The Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 3.0 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 contains the tools and documentation you need to design, deploy, and support applications on these platforms. Tools include the latest versions of the Microsoft Windows Application Compatibility Analyzer that simplifies application inventory and compatibility testing, the Windows Application Verifier that assists developers and testers in locating common compatibility issues during the development cycle, and the Compatibility Administrator that provides access to the necessary compatibility fixes to support legacy applications in Windows.
Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 3.0 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Wasn’t this released last year sometime? This looks like a rerelease with Win2003 support added.
In my estimation, WACT is probably one of the best add-on tools Microsoft has released, but not in the capacity that they intended. The real intent of WACT seems to be to allow developers to test deployment of applications on older OSes, but I’ve personally gotten more use out of it playing X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and other old DOS only games that won’t run on W2K Pro. I’ve not tried any of the WACT versions since 1.5, so I’m interested to hear from anyone who’s used 3.0 for their old DOS games before I upgrade.
I sometimes use DOSBOX 6.1 for dosgaming in Linux or Windows ( I got 2 computers setup,) but it runs awfully slow even on a 1ghz machine. How fast does Tie FIghter run? It was one of my favorites when I first got into computers.
Oh god, the days of Tie Fighter. Lord knows I sucked horribly at that game, but god was it a lot of fun!
I’m on a 1.5 GHz Athlon, and I notice no slowness problems running TIE or X-Wing under WACT. I would have assumed that the speed issue would be reversed since I’m running those games on hardware that’s probably about 5x faster than any machine available when those games were released, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem either.
Actually… They came out with versions of X-Wing and Tie Fighter for Windows. You can find both of them updated for Windows here http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002SV6D/qid=107939…
I got one of them (X-Wing) for free with something else, can’t remember what right off hand. I haven’t tried it yet with W2K, WXP, or Linux so I don’t actually know how well it runs on any of those.
But yes, those two games are fun.
The versions for Windows only work on the Win9x series. For Win2k or XP you have to use something like WACT.
I don’t know which version of ACT I have, however I succeded in playing with X-Wing95 and TIE Fighter 95. For X-Wing you only have to set win95 compatibility mode and disable 3D Hardware, with today’s machines 3D Software is more than enoght thought. For TIE Fighter I had to do many tries with ACT but eventually it worked (joystick problems). I hadn’t uninstalled it for long now (I don’t want to risk) but I think that, after all those winXP updates, you don’t need anything more than win95 compatibility mode now. Just remember to disable 3D Hardware in each game. Useful tips and infos are available through LucasArts Tech support. Now, if I could play those gems in Linux…