So Vista had a "XP Compatibility Mode" and XP had one for 2000 and so forth. There is a whole series of things baked in to make applications work that never should have worked. Many applications fail to work simply because they incorrectly check the OS version, for example. They have false positive compatibility failures for no reason other than not calling the right API or doing bad math. Other applications do things not via published APIs which are never ever guaranteed not to change from version to version (or even within a version's life cycle). You can set apps to run in compatibility mode (via the Compatibility tab in the properties of the exe) for a specific OS as well as a bunch of other flags that attempt to make apps which make poor assumptions continue to work.
This XP Compat mode that I think you're referring to specifically is the Virtual PC stuff which is completely different. Vista had this - it was called Virtual PC or VMWare and I have seen many places do stuff like deploy this in scenarios where it's required. Blaming the OS for the faults of applications is really silly. Thanks, Brian Desmond [email protected] c - 312.731.3132 From: Andrew S. Baker [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 1:46 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Low end reliable workstations All it says is that Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping old stuff working, even if some of that was due to bad code. If Vista had an XP compatibility mode, many of the complaints leveled against it would have disappated long ago. Vista and Win7 provide considerably more secure computing environments right out of the box, as compared to XP, and are far easier to lockdown, as compared to XP, reducing the chance of compromise with either of the newer OSes vs XP. That's based on a number of side-by-side implementation of each OS at various clients. -ASB: http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 5:14 PM, Charlie Kaiser <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: +1. A "secure" OS is no good if it cannot be used to perform work... Just the fact that XP Compatibility Mode exists says something... ;-) *********************** Charlie Kaiser [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Kingman, AZ *********************** > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] > Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 1:53 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Low end reliable workstations > In my experience, 90% of the software in the world, > including 90% of Microsoft's stuff, falls into the category > of "poorly-written". > > -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
