Useful new Application Compatibility resources

Application compatibility is one the most important challenges faced by organizations when deploying new operating systems. It's very important we provide the information and resources that people need to identify and resolve application compatibility challenges. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has also provided many tools and resources to reduce the time, cost, and complexity of addressing application compatibility.

In terms of these resources, I thought it useful to share links to some new content in this area:

  • The "Getting Started with Application Compatibility in a Windows Deployment" whitepaper is designed to help customers and technical decision makers understand how to scope their application compatibility work. Download it here.
  • Shims are powerful and flexible tools for mitigating application compatibility issues in preparation for an enterprise deployment of Windows Vista. This "Managing Shims in the Enterprise" whitepaper describes the various ways in which shims can be leveraged to ease deployment while minimising risk and costs, best practices on when to consider applying shims, and how to manage and deploy custom shim databases. Download it here.
  • A comprehensive list of the Vista compatibility for many applications is available on www.appreadiness.com. This site is updated weekly.
  • Finally, the overall one-stop shop for all things application compatibility related is at the dedicated Technet portal site - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905066.aspx.