Yes, Microsoft is on the verge of releasing Windows 7 to manufacturing while making its way to general availability planned for October 22, 2009, but the Redmond company continues to tend to previous releases of the Windows client, in this regard Windows Vista. The software giant has made available for download an application compatibility list featuring information on programs that play, or fail to play nice with Vista. The list can also be leveraged by customers that are preparing for Windows 7, as the promise from Microsoft is that applications that work with Vista will continue to work with the next iteration of the Windows client.

What Microsoft is offering specifically is an Office Excel-based spreadsheet. Via the Excel document customers will be able to access an exhaustive enumeration of software applications as well as get information on their associated support statements. The focus is of course on items that earned the status of “Certified for Windows Vista” or “Works with Windows Vista.”

But while designed to help IT professionals get an idea of the volume of programs that have received the “Certified for Windows Vista” or “Works with Windows Vista” logos, Microsoft is also providing info on additional software. In this context, the Redmond company pointed out that apps with statuses such as “Compatible,” “Free Update Required,” and “Paid Update Required” were also included. There are no less than 8,786 software applications featured in the list.

Here are the application compatibility status definitions according to Microsoft's document:

“Certified for/Works With Windows Vista” means that the application has earned the “Certified for Windows Vista” or “Works with Windows Vista” logo. While the list is updated monthly, new applications are continually being added, and the list at any given time may not be accurate, up to date or complete.

"Compatible” means that the application has been reported by the application manufacturer as compatible with, or supported on, Windows Vista. These applications have not gone through the Microsoft Windows Vista Logo programs.

“Not Compatible” means the application has been reported by the application manufacturer as not compatible with, or supported on, Windows Vista.

“Free Update Required” means the application has been reported by the application manufacturer as needing a free upgrade from the application manufacturer to ensure that a product is compatible with, or supported on, Windows Vista.

“Paid Update Required” means the application has been reported by the application manufacturer as needing a fee-based upgrade from the application manufacturer to ensure that a product is compatible with, or supported on, Windows Vista.

“Unknown” means that no information is available from the application manufacturer about whether the product is compatible with, or supported on, Windows Vista. Most applications will work unmodified on 64-bit editions of Windows Vista due to WOW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit, an emulation layer that enables 32-bit Windows applications to run seamlessly on 64-bit Windows platforms).