MS brings free Win 7 compatibility tool for SMBs

REDMOND, Wash.: Microsoft Corp. today announced an alliance with ChangeBASE Ltd., a market leader in application compatibility testing and remediation, to offer a new online tool, AOK for Small and Midsize Businesses (SMB).

The alliance would make it easy for industry partners servicing SMB customers and IT professionals to test the compatibility status of applications and automatically remediate incompatibilities when upgrading to Windows 7 Professional. They can go to https://www.aok4smb.com/ to upload applications for testing and remediation for free until the end of July, said a press release.

Sandrine Skinner, director of SMB product management for the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft said, “We recognize small- and midsize-business customers have a unique and diverse set of needs and they don’t have time to think about technology for technology’s sake. Customers tell us they need an easy way to make sure their applications will work with Windows 7 Professional.”

“The ability to ensure application compatibility when migrating to a new operating system new link is crucial for any organization,” said Colin Gray, global sales director, ChangeBASE.

He added, “AOK4SMB enables SMB partners and IT pros to embrace the benefits of Windows 7 Professional by quickly assessing and reporting application compatibility issues and uniquely automatically fixing the majority of issues found. The fact that this tool is online and free makes the process easy.”

Although Windows 7 works with the majority of software and devices available today, Microsoft offers a variety of resources to help provide a seamless experience for small and midsize businesses, said the release.

As a first step, SMB customers can go to the Windows 7 Compatibility Center for an extensive view of the compatibility status of their hardware and software before they upgrade to Windows 7. They also can use Windows XP Mode, a feature of Windows 7 Professional (and Enterprise and Ultimate editions and above) to run older productivity applications.

In addition, IT professionals and industry partners servicing small and midsize businesses can now take advantage of AOK4SMB to quickly remediate applications so that they can run natively on Windows 7. AOK4SMB creates a report outlining the application compatibility status and resolves any issues automatically, the release added.