Windows 7 App Compatibility and Portability Part 2: Web Applications
In my last week's post, I talked about how InstallFree can make applications portable between Windows XP and Windows 7. We also posted a video showing an example of how we take an application that is not compatible with Windows 7 and make it run on Windows 7.
This week, I'd like to talk a little bit about another type of application that's causing a lot of problems for customers migrating to Windows 7: the web-based application.
Web-based applications often use client-side browser plug-ins like Java or Flash, which create strong dependencies between the application, the version of the plug-in, the version of the browser and the version of the OS.
For example, suppose you have an application that was written for an old version of Java (let's say 1.3) and does not run correctly with newer versions of Java. In order to run this application, you need a browser that can use Java 1.3. You can use Internet Explorer 6, but you cannot use Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 6 can be used on Windows XP but cannot be used on Windows Vista (contains IE7) or Windows 7 (contains IE8). So, your web application is now effectively locked to Windows XP!
We have spoken to many customers that were struggling with this issue and, in many cases, planned to re-engineer these applications in order to successfully migrate away from Windows XP. Obviously, this was a very expensive and disruptive proposition for them.
Fortunately, InstallFree's ability to make applications portable and compatible with Windows 7 extends to web-based applications as well. Using our product, you can continue to run your legacy web applications on Windows 7 by using a virtual instance of Internet Explorer 6 or 7 that includes all the plug-ins you need.
We have just posted a new video that shows this exact use case in action. Take a look and let us know if you have any comments or additional questions.
Thanks,
Alon Yaffe
Director of Marketing
InstallFree, Inc.
alon.yaffe@installfree.com
