Overcome Windows 7 Software-Compatibility Issues

[Night Hawk]

Overcome Windows 7 Software-Compatibility Issues

By Rick Broida
December 1, 2009 02:19 PM ET

PC World - Windows 7 has the same core code as Windows Vista, right? So application compatibility should be a non-issue, right?

Wrong.

Recently I tried to apply a firmware update to a Blu-ray drive, but the installer was designed for Vista and produced an error in Windows 7.

Meanwhile, I've had ongoing problems getting my iPhone to sync properly with iTunes--even though it worked just fine in Vista.

Much as I like Windows 7, at times like these I wish I could turn back the clock and run Vista, or even XP.

Turns out I can. Windows 7 has a little-known feature that helps you troubleshoot
application compatibility. Here's how to use it:

1. Right-click the icon of the app that's not working properly, then click Troubleshoot compatibility.

More at: Overcome Windows 7 Software-Compatibility Issues

(See image attached)

 

[Lebon14]

Heh... that could solve many games problem...
Thanks for the tip. If I could, I would I have given rep for that... too bad, Brink removed rep for News Section

 

[Night Hawk]

I've know about this before 7 was even released for public beta testing when looking over some of the early information back in late 2008. The screen I added in there was actually taken while booted in one of the beta builds later when simply showing how to get many old XP programs running on the 32bit and quite often on the 64bit 7 as well.

While both XP and Vista still saw the compatibility tab option available this was something new for 7 and can be a real help at times. Give the rep to someone at MS who developed this option!

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
This LOOKS good but the sad reality is that often it just doesn't do "what it says on the tin".

Many times it just comes up with "Incompatable Application" and that's the end of it.

The ONLY time I've ever been able to get something like this to work is when an install fails and a little popup menu appears which says "Try installing with the recommended settings" (or something similar). You just click OK and then it works.

Running from the menu as shown above has always (100% of the time) failed for me resulting in the "Incompatable Application". When Windows prompts with "This program might not have installed correctly" and gives the option to re-install with the "recommended settings" then it will usually (around 80% of the time) work.


Reminds me of the Network help panel -- I've never found a case where this has been of the slightest use.

Cheers
jimbo.

 

[Night Hawk]

Once you use the troubleshooting tool there it creates new entries in the system registry to set the mode for a previous version of Windows as part of the process. At other times you will see the popup asking if a program installed correctly even if you ran into a 64bit incompatible error with a 32bit app in the 64bit 7 of course.

The tool does work at times when the compatibility mode tab simply won't. I put that to use enough on the 32bit beta and less later on the RCs. One tip when a program won't install from a disk is to browse the root directory of the disk itself to look for the main setup.exe or launcher.exe file and right click on that to set the mode for XP or Vista depending on how old the program is.

At one time I even saw 32bit device drivers suddenly work on the 64bit beta for a rather pleasant surprize! It won't work for everything but it can be a big help at times when other options won't.