I get a laugh from the old-timers when I pull out a copy of Microsoft Bob on Windows 95), but...

At TechEd North America a few weeks ago, I had a chance to sit down with Keith Combs and talk about the current state of app compat. You can check out the video on Bytes by TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff819024.aspx .

A while back, I had mentioned that we intend to update the Windows 7 Application Compatibility List around once every two weeks or so, at least while we were still ramping up and there were plenty of gaps to fill. For those of you just joining us – we...

I’ve been spending a lot of time “getting to know” Internet Explorer lately, and one topic that I wanted to understand a bit more deeply is precisely how file and registry virtualization in protected mode works. If you look at the outcome of virtualization...

Next week, I’ll be kicking off my TechNet Webcasts: The IE6 – IE8 Upgrade Series. I’ll be delivering 3 different sessions to discuss the whys and hows of moving to Internet Explorer 8, particularly looking to help out those who are still using Internet...

Just to save you a search and a few clicks (and to save me time later), here are the versions of Java which support Windows 7: 1.4: >= 1.4.2_23 1.5: >= 1.5.0_21 1.6: >= 1.6.0_14 If you have an application which comes with its own JVM, you should...

Here is an issue I see pop up sporadically, so I figured I would spend the time to dissect how it happens: an application appears to work great on Windows XP, but when you run it on Windows 7 (or Windows Vista), it has a strange black background which...

Greg Lambert, the chief tech guy over at ChangeBase , responded to my recent blog post on how to best leverage tools, and I believe we may have hit a bit of a bump in the road with regard to semantics. Specifically with regards to the usage of the word...

There are a large number of tools available to assist you with application compatibility, and part of the challenge of becoming an app compat ninja is to understand how to apply each of these tools in the most effective way. I spoke last time about leveraging...

I receive a number of questions on the compatibility evaluators in ACT that revolve around one central question: what are they actually good for? Seems kind of a harsh question, eh? Well, I’m not intending to be rude. However, I do try to help people...

This is a question that has been coming up a lot lately, so I figured I would answer the question once here, so I can just start handing out the link when it gets asked again in the future. Here is the essence of the question: “I am trying to create a...

There are a number of terms thrown around in the world of app compat that are vaguely defined at best. Now, I’m not one to suggest that tedium is a good practice in general, but in some cases understanding the true technical definition of a term can lead...

It’s been a long road to get here, but the checklist is now complete. Vendor data for Windows 7 application compatibility, previously available on the web and as a downloadable Excel sheet , is finally integrated into ACT 5.5! Here is some information...

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to sit in on a webinar delivered by Flexera Software and chat about Windows 7 Application Compatibility. The recording of the webinar is now online and available here: http://mktg.flexerasoftware.com/mk/get/BPWin7CompatApp_wbnr...

A few weeks ago, I spoke about how our information on vendor data was slowly making it through the channel , beginning with the compatibility center (complete), moving on to the downloadable Application Compatibility List for IT Pros (complete), and finally...

Earlier today, I received this request from a customer: This ( http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=07fb0bd8-f390-458d-a629-6f0258ac7cdf ) is a .NET 1.1 app and I have installed .NET 1.1 SP1 on Windows 7 32-bit and all .NET 1.1 SP1...

Are your business-critical applications compatible with Windows 7? Join Microsoft's "App Compat Guy" Chris Jackson to learn best practices for how IT teams are resolving Windows 7 application compatibility issues. Hear about his experiences...

In the world of app compat, sometimes you get lucky and have the app itself clearly not working, and you debug it. (Well, I guess if you’re really going to get lucky, you’ll have the app just work.) Things get murkier when an app has a bad interaction...

(Wow, I’m doing a lot more posting today than normal. Things kind of piled up while I was on leave.) There is a ton of activity going on in the world regarding Windows 7 deployments, and one of the hottest topics we’re finding is x64. People are very...