What Application Compatibility Problem: I mean, specifically...

I was reading a post on the Microsoft TechNet Application Compatibility forum today and noticed a post that reflected how I felt after reading a number of Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) warnings.

An excerpt of the posting reads;

"I'm testing the Win7 Enterprise edition, and ran into a "known incompatibility" message when installing Norton Ghost 12. Feeling adventuresome (since it runs perfectly well with the RC1 version), I clicked "install anyway", downloaded the latest updates from Symantec (over 200 MB as I recall) and have been successfully running Ghost 12 ever since, just like I've been doing with the RC1 version (Win 7 32 bit version) since May. So my question is WHAT compatibility problem?"

What is the compatibility problem here?

The question was well handled by another poster and moderator on the forum with the following response;

"There are a number of compatibility issues with Ghost 12 & Ghost 14 in Windows7... Creation of additional files/folders backups, control of recovery points deleted, One time virtual conversion to name but a few."

This is good information. Unfortunately, the current application compatibility infrastructure presented by Microsoft's PCA does not currently deliver this kind of useful knowledge. I use the term "Knowledge" as it does not supply enough information to allow you to make a decision.

The current PCA dialog and accompanying information does not give us enough information (should there be an advanced information option) to make a decision. As evidenced by the original issue poster

- he just decided to install anyways and see how things went for him.


You can find the Microsoft Application Compatibility forum here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproappcompat

Thanks to Hula_Baluu for the great posting!