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MS Suggests Using Shims For XP-To-Win7 Transition
eldavojohn writes "Windows XP (and a lot of MS OS code before that) had a fundamental security flaw whereby the default setting made the ordinary user run as the superuser. Vista & Windows 7 have fixed that and implemented The Correct Paradigm. But what about the pre-Vista applications written to utilize superuser privileges? How do you migrate them forward? Well, running a virtualized instance of XP in Windows 7 is an option we've talked about. But Microsoft is pushing the idea of using 'shims,' which are a way to bypass or trick the code into thinking it's still running as user/superuser mode in Windows XP. This is an old trick that Microsoft has often employed, and it has brought the Windows kernel a long ways, in a duct-tape sort of fashion. At the TechEd conference in LA, Microsoft associate software architect Chris Jackson joked, 'If you walk too loudly down the hall near the [Windows] kernel developers, you'll break 20 to 30 apps.' So for you enterprise developers fretting about transitioning to Windows 7, shims are your suggested solution."
I thought it said "shivs". I guess that would be another way to coerce people into giving up their precious XP.
just to get the software to work properly, you may as well just move to linux
i would downplay this notion of shims, and ballyhoo this notion of duct tape
shims just sound like a lame hack. using a shim means you've given up on elegance and respectability
but duct tape is awesome! if you use duct tape to solve a problem you are a manly mcgyveresque resourceful type
windows 7: the duct tape os, is a mark of pride dude!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Why "Woooooooohoooooooo!?" He could just as easily run around shouting "Developers, developers, developers, developers!"
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
I dunno, does your computer play 'whoosh' sounds at you when you scroll down or anything? If it's confusing you, you should turn that off.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Funny, Apple was able to make the transition from insecure, single-user based OS to more secure, multi-user OS without too much trouble and keeping a compatibility layer for older apps. Why can't Microsoft do the same?
When you only have about 20 apps for the platform, it's easy.
That's why I refuse to get one of those newfangled autoMObiles until it knows what Giddap and Woah mean. I tried on once, but no matter how much I yelled or whipped it, it just wouldn't move.