back to article Microsoft creates Vista, Windows 7 compatibility tool for twitchy coders

Microsoft has spun out the final release of its so-called “Platform Update” for Windows Vista to help developers create apps in Windows 7 as well as its unloved predecessor. The tool, which features a set of runtime libraries, was designed by Microsoft to get better compatibility between Vista and Windows 7. The software …

COMMENTS

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  1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
    Jobs Horns

    Reality check

    So in order for me to safely use these new features in my app, EITHER my customers have to have manually selected some non-urgent items from Windows Update OR I have to force those same updates onto the customers behind their backs. Yeah, I can see that happening. (The latter option would require MS to make the updates available as a download, which as far as I see they haven't done, and contravenes good practice, local laws at my customer site and almost certainly some licence terms attached to the actual updates, so I'm really only mentioning it out of completeness.)

    Look, Mr Ballmer, get real. Either this stuff is robust enough that *you* are willing to force it (in *your* name) on all users as part of a service pack, or I can't afford the customer support burden of making my software depend on it.

  2. Peter Kay

    Includes DirectX 11

    It really isn't clear from the article, or Microsoft's statement, but the average person out there may be interested to know this includes DirectX 11 for Vista.

    It doesn't bring Vista up to the level of Windows 7 (for instance, the WDDM1.1 model in Windows 7 brings back some GDI/GDI+ acceleration) but it does add a few new shinies.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Oh really?

    "Effectively the tool has been created to encourage customers to move away from Vista in favour of Windows 7. Which shouldn't be all that difficult, we think."

    Might be more difficult than you think. I've just gone back to Vista, after the installation of Windows 7 rendered my KVM switch and webcams useless, with no hint of a resolution any time soon. I know that's just as likely to be the peripherals' manufacturer's fault, but that doesn't help me one bit.

    I'll wait a while before I attempt to install it again, say in about a service pack's time, when maybe it will do the things I need it to do.

  4. Rod MacLean
    Alert

    Question

    "The updates will include the Windows Ribbon, automation, portable devices platform and animation manager APIs to allow coders to write apps for that technology."

    Which technology? That was a list!

    Ribbon is completely awful anyway and is just the shit-flavoured icing on the vomit-cake we call Windows.

  5. SirTainleyBarking
    WTF?

    And ain't it a PITA

    This just came through on the latest Vista update cycle. The update is less than 10meg for the Win 7 stuff, but boy does it cycle the old PC up and down like a yoyo to get it on there. 3 Restarts and a good half hour of waiting around.

    Not the most productive I've been today

  6. Peter Kay

    Only one restart here

    Select them all in one go. Click. Reboot. Done.

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