Take a look inside our approach to application compatibility. Compatibility by design, inventory and validation, and remediation assistance are three important pillars of our application confidence strategy. In this blog series, see how our investments in these different pillars facilitate your Windows deployment success.
Translating our promise to your success
Windows is built with compatibility in mind. Microsoft supports the broadest app, peripheral, and device ecosystem. Release over release, we have achieved 99.7% application compatibility to give you greater confidence as you update your Windows devices.
|
Note: Throughout this post and the series, you'll find application compatibility and app compat used interchangeably. |
We understand that you need extra reassurance that your apps will work as you update to Windows 11. That's why we set out to meet this need through:
- Ensuring our OS is compatible by design
- Supporting you with our Test Base service to simplify testing of your most critical applications
- Offering a safety net and no-cost app compatibility support through our App Assure engineers
This is our three-pronged approach to helping your organization deploy and consume Windows and Microsoft 365 app updates. If you ever have compatibility concerns, we facilitate the following steps:
- Inventory.
You may want to have an inventory of the most critical apps, or the most used apps, in your environment. Microsoft Intune's discovered apps can be used to help identify the most used apps in your environment. The Windows feature update compatibility risks report can be used as part of your inventory process. This report will expose any apps with known compatibility risks based on the performance analysis of each particular device.
Get started here > Our approach begins with inventory - Testing.
Expect your apps to work on Windows 11. If you'd like extra reassurance, test your most critical apps with Test Base for Microsoft 365.
Get started here > Optimize app validation with Test Base - Deployment rings and monitoring.
When you are ready to deploy Windows 11, leverage deployment rings and monitor for any app health issues in your early deployment rings. The Application reliability report in Endpoint Analytics can help identify any app health issues in your early deployment rings.
Get started here > Monitor app health and fall back on App Assure
In the 0.3% chance that you encounter an issue at any point in your process, App Assure engineers are ready to support you. And this blog series is here to walk you through each of these layers and recommendations for additional peace of mind.
|
|
App inventory |
Testing |
Deployment health |
|
We ensure it |
App compatibility by design is a core tenet of our planning and development process to ensure high compatibility rates. |
App compatibility is determined by rigorous testing of business-critical apps during servicing and updates. |
App compatibility is a promise with assurance. Call on our App Assure engineers to support you in the 0.3% chance that you encounter any issues. |
|
You can double-check it |
Gain inventory insights with discovered apps and Upgrade Readiness reports in Microsoft Intune! |
If you need extra reassurance, test your critical apps with Test Base for Microsoft 365. |
To help monitor deployment health, leverage the Application reliability report in Intune. |
Behind the scenes of 99.7% app compatibility rates
Every innovation, feature deprecation, and change we introduce is evaluated for the impact we have on compatibility. As a result, our compatibility rate at upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 is 99.7%. That's as high as updating from older to newer versions of Windows 10. We bet that's familiar to you!
Who we are
We are the Windows Application Compatibility team — a large group of dedicated engineers who validate and investigate issues discovered in Windows 11 builds. It's clear that the OS needs to innovate over time to respond to your needs and to raise the security bar. That's why our team is committed to compatibility, balancing OS innovations with the impact on your apps.
How we obtain insights
Our work begins with obtaining insights. This includes static and runtime analyses that feed machine learning models, telling us what has changed in a Windows build (relative to Windows in-market). We also learn a lot from users in the Windows Insider Program. We use this data to predict the third-party apps that we should validate during Windows development.
How we validate compatibility
While this data informs how we plan our validation efforts, the act of validating is a complex task. As the Compatibility team, we employ a large test matrix that includes multiple form factors, app categories, and API coverage to fully exercise the OS functionalities important to you. This test matrix includes two types of validation intended to discover issues before release:
- Automated validation runs over 280K unique app compatibility tests daily. That's where we validate primary app functionality against new changes in the OS.
- Manual validation of 2000-3000 apps monthly (the most recent estimate) ensures that there are no regressions to the end-user experience.
How we improve compatibility
Should an issue be discovered, we employ a team of experts who have deep experience in investigating issues and determining what should be adjusted to enable the third-party app to work correctly. Sometimes this means that a Windows feature team needs to make additional changes, or an independent software vendor (ISV) may need to adjust their app to align with OS innovation. In either case, we work directly with the corresponding feature team or ISV to resolve issues during development. That way, we can release with confidence that these apps will function as expected. A deep dive into the details of how we validate is provided in Application compatibility in the Windows ecosystem.
Learn how to make our success story yours in this blog series
The full application compatibility quality process is akin to an iceberg. Our deep investments in this effort during the development process go well below the water line. This is also where we develop tools you can use for your own app confidence journey, through inventory, testing, deployment, and monitoring.
We don't just build new products with a commitment to compatibility. We also invest in rigorous testing to prevent introducing compatibility issues as we service and update our in-market products. And don't worry about those 0.3% of apps that might encounter an issue. We want you to feel confident that if anything goes wrong, there are App Assure engineers here to support you in the small chance that you find an application compatibility issue.
Ready for tips on how you can increase confidence in testing, deployment, and monitoring for app compatibility?
Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Bookmark the Windows Tech Community and follow us @MSWindowsITPro on Twitter. Looking for support? Visit Windows on Microsoft Q&A.
Microsoft
