News

Microsoft Publishes Application Compatibility Kit for XP SP2

• By Scott Bekker
• August 26, 2004

Microsoft posted a new kit to the download section of its Web site for testing application compatibility and fixing any problems that crop up during Windows XP Service Pack 2 deployments.

Called the "Application Compatibility Testing and Mitigation Guide for Windows XP Service Pack 2," it is available through the Microsoft Download Center here. The file, AppCompat-XPSP2.msi, is about 3 MB.

Microsoft has been posting a steady stream of tools and documentation to its Web site as the SP2 rollout progressed throughout August. The kit's posting on Wednesday coincided with the final stage of the online rollout of SP2 -- availability for Windows XP Professional users over Automatic Update and Windows Update.

Application compatibility problems are an anticipated but disruptive reality of Windows XP SP2 rollouts. The new Windows Firewall and changes to Internet Explorer's default settings are protecting users of many applications but rendering other programs unusable.

Lists maintained by Microsoft show nearly 50 applications that break when SP2 is installed and dozens more that stop behaving properly.

Microsoft description of the new kit says, "This guidance discusses the security technologies, an application testing process, incompatibility symptoms, mitigation techniques, and deployment scenarios. It makes no assumption about the size or complexity of the network, and is as relevant to peer-to-peer environments as it is to Active Directory environments."