windows7ROAR

What is ACT all about? August 3, 2010

The Application Compatibility Toolkit is a suite of tools and documentation that will aid your migration to Windows 7.  It has three main components:

* Application Compatibility Manager

“The Application Compatibility Manager (ACM) is a tool that enables you to configure, to collect, and to analyze your data, so that you can fix any issues prior to deploying a new operating system in your organization.”

* Compatibility Administrator

“The Compatibility Administrator enables the creation and the use of custom and standard compatibility databases. Both the custom databases and the standard databases store the known compatibility fixes, compatibility modes, and AppHelp messages, in addition to the required application-matching information, for installation on your local computers.

By default, the Windows® operating system installs a System Application Fix database for use with the Compatibility Administrator. This database can be updated through Windows Update, and is stored in the %WINDIR% \AppPatch directory. Your custom databases are automatically stored in the %WINDIR% \AppPatch\Custom directory and are installed by using the Sdbinst.exe tool provided with the Compatibility Administrator.”

 * Testing tools such as Standard User Analyzer

You would use these tools as part of your XP to W7 migration.   To help you get a handle on these tools, check out this walkthrough as well as these great virtual labs on Technet!   For a visual tour and demo, here’s a video.