Skip to main content

New update to improve Windows 7 backward compatibility

A new update was made available by Microsoft for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system that is designed to advance the backward compatibility capability of the two platforms.

The backward compatibility feature of Windows 7 allows running of older application that doesn’t play nice with the new operating system. Although not a one-hundred percent fool proof solution, the backward compatibility feature has worked for me on a number of occasions in the past.

This update enables a dynamic-link library (DLL) that is designed for earlier versions of Windows to run in a Windows Vista context if the following conditions are true:

  • The DLL does not specify an RT_MANIFEST resource.
  • The DLL calls an API that uses the dynamic compatibility context. For example, the DLL calls the GetOverlappedResults API.

The backward compatibility feature in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 detects the manifest in a DLL and sets the dynamic context of a DLL to Windows 7 or to Windows Vista. This enables Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide a Windows Vista context for applications that are designed for earlier versions of Windows.

However, if a DLL is not manifested correctly, the DLL may run in a Windows 7 context unexpectedly. This issue occurs because the Windows 7 compatibility mechanism incorrectly assumes that a DLL is compatible with Windows 7 if the DLL does not specify an RT_MANIFEST resource. This issue occurs especially if all the other DLLs in an application are not manifested or if the other DLLs are manifested with Windows 7 compatible GUIDs. This causes the "faulty" DLL to run in Windows 7 compatible mode. This behavior causes the application that loads the DLL to stop responding. Therefore, customers cannot run an application in Windows 7 context if the application loads at least one DLL in those two conditions.

Download the update for:

Windows 7 x86 based (32-bit)
Windows 7 x64 based
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 based
Windows Server 2008 R2 IA-64 based

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.
17 comments
Read more

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used:
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.
1 comment
Read more