By Ina Fried, 12 March 2009 09:02
NEWS
Microsoft has sought to "rescue" certain types of programs for use in Windows 7 that were rendered incompatible by the move to Vista.
Before, the rule of thumb was that if a program runs in Vista, it will run in Windows 7, and, in general, programs that won't run in Vista also won't work with Windows 7.
Microsoft said in a blog posting this week: "Along with the core tenet of ensuring that any application that worked on Windows Vista also works on Windows 7, we have a stretch goal to 'raise the bar' and make applications work on Windows 7 that never worked on Windows Vista."
So far, Microsoft said, it has managed to take about 30 international applications that were broken in Vista and make them work in Windows 7. Among the "rescued" titles are things like the Spanish-language IKEA Home Kitchen Planner, a German version of QuickTime, and the Arabic program Khalifa Cartoon Characters Creator.
"This means that Windows 7 will have higher application compatibility than Windows Vista," Microsoft said. Microsoft's blog lists a host of non-English applications that have been "rescued".
Windows 7 in pictures
1. Photos: From robot teachers to Microsoft Surface
2. Photos: Sneak peek at Windows 7 beta
3. Photos: The "beachfront property of Windows 7"
4. Photos: Getting hands on with Windows 7
5. Photos: Taking the wraps off Windows 7
Application compatibility has always been a key benchmark for new Windows releases and one of the knocks on Vista was the significant number of software and hardware titles that didn't work at launch.
Windows 7 is seen as having less of an incompatibility issue, in part because of Microsoft's work, but also because it is making less significant changes to things such as the driver model and other issues that tend to affect compatibility. The company also took other steps, such as making Windows 7 technically version 6.1 of Windows, in an effort to try to make the software more likely to run with older software.
Still, while most Vista-compatible applications should run fine in Windows 7, Microsoft did note that there are always a class of applications that run very close to the operating system - things like security software - that have to be tweaked for a new version. That will also be the case this time around, Microsoft said.
Comments
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1. misceng
I doubt if this will satisfy XP users.
I use JASC Paintshop Pro 9 because since Corel took over they have "upgraded" and dumped features I find essential. Lotus Smartsuite Anniversary Edition is not as fancy as Office 2003 but it does what I want. I don't want Office stopping me from doing it as it is not the way Microsoft insists is right.
I fear that these will not work under Win 7 but a forced change to Win 7 is going to be too costly for me so I will have to learn Linux.
2. Karen Challinor
here's one compatability they could put in that would make an immediate difference
support for legacy printers on a network
I spent three hour a few days ago trying and failing to get vista to print to a networked printer, it wouldn't even print via a windows advanced server 2003 machine, everything else would print and the machine in question would print if the printer were directly connected or connected to another vista machine
sort out network printing and printing in general for a start then start supporting legacy hardware and software and then stop being so damn resource hungry, if I buy a quad core 3Ghz machine it's because I want my applications to run faster not because I need it just to get the OS to boot in a reasonable time or because the aero interface needs it to do some tricks