Extend the life of your business computers and still use Windows 8.

One of the problems when dealing with a new operating system like Windows 8 is that you find yourself upgrading computer software you use on it, only to find that you are forcing some of your older computers to become obsolete sooner than need be. Why is this ?

The applications you run on your computers are just as important as the computer themselves. The problem is that programmers like to stay on the “bleeding edge” of technology, so the software they write tends to be designed for the latest version of Windows, rather than be designed for a larger span of Windows platforms. If you always purchase your software, then you may not have much control with this, but if you have inhouse programmers (or consultants) who write software for the company, then you have some choices which could significantly expand the lifespan of your computers.

If you have browsed my web site ( http://cwsof.com ) you may realize that I write software tools using Powerbasic ( http://powerbasic.com ) and my primary product EZGUI Professional (currently version 5.0) allows programmers to develop some very complex Windows applications. What you may not realize, is that EZGUI was designed specifically to be multiplatform (Windows only) friendly, while still providing support for new features in the latest version of Windows. Windows platforms can be divided into two groups, Windows 95/98/ME and Windows XP,Vista,7 (and soon 8). You may have noticed that a lot of software today will not run on less then Windows XP. It won’t be surprising that in the future some software will bring the minimum OS to Vista or even Windows 7. The reason is that the tools programmers use define the minimum operating system, so it is not always up to the programmer what the minimum OS will be for applications they write. I decided to break than cycle, by doing something unique with my programming tools.

EZGUI is a GUI Framework, which PowerBasic programmers can use to build Windows applications. This framework handles the majority of the user interface aspects of an application, rather than have the programmer use the Windows API directly. EZGUI was designed to be dynamic, rather than static, in its design. What this means is this. Rather than have the framework fixed (static) to a particular version of Windows, instead it can poll Windows to see what version of Windows is running and then dynamically load the features of the operating system it requires. This allows EZGUI to be operating system independent. The EZGUI framework can run on Windows 95 (yes 95) to Windows 8. The majority of features can be used even on the Win95/98 versions of Windows. A small percentage of features require Windows XP or later, but that still covers quite a few versions of Windows.

Now because EZGUI can run on so many different versions of Windows, it allows programmers to use it to develop software for a larger range of computers, rather than force older computers to become obsolete. You can write applications which don’t need any of the fancier features of XP or later so they run on all of your Windows computers or you can even write hybrid applications which will run on all your computers, but if on XP or later offer extra functionality which is available.

EZGUI also provides many unique ways to customize applications so they can go beyond what an early operating system may normally offer. For example, you can use Themes on later PC’s, but if Themes are not available on earlier PC’s then switch over to ownerdraw to emulate some aspects of Themes. EZGUI provides many advanced graphic features such as its 2D Sprite engine which is a proprietary engine which can run on Windows 95 to Windows 8. EZGUI uses OpenGL 1.5/2.0 for its 3D scripting language and currently these versions of OpenGL are supported on the majority of computers. You don’t have the problems associated with so many different versions of DirectX. I even was able to load an OpenGL driver for a very old Windows 95 (original) and the 3D engine worked (albiet a little slowly, but it worked).

Another problem with software developed for multiple Windows platforms is the resources an application may require. Unlike frameworks like dot.net which tend to be bloated and resource hungry, EZGUI was designed for minimal resource requirements. The entire EZGUI framework is less than 1 megabyte in size and most applications can be written so they can run even with the low memory and disk space available on very old Windows 95 computers. The EZGUI framework is so tiny, there are few Windows computers which would have a problem having the necessary requirements to run an application built with EZGUI and PowerBasic.

By developing software which can span a larger number of Windows platforms, while still being able to take advantage of features in newer versions of Windows, you can extend significantly the lifespan of your computers.