Vista application compatibility

Windows Vista SP2 Beta Publicly Available 12/4/08

I guess those guys at TechARP really must have some good sources: less than one week after they shared leaked information about release dates and content for Windows Vista SP2, Microsoft has announced its Customer Preview Program (CPP) for a single SP2 that will cover both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. This leads me to several interesting observations:

• There must be much more to the common code base that purportedly exists between Vista and Server 2008 than many had previously thought–including me–because a single set of executables (32-bit and 64-bit binaries, in the usual variations) will address both OSes.
• The Notable Changes document mentions a change to the Windows Update Agent/Windows Update Service stack as a pre-req to installing this service pack.
• The Windows Update versions will be between 302 and 390 MB in size for standalone packages, and from 41 to 47 MB for Windows Update downloads (32-bit packages). For x64 64-bit packages, these numbers vary between 508 and 622 MB for standalone, and 60 and 90 MB for Windows Update versions.
• The new features list matches what I reported from TechARP exactly, except for the omission of updates to the RSS feeds sidebar gadget to improve performance and responsiveness.
• Numerous enterprise (full addition of Hyper-V into 2008, improved power management policies, and improved backward compatibility for Terminal Server license keys) and setup and deployment (single installer for both Vista and 2008, driver incompatibility checks during install, better error handling and reporting, improved installation logging and security, and another clean-up tool to rid the drive of files that SP2 will supersede) features will debut in this service pack.
• There’s also mention of running the clean-up tool offline while creating slipstream install images to reduce overall image size. I’m curious to see how this will play out in day-to-day use.

As I write this blog, the SP2 download is available only to TechNet and MSDN subscribers (drat! I gave up my TechNet subscription as of 1/1/2008, and this is the first time I’ve missed it since then). On Thursday, 12/4/08, it became available on its own Beta CPP page [added 12/5/08].

Of course this information begs a very important question for enterprise Vista admins to ponder: why would they care about this beta? Instead of thinking of it as another distraction from important tasks and activities, think of it as an early opportunity to look for potential install, deployment, and compatibility issues. Although the full-blown release won’t go live until April09 at the earliest, it’s never too soon to start weeding out the potential gotchas from the work that a full-blown rollout will inevitably bring. That’s why you’ll probably want to download and work with this beta, albeit in the context of a safe and isolated test lab setup.

–Ed–

Exam 70-624 TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops

Another doozy of a title, this exam is likely to appeal to IT professionals who work with Vista in all situations (SOHO, SMB, tech support, enterprise, and so forth) and of all stripes (help desk, tech support, IT administration, and so on). As with other exams in the 70-620 through 70-625 Vista sequence, this one’s Preparation Guide follows the old-style format. In short, anybody who deploys or maintains Windows Vista desktops is likely to benefit from studying for and taking this exam, even though its official target audience is candidates with “a minimum of one year of experience managing day-to-day issues with desktop deployments.”

There’s one more incredibly useful nugget inside this prep guide. It reads: “This exam is the Windows Vista version of Exam 74-134: Pre-Installing Microsoft Products and Technologies, [and is] focused on the OEM Pre-Installation Kit (OPK).” Why so? Because you’ll find some great links to study materials for the other exam on its prep page (linked at the head of this paragraph) that don’t appear on the 70-624 exam page.

The prep tools and resources that appear on the 70-624 page include the following:

• Classroom training: Course 5105: Deploying Windows Vista Business Desktops and Course 5058: Deploying Microsoft Office 2007 Professional.
• e-learning offerings: Collection 5058: Deploying 2007 Microsoft Office System Client Products.

The lack of books and complete e-learning coverage explains nicely why the 74-134 page is referenced, and also why it’s a good idea to dig up its study material citations to help you get ready for this exam as well.

Skills measured on the 70-624 exam break down as follows:

• Deploying 2007 MS Office System:
  Configure MS Office settings & components, install 2007 MS Office system, and migrate from earlier MS Office versions.
• Configuring Windows Vista Automated Installation Settings:
  Configure Vista automated install settings, manage Windows Vista catalogs, add device drivers to Vista installs, manage Windows components, and configure and manipulate Windows Imaging Format (WIM) images.
• Deploying Windows Vista:
  Deploy Vista using Lite Touch Installation (LTI) and Zero Touch Installation (ZTI), customize Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE), and troubleshoot deployment issues.
• Using Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Workbench:
  Install BDD, configure distribution point in BDD 2007 Workbench, create a reference computer image, manage XML files in BDD Workbench, automate 2007 MS Office system installation, and customize and maintain Windows PE in BDD Workbench.
• Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT):
  Install and configure ACT 5, deploy ACT 5 agents, report application compatibility, and fix compatibility issues.
• Managing User State Migration:
  Upgrade user state from XP to Vista, automate user state migration, manage Vista deployments using SMS 2003, determine Operating System Deployment (OSD) prerequisites, install and configure SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack, and troubleshoot and plan for user state migrations.

