14 DAY TRIAL // Want to know whether a specific hardware product or software solution plays nice with Windows 7 before you buy and don’t know where to start? Microsoft’s advice in this context is to look for the Windows 7 logo as a guarantee that a specific device or program is fully compatible with the latest iteration of the Windows client. When buying retail, it’s easy to turn a box on all sides and locate the Windows 7 logo, but it’s just as easy to verify online whether a certain product had been logo’d for Windows Vista’s successor.
Microsoft is offering two key resources designed specifically to allow end users to identify hardware and software that have qualified for the Windows 7 Logo program. Customers can access both the Windows 7 Logo’d Product List for Hardware or the Windows 7 Logo’d Product List for Software.
As far as the Application List: Compatible with Windows 7 is concerned, the moniker used is rather self-explanatory. Customers visiting the online resource will find an exhaustive enumeration of all Windows 7 logo’d software, a list constantly updated as new programs enter the program. The list features the product names in alphabetical order, the software maker and the specific version that is compatible with Windows 7. Users can easily deduce that any version above that of the software listed by the Redmond company will also be compatible with Vista’s successor.
The Windows 7 Logo’d Product List for Hardware is a tad different, in the sense that customers will need to perform a search in order to identify a hardware product. Queries can be focused either on devices or on systems, and the processor type needs to be specified (32-bit vs. 64-bit). Microsoft informed that the Windows Logo'd Products List was updated for Windows 7, having previously had its predecessor at the core.
“This site (formerly known as the 'Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility List' or 'HCL') has been repurposed to display a comprehensive list of hardware products logo'd for Windows - from components to input devices, peripherals to mobile devices and everything in between. Use the new Windows 7 tab to confirm Windows 7 Status, or even download a Logo Verification report. Use the Windows Vista and Windows XP tabs to quickly discover products logo'd for these respective logos,” Microsoft stated.
Of course, users also have available the Windows 7 Compatibility Center on Microsoft.com, an online resource that centralizes both the hardware and software compatible with the latest version of Windows.