The future of M?crosöft's platform strategy is based on Windows 2000.  We aren't there yet because a number key customer segments still have a majority of customers using the Win9x platform.  This is not bad, just fact.  The upcoming WinME release is an important release that updates the Win9x product line base for our home customers and it will be a great product in that space. But as we look forward past WinME, we are moving Win2000 into the home so we can realize the vision we have had for some time of a single code base for our PC product line.  The two main reasons we can't move there today with Win2000 is missing app compatibility and the lack of some key driver support.  Many applications, especially those targeting consumers, and many drivers for consumer focused devices are written for Win9x and do not support Win2000 yet.  Unfortunately this is also true for some of our own M?crosöft products.  This must change for us to be successful with our platform strategy. 

 

Going forward, all future released M?crosöft products must be fully supported and tested on Win2000 at product release, no exceptions!  This will lay the ground work for the upcoming Whistler release that will completely drive the Win2000 kernel into the consumer and retail markets.  You can further ensure your application runs well on Win2000  by having it certified.  We have a certification lab on campus that will test your application with very little effort on your part.  Email nt5logo to schedule your application for certification pretesting.  Pretesting your application early in the product cycle will allow enough time to make any changes required to meet certification.