Tips for Windows developers
IE8 has some outstanding developer tools built-in and can be accessed by pressing F12. If you happen to be viewing this in IE8, go ahead and press F12 now. After pressing F12, you may be really excited and have stopped reading this or you may be wondering how this could help you. I’ll cover some … Read moreSolving Compatibility Issues with Internet Explorer 8’s Built-in Developer Tools
I frequently get asked about IE8 compatibility. I usually point people to the IE8 Readiness Toolkit’s developer section. This is a good resource but there are various topics and resources that I’d like to summarize in this post. Three Browsers for the Price of One If you’re in the browser business, you need to balance … Read moreGetting Started with IE8 Compatibility
There are some very common application installer issues developers run into due to UAC. Most of the issues are easy to fix. I’ll cover the most common issues in this post. Per Machine Installers Need Admin Privileges Unless you have a ClickOnce installer, your installer probably installs to a per machine location. The recommended location … Read moreCommon Application Installer Issues on Windows 7 (and Vista)
When a new OS is released, a high percentage of applications don’t install or don’t run because they check for a specific OS version. The application or installer checks for a specific version number and exits if it isn’t what is expected. I’ve heard claims of up to 50% of incompatibility issues are due to … Read moreCommon Problems with Checking OS Versions in Code
When I show this tool to developers or QA guys, their eyes light up with excitement. When you work in Application Compatibility, you spend a lot of time documenting problems ;-). In this post, I’ll talk about some of the tricks and tools I use for documenting issues. There’s a slick new tool called the … Read moreUsing the “secret” Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Create Step by Step Screenshot Documents
In most cases, 32-bit applications execute with no issues on 64-bit thanks to WOW64. However, there are a few cases that you may need to make modifications to your application in order for it to work on 64-bit. I’ll cover the common issues and possible solutions in this post. 64-bit OS Basics Issue Solution 32-bit … Read moreCommon Issues with 32-bit Applications Failing on 64-bit
We had a customer in the lab recently and they were quite certain their application was Windows 7 ready. To their surprise, it had several issues in certain situations. In this post, I’ll talk about one of the situations they encountered as well as other stumbling blocks you might run into with UAC Virtualization. Why … Read moreTales of Application Compatibility Weirdness – Demystifying UAC Virtualization
Recently, someone asked me this question in e-mail — “How do I get my application to run elevated when someone launches it?” Instinctively, I responded with a “You need to manifest it.” I got a nice long e-mail in return. 😉 I quickly realized that application manifests appear simple but are quite confusing. Manifests are … Read moreAnswers to Several Application Manifest Mysteries and Questions
I had the opportunity to go to Berlin for TechEd Europe 2009. I delivered a presentation on Application Compatibility and the rest of the time I hung out in the “Test your app on Win 7” and “Win 7 Developer drop in center”. I got some great questions from attendees. I thought I’d blog some … Read moreQuestions from the Developer Booth at TechEd Europe 2009
If you have an existing application, you may be wondering if it’s going to work on Windows 7. If it works on Vista, you have a good shot at it working on Windows 7. As a developer or a tester, you may be wondering if you have tested your application to uncover potential issues on … Read moreWindows 7 Application Compatibility Testing Guidance document