Making Your Applications Work with Windows 7

Posted on Tue Nov 24 2009 in SWF Studio by Tim

Windows 7 adds support for a new section in your application manifests called Compatibility and if you want your applications to behave properly on Windows 7 then you'd better pay attention!

The compatibility section lets you specify which version of Windows your application was designed for. If the compatibility section is not present, your application will get the Windows Vista behavior by default on Windows 7 and future Windows versions.

SWF Studio 3.7 and older versions don't support Windows 7. To even have a chance to get your application to work properly you'll have to update the compatibility section to the application manifest yourself.

NOTE: The next release of SWF Studio will add a compatibility section to the default manifest for you automatically.

By adding a compatibility section with the Windows 7 GUID, you're telling Windows 7 that your application was designed for Windows 7 and that it should not run it in Vista compatibility mode.

The compatibility section is new and only recognized by Windows 7 so adding it won't affect how your application works on older operating systems.

Here's our default application manifest with a compatibility section that adds support for Windows 7. Just drop this into the Manifest field on the Defaults Tab in SWF Studio.

There are still a number of known issues with Windows 7 support in SWF Studio 3.7 that we're working on. We have a beta version that fixes all of the known problems with Windows 7 support and it's available to any registered user.

Just ask us for a beta copy and be sure to include your SWF Studio serial number.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">

  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="stub.exe" type="win32" />

  <description>stub</description>

  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity
        type="win32"
        name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
        version="6.0.0.0"
        processorArchitecture="X86"
        publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
        language="*" />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>

  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"/>
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>

   <compatibility xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:compatibility.v1">
      <application>
         
         <supportedOS Id="{35138b9a-5d96-4fbd-8e2d-a2440225f93a}"/>
      </application>
   </compatibility>

</assembly>

Comments

So, without intercession, Windows 7 assumes *all* programs have been written for Vista?

And, if SWF Studio doesn't support Windows 7, wouldn't we *want* to run in Vista compatibility mode?

...Maybe I misread the blog.

Posted by Dunlavy on 30 Nov 2009 at 3:58am

I'm not sure what Windows 7 does if you don't include a manifest but I'd have to guess it would run in Vista compatibility mode if it didn't KNOW the app was designed for Windows 7. All SWF Studio apps include a manifest though so Windows 7 can assume they would have been written for XP or Vista (and it just assumes Vista). While this should be okay, there are times when it can cause problems like this one. In certain cases adding the compatibility section will resolve problems created by the application compatibility assistant. We will be resolving our known Windows 7 issues shortly and adding the compatibility section automatically so your apps will just work on Windows 7. Doing this yourself is a way to get around issues caused by running in Vista compatibility mode today.

Posted by Tim on 30 Nov 2009 at 6:03am

I´m running windows 7 64BIT latest release and haven't had any problems whatsoever.

I'm running it without any compatibility options.

Do I have to follow the above steps and add the application manifest?

Posted by Livingston Monteverde on 21 May 2010 at 12:05pm

If you're using the public release of SWF Studio (3.7 build 197 as I write this) then you ARE going to have problems. If you're using our beta (3.8) or something else then this advice about the manifest doesn't apply because 3.8 already adds it for you and who knows what other apps are doing!

Posted by Tim on 21 May 2010 at 12:23pm

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Making Your Applications Work with Windows 7

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