APP: Application Compatibility Toolkit

CraigMarcho

Microsoft

Mar 16, 2019

First published on TECHNET on Apr 09, 2009

APPLICATION COMPATIBILITY TOOLKIT (ACT)

Description: Description: The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT professionals who work in a corporate environment to determine, before rolling out within the organization, whether their applications are compatible with a new version of the Windows® operating system. ACT also enables such individuals to determine how an update to a new version will impact their applications.

You can use the ACT features to:

Verify your application's, device's, and computer's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, including determining your risk assessment.
Verify a Windows update's compatibility, including determining your risk assessment.

Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.

Use the provided developer and test tools to test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to Internet Explorer®, to determine potential compatibility issues due to the User Account Control (UAC) feature, to create compatibility fixes for your application compatibility issues, and to determine any potential application installation and setup issues.

Scoping the Issue: ACT issues usually fall into one of two categories: Usability and Break / Fix.

Usability Issues: ACT is relatively straightforward to use and has excellent documentation. The following topics are covered in either the built-in help files, or on the TechNet site in an article called Using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) . This is a must-read for any usability questions. (The walkthrough exercises are particularly good!)

Using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT)

Configuring the Application Compatibility Toolkit

Phase 1: Collecting Your Compatibility Data

Phase 2: Analyzing Your Compatibility Data

Phase 3: Testing and Mitigating Your Compatibility Issues

ACT Walkthrough Exercises
- Deploying a New Operating System
- Applying a Windows Update
- Testing and Mitigating Issues by Using the Development Tools

Data Gathering: In all instances, collecting either MPS Reports with the General, Internet and Networking, Business Networks and Server Components diagnostics, or a Performance-oriented MSDT manifest must be done.

In addition we may need the contents of of the ACT Log Share folder. To determine the location of this folder, launch Application Compatibility Manager , click on Tools then Settings and note the value in the Log Share Path field. Compress this folder and all subfolders and provide them to a Support Engineer if requested.

In certain rare cases when there is a problem in the ACT data stored in SQL, we may require a copy of the SQL database itself. Please create a backup of the SQL database via the SQL Server tools and then compress the backup copy before providing it to your Support Engineer.

Troubleshooting / Resolution: After you have gathered the data, there are some things to check:

MPS Reports: Review the Event Logs for relevant events related to ACT

For break/fix issues where ACT is not performing as expected or generating errors, first make sure your system meets the software and hardware requirements for ACT 5.5 .

Assuming that your system does meet the requirements, you can remove and reinstall ACT on a different machine (for troubleshooting) without losing the data, which is stored in SQL. The TechNet article, Troubleshooting ACT covers the most common troubleshooting scenarios and steps:
- Troubleshooting ACT Setup : Includes detailed information and recommendations about known issues that can occur when configuring the Microsoft® SQL Server® database to use with ACT and the ACT Log Processing Service.
- Troubleshooting User Account Control Compatibility Evaluator (UACCE) Issues : Includes detailed information and recommendations about known issues that can occur when using the User Account Control Compatibility Evaluator (UACCE).
- Troubleshooting Windows Compatibility Evaluator (WCE) Issues : Includes detailed information and recommendations about known issues that can occur when using the Windows Compatibility Evaluator (WCE).
- Troubleshooting Update Compatibility Evaluator (UCE) Issues : Includes detailed information and recommendations about known issues that can occur when using the Update Compatibility Evaluator (UCE).