Application Compatibility: The Inside Scoop

With every new version of Windows, there is a huge effort to make sure that applications that worked on the previous version continue to work as expected. For this episode, I've invited Chris Jackson (also known as the "App Compat Guy") to join me and share some details on not only what Microsoft is doing to ensure the highest level of compatibility from one version to the next, but also how developers, IT administrators, and even users can work through compatibility issues. In addition to talking about how application compatibility issues affect Windows applications, we touch on similar issues that befall web applications. Hopefully, the details discussed in this show will help you make sure that your applications continue to work on future versions of Windows and IE. Here are also some additional resources you might find useful: Application Compatibility Cookbooks:As Chris noted during the show, we regularly provide Application Compatibility Cookbooks to aid developers in understanding how to make sure both their existing and planned applications work properly on the next version of Windows. Here are links to the beta cookbook for Windows 8 as well as the ones we published for Windows 7 and Windows Vista: For Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows server 8 Beta For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 RC2 For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.6 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7®, Windows Vista®, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer® in your environment. Testing Application Compatibility for IE9 at MicrosoftThis downloadable document discusses the various issues that should be considered when preparing your web applications to run on IE9. Prepare Your Site for Web StandardsMSDN has prepared a set of documents and guideline