According to Microsoft's May 2008 Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Application Compatibility Update, released today and documented in the previous link, Delphi 7 is now compatible with Vista, or Vista is now compatible with Delphi 7... anyway you look at it, I find this amusing.
The knowledge based states that there are three types of updates:
- The update puts a hard block on the application. A hard block prevents an application that is incompatible with Windows Vista from running on the operating system.
- The update puts a soft block on the application. A soft block provides notification when an application that is incompatible with Windows Vista starts to run.
- The update improves the application’s functionality in Windows Vista.
When trying to install Delphi 7 on Vista, this was flagged as an incompatible application. Apparently, after installing this patch to Vista, you shouldn't get the warning any more. That's probably it. I doubt Vista has anything specific for Delphi 7 to work better. It seems it was only removed from an "incompatibility list". On the other hand it is nice to notice that the applications with a hard block include: "Microsoft Zune Software"... odd this is so incompatible with Vista!
PS. Speaking of Microsoft knowledge based articles, a fiend of mine emailed me a link to the following, titled: "Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords". Yes, that was a real error message in Windows 2000.