I was in Redmond the past week working with the App-V team and some members of the Windows 7 deployment team and so I missed out on blogging about the Windows 7 compatibility update.
Apologies for this, I should have commented on this earlier. I thought that update was pretty intriguing, as it demonstrated that Microsoft has already engaged it Support and Maintenance "Engine" (Patches and Updates) for an operating system that has not yet even been formally released.
The Window 7 compatibility patch can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=974332
And, according to the Microsoft support Knowledge Base (KB) article, the following applications were updated in this September 2009 update;
Application | Behavior after you install the update |
Alcohol 52% | Update enables Windows 7 compatible Alcohol 52% versions to work |
Altiris and Symantec Virtual Software up to version 6.1.499.x | Upgrade Block to avoid errors during Windows upgrade |
ZoomText version 9.18 | Driver hard Block to prevent an error |
Dell Printer Driver (Models-V105, V305 and V505) | Upgrade Block to avoid setup failure |
Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 | Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade |
Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 | Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade |
Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 | Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade |
YiDongFeiXin version 2.2.x and version 3.5.x | Enables application to work |
PGP Desktop up to version 9.x | Soft Block to warn about possible issue after Windows upgrade |
Trend Micro VirusBuster 2008 | Upgrade Block to avoid errors |
Windows Live Photo Gallery | Update Windows Live Photo Gallery to avoid file association issue with Windows Media Player OCX |
In addition, there are a number of core SDB files (or SHIM database files) which are updated as part of this update. Here is a screen-shot of my local machine directory structure;
In this case both SYSMAIN.SDB and the PCAMAIN.SDB files were updated. For those of you who don't deal with application compatibility issues everyday, these files may seem a little new/strange/worrisome to you. These SDB files are delivered as part of Windows (and Windows Vista) and contain information in a proprietary database format that details how the target operating system should handle the application. For example, what application SHIM should be used for the to allow YiDongFeiXin to work.
What is interesting update this "compatibility" update is that this is actually a "non-Compatibility" update.
Read the messages for the following applications;
Read the messages for the following applications;
Altiris and Symantec Virtual Software up to version 6.1.499.x | Upgrade Block to avoid errors during Windows upgrade |
ZoomText version 9.18 | Driver hard Block to prevent an error |
These "Update Blocks" for these applications actually STOP these applications from running - so, they won't cause any application or system level errors. This is part of Microsoft's Program Compatibility Assistant technology. You can read more about this here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756937.aspx
I repeat, as part of this Compatibility update, the solution here is to simply stop the applications from starting or our upgrading. With the good intention that this new behaviour will prevent the user from a bad experience.
As Robert Heinlein once said, "Good intentions are the root of all evil!"
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