With 2019 being the last full year of support for the Windows 7 operating system, many companies are running out of time to upgrade to Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 operating system. However, one of the main reasons many people and businesses continue to use the older versions is because of the fear of an application no longer being able to run on the upgraded computer.
Microsoft is confident that the vast, vast majority of software should run fine, however they do acknowledge the fact that sometimes API changes can break things. While the company works hard to best insure these issues don’t arise, sometimes that isn’t quite enough for businesses to bite. To help combat this, the company is rolling out their new Desktop App Assure service, which will help in the unlikely event the application does fail to run after the upgrade.
According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, users will be able to file a support ticket with Microsoft’s FastTrack program, after which an engineer will work with them until all compatibility issues are resolved. The service is free for anyone deploying Windows 10 and Office ProPlus with an eligible Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education subscription. The company is able to offer the service without charge because, according to their statistics, engineers evaluated 7,000 out of 41,000 applications, with only 49 of which required work to fix. The company is providing the following assistance to make sure the following Windows 7 apps will work for Windows 10:
- Customer-developed apps targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
- Third-party independent software vendor (ISV) apps targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
- Office 365 ProPlus targeting a supported version of Windows 10, including macros and add-ins.
- Microsoft products and services targeting a supported version of Windows 10.
- Windows 10 desktop and web apps.
However, the company will now offer assistance to test compatibility for those apps to insure they work. Other services not offered by the program include:
- App inventory and testing to determine what does and doesn’t work on Windows 10. For more information, see Customer Request for Modern Desktop Assessment.
- Researching third-party ISV apps for Windows 10 compatibility and support statements. For more information, see Ready for Windows.
- App packaging-only services. However, the Desktop App Assure team packages apps that we have remediated for Windows 10 to ensure they can be deployed in the customer’s environment.
As it stands, Microsoft is readying its discontinuration of Windows 10 which, which will occur on January 14, 2020. With Windows 10 being pegged as the last version of Windows, developers only need to upgrade once and will never have to worry about upgrading again in the future.
