Windows 7 – Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 Overview

Session Outline

Topics Covered Points to look at when you are moving to

Windows 7 from XP and Vista. Quick Demos of these issues and mitigations Overview of the Application Compatibility

Toolkit 5.5

Topics Not Covered Detail coverage of shims and its

implementation Creating Custom Shims

Few Changes: Most software that runs on Windows Vista will run on Windows 7 - exceptions will be low level

code (AV, Firewall, Imaging, etc). Hardware that runs Windows Vista well will run Windows

7 well.

Windows 7 Builds on Vista

Few Changes: Focus on quality and reliability improvements

Deep Changes: New models for security, drivers, deployment, and

networking

Top Focus Areas coming from Windows XP

Operating System Version Changes Standard User / User Account Control (UAC) Windows Resource Protection (WRP) Internet Explorer® Protected Mode Impacts of 64-bit Operating Systems (no 16 bit) Windows Filtering Platform Deprecations/GINA/Session 0 (High Impact/Low

Frequency)

Top Focus Areas coming from Vista

Operating System Version Changes Internet Explorer 8 (Compatibility View, LCIE) Removal of Windows Gallery applications

(Windows Mail, Movie Maker, Messenger, Address Book, Photo Gallery)

National Language Support (NLS) Sorting Changes

File Libraries (they are not folders)

Biggest Concern of Application Compatibility*

* Springboard Series Twitter Poll during VRT 1

16 Bit Apps64 Bit AppsInternal AppsUnsigned DriversMoving to Standard User

Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5

What is ACT?

Collection of tools to:• Inventory for software, hardware, and device

assets• Compatibility evaluation for all of the above• Get Vendor Support Statements, Logo data from

Compatibility Exchange• Recommendations for fixing applications and

Websites (Internet Explorer 8)• Tools to apply compatibility fixes or “shims” to

applications

Collect1

The App Compat Process

Which applications do I HAVE?

Analyze

Test and Mitigate

Which applications do I WANT?

Which applications WORK?

2

3

ACT Process

Collect an Application Inventory

Rationalize and

Consolidate Application

s

Analyze for Compatibilit

y and ISV Support

Test for and Mitigate

Compatibility Issues

Finance Computer

Sales Computer

DCP Labeling

Tag: Sales

ERP Software

Demo Software

ERP Software

Financial Software

Tag: Finance

Filter On: Sales Computers

ERP Software

Demo Software

Filter On: Finance Computers

ERP Software

Financial Software

Data Collection Package (DCP) Internals

Installation Agents (Runtime Evaluation)

Inventory User Account Control Windows Compatibility Update Compatibility Bucketizer Compressor Uploader

collect.exe: DCP Inventory Agent

Perhaps the best software inventory tool availablefrom Microsoft

Searches: The MSI database▪ MsiEnumComponents API

Add/remove programs▪ Registry entries

Windows Shell▪ HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\

Shell Folders▪ HKU\...\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVerison\Explorer\

Shell Folders App paths▪ HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

collect.exe: DCP Inventory Agent Searches

Path environment variable▪ ExpandEnvironmentStrings API▪ HKU\...\Environment

File extension handlers▪ HKLM\Software\Classes\.*\Shell\Open\Command▪ HKU\...\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Explorer\FileExts Run / RunOnce▪ HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run▪ HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce▪ HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

RunOnceEx

ACT 5.5 Data Analysis

demo

ACT 5.5 Online Sync

ACT 5.0 included: Logo certification data Votes from other enterprises

ACT 5.5 adds Windows Compatibility Center data We do the research on vendor web sites

ACT 5.5 contains complete opt-out Not only do you not share your vote, you don’t

share that you even have the app▪ Means you don’t get any data in exchange

You can see EXACTLY the data you’re sending up

High Level Architecture

Log Processing Service and

DB

Data Collection Package/Compatibility Evaluators

Inventory Windows 7 Update

Desktop Topology

Europe North AmericaHR Finance

Application Compatibility

Manager

GregIchiro

Internet

Compatibility Exchange

Windows Vista

What is Standard User Analyzer? A tool to help IT Professionals and Developers

understand issues preventing an application from running with Standard User privileges

Based on Application Verifier

SUA Architecture

Application

Windows

AppVerifier Logs

XMLLuaPriv2

Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool

Collects web-based compatibility issues for IE7 and IE8 at run-time

Key Features: Logs issues silently as you browse through websites using

IE7 / IE8 Provides details and links to more information about

discovered compatibility issues List of issues detected is reviewed for each release of IE. We

currently capture compatibility issues such as MIME Handling Exceptions, ActiveX Blocking, Codepage Sniffing and more.

What’s New in ACT 5.5?

ACT 5.0.3

ACT 5.5

Agent-based collection of inventory and run-time compatibility issues

Support for Windows 2K – Vista SP1

Support for Windows 7 Beta, Vista SP2

Testing and Mitigation Tools for Developers and Testers

Compatibility Data from Windows Vista Compatibility Center

Review of data before synchronizing with Microsoft

Community assessments of 3rd party applications

Participation in the Customer Experience Program

Labeling data collection packages

Application Windows

How Shims Work

Shim DLL

Import FunctionShimmedFunction

ExportFunction

Shims and Layers

Windows

Shim

ApplicationChild

Application

Layer

DemoWindows XP Mode

Summing up..

AppCompat is a critical Process Microsoft takes this very seriously Lots of free tools available online to help

with developers and IT Pros With all the work and leveraging Windows

7, You will know that, “ THE JUICE IS WORTH THE SQUEEZE !!”

References

Chris Jackson - http://blogs.msdn.com/cjacks/ AppCompat VRT - www.microsoft.com/springboard Microsoft TechNet - technet.com/appcompat

My Technical Blog - http://www.msigeek.com Follow me on Twitter at “msigeek”

Contact Me