Windows 7 backwards compatibility
Martin | Apr 09, 2008 | Comments 15
Windows 7 will be different. Different from previous Microsoft operating systems that all had to ensure that applications designed for older versions of Windows would also run perfectly on the newest operating system. Backwards compatibility is a great feature and gives users one less reason to worry about when updating from an old version of Windows to a newer one.
On the other hand it does have an impact on performance and size of an operating system. The biggest folder of a Windows Vista installation is not the system32 folder anymore, it’s the WinSxS folder. The WinSxS folder basically stores different versions of program libraries like dll files which are needed to ensure that an application that is requesting a library gets the correct version it is requesting.
This is on the other hand a very redundant method and there are reports on the Internet that the WinSxS folder grows out of proportion rapidly.
Microsoft’s approach in Windows 7 is different. Windows 7 will not be binary compatible to older Microsoft operating systems. This does not mean that old programs will simply not run on Windows 7 though because Microsoft will be using virtualization to ensure compatibility with older applications that have been designed for a previous Microsoft operating system.
The huge advantages of this approach are performance increases for native applications and the operating system itself and a decrease of the distribution size itself.
In Windows 7, Microsoft will break from the Windows’ norm by breaking previous API compatibility, offering new API frameworks as a native solution, and providing support for legacy frameworks (COM, ATL, .NET Framework, etc) through monolithic libraries designed to provide the functionality of all previous revisions of the modules in question. This extends/replaces the WinSxS philosophy, providing every single function, past and present, in fully comprehensive libraries. This should allow the majority of legacy applications to run perfectly, while still retaining native performance for applications compiled specifically with the Windows 7 platform in mind. It should also be possible for applications produced with previous versions of Visual Studio to be directly recompiled into native code using the new API frameworks.
source The Beta Guy
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Once everything not there… will people say “damn it, it takes me so much time to install everything. why not just build one ultimate edition w/ everything I wish to have… LOL”?
…”The huge advantages of this approach are performance increases for native applications and the operating system itself and a decrease of the distribution size itself.”
in other words: Windows 7 programed applications will run as they should. ANY OTHER WINDOWS BASED APPLICATION WILL RUN LIKE SHIT THROUGH AN EMULATOR.
note to Microsoft: quit monopolizing the market and trying to scare knowledgeable people into using you. Macs have been Superior from the start and Linux has now surpased you in every aspect (os size, functionality, cost and happy customers. not to mention that linux can run 70% of all applications ever created by any operating system. Thats without funding…)
note to potential buyers- put more pressure on game companies to write games for linux/mac. If you dont need to play games and you dont need media editing, linux is a FREE alternative to Microsoft
@Rob
I see what you’re trying to say, and I agree with you, but for businesses, they use the software to make hundreds of thousands a year, so 400 for the ability to install the os on their computers sound fair, as it is quickly made by the computers. But for the home users, we don’t make our money off computers, we don’t have that kind of money just for an os. I think I’d take your “core” idea, and just make it broad objects, such gaming, business, networking, multimedia and etc. But do keep in mind, programming takes a LONG time to do, but they do still overcharge.
When a company like Microsoft releases a new OS that is
incompatible whith its own software, (Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 is quite difficult to install and run on Vista) it is not a question of progress or “what is best for the users”. It is just about making more money…
You can raise several complaints against library versioning issiues in different Linux distros, but I have never seen a confidence breech of Microsofts proportions in the Linux world.
I used to develop in C#. Now I want to know what can I do with c# in Windows 7 Environment. As information Phyton defeat C# in TIOBE index.