Microsoft and ChangeBASE Announce New SMB Application Compatibility Tool for Windows 7 Professional

REDMOND, Wash., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced an alliance with ChangeBASE Ltd., a market leader in application compatibility testing and remediation, to offer a new online tool, AOK for Small and Midsize Businesses (AOK4SMB), to make it easy for industry partners servicing SMB customers and IT professionals to test the compatibility status of applications and automatically remediate incompatibilities when upgrading to Windows 7 Professional. They can go to https://www.aok4smb.com to upload applications for testing and remediation for free until the end of July.

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"The ability to ensure application compatibility when migrating to a new operating system is crucial for any organization," said Colin Gray, global sales director, ChangeBASE. "AOK4SMB enables SMB partners and IT pros to embrace the benefits of Windows 7 Professional by quickly assessing and reporting application compatibility issues and uniquely automatically fixing the majority of issues found. The fact that this tool is online and free makes the process easy."

Although Windows 7 works with the majority of software and devices available today, Microsoft offers a variety of resources to help provide a seamless experience for small and midsize businesses. As a first step, SMB customers can go to the Windows 7 Compatibility Center for an extensive view of the compatibility status of their hardware and software before they upgrade to Windows 7. They also can use Windows XP Mode, a feature of Windows 7 Professional (and Enterprise and Ultimate editions and above) to run older productivity applications. In addition, IT professionals and industry partners servicing small and midsize businesses can now take advantage of AOK4SMB to quickly remediate applications so that they can run natively on Windows 7. AOK4SMB creates a report outlining the application compatibility status and resolves any issues automatically.

Working with its broad community of industry partners including ChangeBASE, Microsoft is committed to providing small- and midsize-business customers with the right set of tools and resources to take advantage of Windows 7 Professional. Microsoft gathered in-depth customer feedback to design Windows 7 Professional to meet their unique needs so small and midsize businesses can focus on their customers and growing their bottom line. The latest version of the operating system provides increased security and productivity while enabling customers to work from anywhere.

"We recognize small- and midsize-business customers have a unique and diverse set of needs and they don't have time to think about technology for technology's sake. Customers tell us they need an easy way to make sure their applications will work with Windows 7 Professional," said Sandrine Skinner, director of SMB product management for the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. "We continue to act on this feedback, and we're excited to be working with ChangeBASE to make it even easier for customers to run their applications, so they can focus on what matters most — their business. This is one more resource available so they can easily migrate to Windows 7 Professional with no disruption to their business."

About ChangeBASE

ChangeBASE AOK is the market leader in automated compatibility software enabling organizations to simplify and speed up the time it takes to test, remediate and manage the migration process between operating systems or deployment environments. The company has developed a suite of software applications which bring tangible benefits and reduced costs to organizations across the globe. For more information, please visit; www.changebase.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.