Windows 8.1, Server 2012 R2 App Compatibility Considerations

An application compatibility guide is available for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. The guide could help developers identify compatibility problems with existing software on the new OS releases. Microsoft has also published a list of removed or deprecated features in Windows Server 2012 R2. Most applications written for recent Windows and Windows Server versions should work on these releases, but some might need updates to function properly. Existing applications should be tested for compatibility with the new OSs.

Changes discussed in this chapter may affect software without user interfaces (such as services and drivers) and applications that use the Windows Desktop user interface, but applications that use the Windows 8 and Windows RT Modern user interface (such as Windows Store applications) may be impacted by other changes in Windows 8.1.

Older Features Lose Support

Some new features in the new OS releases, such as unique HTML font mappings for languages and the Placeholder file type provided for OneDrive integration, could inadvertently affect existing applications, but most of the changes in the new OSs that could affect application compatibility concern legacy features that have been removed or deprecated (still available and supported, but expected to be removed as soon as the next version). These changes may require that applications be modified to support newer functionality or standards in order to function properly when running on the new OSs, or versions that follow them (for deprecated features).