The App Compat Guy

While Microsoft isn’t the final arbiter on whether an application is “compatible” with any given version of Windows (see: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cjacks/archive/2010/01/12/what-does-it-mean-to-be-compatible-with-windows-7.aspx ) a few years ago we launched...

Just like in other scientific pursuits, in computing it turns out to be pretty important to validate your assumptions when performing your investigations. For example, today I had someone helping a customer who had “proven” that we changed the behavior...

Another new operating system means another new LUA Buglight! My friend Aaron recently released an update to LUA Buglight to support Windows 8. So, for any customers who are still using Windows XP but migrating directly to Windows 8, or those who are using...

Developers, and the people responsible for the productivity of those developers, have long known that code reuse was something we should aspire to. Don Box, in his seminal book Essential COM walks through the progression we made in the Windows world around...

This Thursday, June 18, 2009, my friend Mark is hosting a virtual roundtable on Windows 7 Application Compatibility. Alas, they didn’t think to check my schedule, and I have a customer commitment this week (and I do not ever turn my back on a customer...

When I talk to folks who are extraordinary engineers, but who are struggling to extend their impact, the #1 recommendation I give is to find your voice and communicate. And just keep communicating. There is no substitute for practice. And, it turns out...

Just in time for the holidays, on December 7, 2012 (tomorrow as I write this), 1:00pm Central, I’ll be chatting with my friends from ChangeBase / Quest / Dell about the app compat landscape for Windows 8. You can join in the conversation here: http:/...

The flurry of “hurrah!” emails was my cue that the fix removing m.weightwatchers.com and mobile.weightwatchers.com from the Internet Explorer Compatibility View List went live this past week. Finally, users of Windows devices have a full fidelity experience...

Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones in se mutuo semper esse æquales et in partes contrarias dirigi. I remember a time when all bugs were bad, and it was my job to find and destroy them all. That...

Greetings, App Compat Army! I’m busy putting the final touches on my presentations for TechEd North America, and wanted to give a quick overview of what I’m going to be covering: WCL204 – Removing the Shackles of Legacy Software: Best Practices for Enabling...

Back in December, I blogged about the failure of Weight Watchers Mobile on IE10 , which affects peoples’ fancy new Windows Phone 8 devices, not to mention their Windows RT devices like the Surface RT. In the interim, I’ve disabled the compat view list...

For those of you who have attended any of my conference sessions for about the past 6 months, I’ve been including a segment where I switch to a math demo, and just handwrite out some equations on the screen to try and make what I believe are some really...

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to get on the phone and chat for a bit with Carl and Richard from .NET Rocks! about app compat from a developer perspective, looking forward to Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10. Of course, the highlight for me was...