Reasonable expectation to support new Operating Systems?

Question

My company has a desktop app originally developed for Windows XP. The original programmer has since been fired (fired with extreme prejudice I might add). I have fixed the app various times but overall try to avoid it, it is a mess and the only real way to fix it is to completely rewrite it, which could take a year.

We have been trying to "forget" about this app, and instead steer clients towards our web version, which is more up to date, easier to maintain, easier to extend, and WAY easier to support. Most clients agree, the web version is just better all around.

However we have one client that insists on using the desktop app. The app required a little duct tape to get working on Vista, but now completely breaks on Windows 7. I'm not even sure WHAT all the fixes are to get it working on Win7 (the current time estimate stands at "miracle") but after both installing the RELEASE build, and running the DEBUG build from Visual Studio, the app has errors on nearly every user action, and from what I can see from a high level test run, none of them are related.

Since Windows 7 did not exist when this app was developed, is my company really expected to make all the required changes to make it function as "smoothly" as it did on XP?

EDIT: Management wants to know "What is the industry norm for supporting new OS's?" because I dont really have a good answer for that one either.

Answer 1

Obvious question, sorry, have you tried http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Answer 2

Of course, every case is different. But I would imagine it would depend mostly on whether or not the company wanted to continue selling/supporting the product.

For example, even though StarCraft was released 12 years ago, if Windows 7 came out and StarCraft didn't work on it, I imagine Blizzard would fix it. Why? Because it's still selling! Doesn't matter that it's old, if you want to keep your customers happy and continue getting new customers, you'll fix it.

On the other hand, some companies simply decide to abandon a product after a while, if it no longer makes sense to support or sell them. For example, Microsoft recently decided to discontinue MS Money. If you have MS Money already you can continue to use it, but if MS came out with a new version of Windows (Windows 8?) and your old copy of MS Money didn't work, you'd probably be SOL. They're just not interested in it anymore.

In this particular case, you're selling your client a desktop product that they are redistributing to their customers. (You didn't say that in your question, but I know that to be true). If their customers can't use the product with minimal effort, the product is useless to them. The consumers downloading this product WILL gradually move to Windows 7, so for this program to continue to be useful to your client, you would need to update it. So the question you really need to ask is: "is refusing to update this program worth angering this client?".

However, I'm not sure if you have a support agreement with your client. If your question is "are we obligated to upgrade this program to Windows 7 compatibility even though we didn't sign a contract stating that we would and they aren't paying us to", then legally I'd say the answer is no. If you do have a support agreement, the specific wording of that agreement prevails. Most likely though, if you don't have a contract that states that you will keep the app compatible with new OSes, you probably aren't obligated to do so.

Hint: I suggest specifing which platforms and OS versions your product will run on in your contract!

IANAL, TINLA, etc.