What Are the Different Types of Computer Software Support?

Compatibility is a computer term. Relative to software, one means that a piece of software can work stably in an operating system, which means that the software is compatible with the operating system. Then, in a multi-tasking operating system, if several softwares running at the same time can work stably without frequent errors, it means that they are compatible with each other, otherwise they are not compatible.

compatible

(Computer term)

Compatibility is a computer term, as opposed to software, one refers to some

Relative to software, one refers to

Software compatibility is an important indicator for measuring the quality of software. Compatibility refers to a set of attributes related to the software's ability to be transferred from one environment to another. It includes the following attributes:

1. Software attributes related to software that may adapt to different prescribed environments without the use of activities or means different from those prepared for the software;

2. Make software comply with standards or agreed software attributes related to portability;

3. With the software

Beginning in early 2007, Microsoft's Windows Vista system has fully entered the market. Many experts have predicted that this will bring a profound change and upgrade in the field of operating systems. Powerful functions, beautiful and cool pictures, and thoughtful user design have made the users full of longing for Microsoft's new operating system.

However, there are always freckles on the face of any newborn, and there is still a lot of unsatisfactory Vista baby. High power consumption, right

One of the most important steps to take before running the installer on a server is to confirm that your hardware is compatible with products from the Windows Server 2003 family. This can be done by running a pre-installation compatibility check from the installation disc or by checking hardware compatibility information provided by Microsoft. Also, as part of confirming hardware compatibility, check if you have updated hardware

Fault 1: The motherboard is not compatible with the monitor. The computer is mainly configured as an elite P6ISA-II motherboard (i815E

The long-awaited new generation of Windows Vista operating system finally meets everyone, although this is just a commercial version that is still a short distance from the actual application of individual users. But I believe many users have already taken this opportunity to assemble a new computer and pay for their desire to use the new system. Want to play the best performance and effect of the Vista operating system, what kind of hardware configuration should be used? Can the existing computer configuration run Vista smoothly? Today, I use the most common Vista RC2 beta operating system as For example, to test the real performance and compatibility of Vsita for everyone.

I. Vista's official hardware requirementsAlthough Microsoft's official Vista website has listed the minimum hardware requirements for the operating system as early as six months ago, those requirements are a bit outdated (such as processors with a frequency of 800MHz and above and support 800x600 resolution Graphics card, etc.), because even in Windows XP, it may not work smoothly. So if you want to "play well" Vista, the official minimum requirements are not counted.

In view of this, Microsoft has since positioned different hardware standards for the Vista operating system for users' reference.

(A) minimum requirements for Windows Aero

Aero Glass

The biggest feature of the Vista operating system is the use of an interface called "Aero Glass". This interface mainly adds transparency to the window and adds zoom in / out animations when opening and closing the window. In addition, it also has Flip, Flip 3D, and Sidebar. And other functions, which greatly facilitates the use of ordinary users. But these effects rely on the graphics card GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to assist in the execution and operation. If the Vsita system detects that the computer's hardware configuration cannot meet the requirements, or the system speed cannot cope, it will automatically turn off the function, so Microsoft also The Aero interface sets minimum hardware requirements.

1. Requires a DirectX 9 level graphics processor with the following features:

(1) Support WDDM driver;

(2) The hardware supports the Pixel Shader 2.0 standard;

(3) Support 32-bit color per pixel.

2. Enough display memory:

(1) A single monitor supporting resolutions below 1,310,720 pixels requires 64MB of display memory.

(2) A single monitor supporting resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels requires 128MB of display memory.

(3) A single monitor supporting a resolution higher than 2,304,000 pixels requires 256MB of display memory.

(4) The bandwidth requirements of the display memory are met. The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor program can be run on the existing Windows XP operating system to evaluate this demand.

(B) Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready standards

Vista Capable

In addition, in order to facilitate users who ca nt wait for the launch of Vista to buy a computer now, Microsoft has also defined Vista Capable and Premium Ready standards to allow brand computer manufacturers to print on the computer mainframe so that users can know whether the product is smooth when they buy it. Transition to Vista. The two standards are:

1.Vista Capable PC must have:

(1) Modern processor (at least 800MHz main frequency);

(2) 512MB system memory;

(3) A graphics processor with DirectX 9 capabilities.

2.Vista Premium Ready PC must have:

(1) 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor with 1GHz frequency;

(2) 1GB system memory;

(3) Graphics processor capable of running Windows Aero interface;

(4) 128MB display memory;

(5) 40GB hard disk capacity with at least 15GB of free space;

(6) DVD-ROM drive;

(7) Audio output function;

(8) Network connection function.

Compatibility of computer hardware drivers with Vista

We know that the Windows operating system cannot actually communicate directly with the hardware. The driver of the hardware is the communication bridge between the operating system and the hardware. Show the best performance. Therefore, computer users are bound to pay attention to the impact of new drivers on operating system performance after upgrading to Windows Vista operating system.

The Windows Vista operating system (development codenamed "Longhorn") has been in development for more than five years since it was proposed. Therefore, manufacturers have developed hardware drivers for the Vista platform for a long time. Therefore, the hardware drivers that support Vista are actually not as good as the outside world imagines. So bad, at least not a serious stability issue.

(1) Motherboard driver

Currently, many motherboard and graphics card manufacturers (including Intel, ATI, NVIDIA, VIA, SiS, Realtek, Analog Device, Marvell, and Creative, etc.) all provide Beta (test) version drivers on the official website, claiming to support Vista RC1 The version and even the latest RC2 version of the operating system make the main hardware (including graphics card, network card, sound card, SATA / RAID controller, etc.) of users who are the first to try Vista not completely unusable.