There’s a lot more to this exam than the title conveys, especially where automation, deployment, and user state migration are concerned. This one’s going to take some work and experience to get through, so be prepared to invest substantial time and effort in preparing, unless you work with these tools and technologies on a daily basis. My guess is that those conditions hold only in enterprises or outside services companies big or specialized enough to have their own Vista deployment teams. How many of those can there be? The total count for MCTS: Business Desktop Deployment certified professionals as of 10/27/08 is 4,868, so the answer could be: “More than you think!”

The Application Compatibility Check Process a la Microsoft

For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be digging into issues related to application compatibility for organizations and enterprises considering the move to Windows Vista. For such outfits, one of the most important and pressing concerns that surround a migration has to be application compatibility, which should perhaps be pithily restated as “Will my apps work with Vista?”

Microsoft is keenly aware of this potential hurdle, and has devoted considerable time, energy, and resources to creating tools, guides, and processes for assessing application compatibility. In some upcoming blogs, I’ll take a closer look at that company’s Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0, aka ACT. In this blog, I begin the overall process of assessing application compatibility by describing that process as Microsoft sees it, and pointing to some papers, resources, and how-to’s that the company has put together to help companies and organizations see their way through it. Much of the information you’ll find here, in fact, is summarized from the company’s paper entitled “Getting Started with Application Compatibility in a Windows Deployment” (PDF document, 301KB).

In a nutshell, the process works like this:

1. Collect information about current applications in use.
2. Prioritize and rationalize applications worth testing for compatibility, and supporting after Vista deployment.
3. Test a finalized list of applications in priority order as need dictates, and resources permit.
4. Mitigate issues to make applications workable or replace them as necessary (Or as MS puts it: “remediate, upgrade, mitigate, retire”).

Centrally managed environments that have established standard desktop configurations and that control the applications allowed to run on those desktops will have the easiest time of the inventory stage. ACT includes an inventory tool, in fact, for environments that don’t already maintain one (such as Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, or SMS 2003). The idea is to put together a comprehensive list of every application and version in use on enterprise desktops.

The next step, which MS delicately labels “prioritize and rationalize” is the tricky one. This really means choosing standard versions for apps in use across multiple versions (what MS calls “application relevancy”). It also means choosing a single app when more than one is used to do the same job (such as multiple productivity suites, video editing tools, and so forth; MS calls this “application redundancy”). Finally, it means getting rid of unauthorized applications or those that, as MS puts it, “are irrelevant to the day-to-day work being done in your organization.”

After the winnowing process is done, there will be fewer applications to deal with. This is the point at which prioritization occurs, based on the relative importance of the remaining applications within your organization. Often, this means tossing names into buckets that might be labeled:

• Business Critical: essential to ongoing business operations. SLA response
• High Priority: perform vital roles in some departments or across the organization. SLA response
• Important: used frequently but won’t cause work stoppages if it fails. SLA response
• Optional: Approved applications in limited use not directly related to business functions. Not covered by SLA, and receive “best-effort” IT response.

The categorization process also involves identifying applications essential for business or operations to proceed, and for typical job roles to be enacted. Prioritization within buckets requires management buy-in and means tackling items from the top down, once there’s agreement on what’s on top, and how items are ordered from there.

Next comes application testing, which is where you’ll decide which applications can be made to work, and which ones may need to be retired and replaced. Ultimately, the idea is to work toward a collection of software components that get the necessary work done and that also work properly with Vista. More on this in my next blog!

For more ACT resources, check out
Just Released: Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT)5.0.3
ACT 5.0 Deployment Guide
ACT 5.0 Step by Step Guides
TechNet Webcast: Making Windows Vista Application Compatibility Testing More Predictable
Webcast: Debugging for Application Compatibility Issues with Chris Jackson (interested readers should also check out Jackson’s Blog)
Windows Vista Application Compatibility Training Recordings