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Chris Jackson's Original Recipe Awesomesauce
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The App Compat Guy
Why Can’t I Elevate My Application to Run As Administrator While Using CreateProcessWithLogonW?
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
4
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
What are the ACT Compatibility Evaluators Really Good For?
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
4
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
How to Hack your Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 (ACT 5.5) Database to Locate 16-bit Files in your Application Inventory
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
4
Comments
(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...
The App Compat Guy
Configuring Application Verifier as a Testing Tool Take 2: 99.44% Less Wrong
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
4
Comments
A long time ago (2 years ago – that’s like the Paleolithic era of computers – weren’t we all running TI-99/4As back then?) I put together a post about running Application Verifier as a tester . There were a couple of things I would do differently with...
The App Compat Guy
Windows 7 Application Compatibility Labs in the US
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
4
Comments
In the run-up to any operating system release, we start to see a lot of “world tour fever” and Windows 7 is no different. Windows has a huge partner ecosystem, and we want to make sure that we at least stand a fighting chance of helping you get it done...
The App Compat Guy
The Secret to Power App Compat Debugging
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
If you come to me for advice about how to become a debugger, chances are that I’m going to give you a couple of must-read reference books, an then tell you to start paying attention. Because, unless you’re drastically more lucky than I am, stuff is probably...
The App Compat Guy
TechReady 8 Recap
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
Updated: Added co-presenter info, and corrected 2 typos. The 2009 conference season has begun, launched with an internal Microsoft conference: TechReady 8. So, while not everyone can be there, it’s fairly representative of what there is to come at the...
The App Compat Guy
Sometimes, an apparently broken operating system is an app compat problem: Symantec solution available for “Network Path Not Found” and other errors
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
FAQ: When is the Application Compatibility List (Currently Focused on Windows Vista) Going to be Updated for Windows 7?
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
There is a huge amount of excitement about Windows 7, and people are looking to get moving with app compat immediately so they can start deploying Windows 7 right away! In the enterprise, however, there are a number of risk mitigation strategies that...
The App Compat Guy
App Compat Bug Explained: The Mysterious Black Background in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) Forms and Controls
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
Debugging at TechReady 11 with Raymond Chen
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
Hotfix Release of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
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 App Compat Guy
Flexera Software Webinar Now Available Online: Best Practices for Windows 7 Application Compatibility
Posted
over 4 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
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...
The App Compat Guy
Fixing the “Failed to Load Log File” Error in Standard User Analyzer
Posted
over 3 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
From time to time, I get an email about Standard User Analyzer that includes a screenshot or a MessageBox text copy (you do know you can control-c a MessageBox and paste just the text, right?) that looks something like this: Failed to load log file c...
The App Compat Guy
Chris Jackson’s Formula (for When to Test For Application Compatibility)
Posted
over 2 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
OK, so it’s not as famous as e=mc 2 , but here is the rule I apply for when to test an application for app compat. You should test your applications when: cost failure × probability failure > cost testing You should otherwise not bother...
The App Compat Guy
What is the easiest way to block automatic upgrades to IE9?
Posted
over 1 year ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
There have been a number of efforts we’ve been going through lately to promote users running modern versions of Internet Explorer. We have been marketing and advertising since release of course, and over the summer we added a prominent advertisement ...
The App Compat Guy
Shimming Applications on Windows Vista 64-Bit
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
The same question came up two times in 26 minutes (on the same discussion list, no less), so I figured I’d answer it once here as that seems a reasonable indicator that others may have the same question. What is the deal with shimming on Windows Vista...
The App Compat Guy
Why don’t elevated applications receive environment variables set by non-elevated calling process?
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
I had a conversation with a customer (via email) the other day, and I wanted to to into a bit of detail here explaining what is going on. Essentially, the customer was attempting to pass information to another application while launching it using environment...
The App Compat Guy
TechEd 2008 IT Professionals Recap
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
I had a number of great conversations at TechEd 2008 IT Professionals down in Orlando. I mentioned in a previous posting that how you evaluate sessions at conferences has a fairly significant impact on where the take content in future conferences. To...
The App Compat Guy
Please Use Reply to All - I Am Not a Member of This Discussion Group
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
Every now and then, I see email sent to a discussion list that includes something like the following: "Please use Reply to All I am not a member of this discussion group." And sometimes you see something like this instead: "Please little-R, I am not a...
The App Compat Guy
Per-User COM Registrations and Elevated Processes with UAC on Windows Vista SP1 Part 2: OLE Automation
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
Here's an interesting lesson which, quite honestly, I haven't thought about for a while. But it turns out it's rather important. A little over a month ago, I talked about a change to Windows Vista in SP1 regarding per-user COM registration , indicating...
The App Compat Guy
Looking Back at 2007
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
2007 was really a fun year - I had a blast. I finally started to get some traction documenting the shims provided in Windows - hopefully you like some of the changes Liz made in ACT 5.0.2 to add good documentation here. I've been talking about it all...
The App Compat Guy
Make Sure Your Standard Users are Really Standard Users
Posted
over 5 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
I had my worldview challenged today. I had gone on record saying that, if you are deploying to Standard Users, then UAC really can't hurt you - it can only help you. But then I saw something I really did not understand - two identical machines, side by...
The App Compat Guy
Terminology and Non-Random Mutation
Posted
over 8 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
I want to take a moment to go back and review some of the terminology I have been using, to ensure that there is no confusion. The reader will kindly indulge any ambiguity in my language up to this point – I am quite literally making this up as I go along...
The App Compat Guy
Massively Parallel Applications
Posted
over 7 years ago
by
Chris Jackson - MSFT
3
Comments
When discussing the evolution of software, I have spent some time discussing genetic algorithms. When trying to think 10 or 20 years into the future, these algorithms provide us with a proven way to explore a large problem domain (caused by the combinatorial...
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