However, there are exceptions. For example, Promise, a company known for its RAID controller cards, has used many Promise control chips to implement PATA / SATA RAID functions. Promise does not support the Vista operating system. The XP driver for its control card can also be installed in Vista RC2, and the hard disk can be used as usual.

In fact, it is not uncommon to install computer hardware Win XP drivers under Vista, but this method has not been approved by Microsoft, so stability is not guaranteed, and users need to test whether the hardware is compatible one by one. Very unreliable.

(Two) graphics card driver

For graphics cards, the ForceWare public driver for NVIDIA graphics cards has been updated to version 96.85 or higher. Supports Direct3D and OpenGL, but does not support HDCP and HDMI, two technologies for HDTV. And starting from this version of the driver, the old traditional interface has been canceled in the Vista platform. It is mandatory that users can only use the new control panel to modify various function settings of the graphics card. It seems that this is the development direction of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver.

The situation with ATI graphics cards is even worse, because the ForceWare driver for NVIDIA graphics cards supports at least the latest Build 5744 version of Vista RC2, while the Catalysts driver for ATI graphics cards only officially supports RC1 (even if installed in RC2 systems without problems), and Whether HDCP / HDMI is supported or not is not mentioned.

(Three) network card driver

In terms of network control cards, in recent years, Realtek has dominated the entire market. Therefore, the impact of Realtek network cards on supporting the Vista operating system is believed to be no less than that of ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards.

Realtek has long been involved in Vista development. Its ALC6xx / ALC8xx audio control chips (AC'97 / HD-Audio) and RTL81xx series 10 / 100Mbps or 1GBps network chips all support the Vista platform. However, it is very surprising that 3Com, which was previously recognized as the leader of network products, does not currently support Vista on all its network cards. I couldn't find any information about Vista in the 3Com official website, which was very disappointing.

(Four) sound card driver

In terms of sound cards, computer players are aware that sound cards have an impact on the sound positioning and game effects of playing computer games. At present, Singapore Creative (Sound Creative) 's Sound Biaster (SB) X-Fi and Audigy sound cards are recognized as "game sound cards." Because only innovative companies provide complete EAX 2.0 and EAX Advanced HD 4.0 / 5.0 surround positioning solutions.

Innovative companies have long been involved in the development of Vista drivers, and its official website lists the expected completion schedule of Vista drivers for different series of SB sound cards. At present, it is certain that high-end sound cards such as X-Fi and Audi 2/4 have Vista RC1 drivers. Low-end sound cards such as Audigy 2 LS and Livel! 24-bit support Vista Beta 2 operating system. In terms of innovative external sound card products, including Vsita drivers such as Audigy 2 NX and Live! 24-bit External, it is expected to be completed in December.

As for the fate of other old sound cards like Live! Or SB PCI? Unfortunately, innovative companies don't plan to upgrade their special software. At that time, only Vista built-in sound card drivers will be able to support them. However, according to Microsoft's rules, only the most basic audio output functions can be provided, and other players such as surround sound effects should not expect too much.

Third, the compatibility of computer games and Vista For the majority of game fans, they are most concerned about how many games can successfully transition from XP to Vista. Due to time constraints, I cannot install all the games on the market in Vista. But according to my simple test, many popular games (such as "Quake 4", "Half-Life 2", "Serious Sam 2", "FEAR", etc.) can be successfully installed and run in Vista.

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the previous XP games that can be used in Vista, many manufacturers have also begun to produce some game software that supports the Vista operating system design. For example, Flight Simulation X, a flight simulation game launched by Microsoft, is a set of games marked for operation in Vista. I believe there will be more Vista-supported games coming out in the future, so game fans don't have to worry about not playing games at that time.

4. Can your computer run Vista? If you already have a computer with good hardware configuration, but you don't know if you can smoothly transition to Vista operating system, you can actually check the software to see if there is any hardware that can Used in Vista.

At present, in addition to Microsoft, ATI has also developed a set of software called "Are You Vista Ready?" To allow users to check whether it is available in Vista.

(A) Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

First look at Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, the official hardware detection software from Microsoft. After users download and install the software from the official Microsoft website, they can use the software to check whether their computer can meet the requirements of Vista.

When the check is completed, the program will indicate whether the user's computer can be upgraded to Vista. If it fails to meet the relevant requirements, some upgrade suggestions (such as upgrade display, increase the hard disk capacity, etc.) will be provided to facilitate users to prepare for hardware before upgrading Vista. In addition, the program will automatically check which application software can be transitioned to Vista, so as not to use some software after the upgrade.

(2) ATI Are You Windows Vista Ready

In addition to Microsoft, ATI, which is well-known for producing graphics cards and motherboard chipsets, also provides a set of online hardware testing software-"Are You Windows Vista Ready?" To allow users to check whether their computer configuration can meet Vista's Claim.

As long as the user enters ATI's website to perform relevant checks, a "Windows Vista System Requirement Labs Analysis" window pops up after completion, and lists whether the user's computer is running fast or slow when running Vista.

In addition, the test software also has three performance levels, "Mimimum", "Recommended" and "Optimal", to see which level the user's computer meets.

Although the software provided by ATI only focuses on the hardware, the inspection is more detailed than Microsoft's hardware detection software, including whether the video memory on the graphics card is sufficient and whether it supports the Pixel Shader 2.0 hardware acceleration standard. There is also a "We Recommand" button on the right of the operation interface, which lists the graphics cards recommended by ATI. Of course, all of them are ATI series graphics cards, which gives people a suspicion of "selling advertisements".