Requirements for the Certified for Windows Vista Program

Microsoft established a list of requirements that a product and its installation must fulfill in order to become certified for Windows Vista. The requirements outline criteria that help make a product more compatible, reliable, and secure when running on Windows Vista systems.

Products that meet the Certified for Windows Vista program requirements can carry the Certified for Windows Vista logo.

Qualifying for the Certified for Windows Vista Program

Products must be independently tested by a Microsoft-approved testing authority before they can be certified. To learn how to qualify for the Certified for Windows Vista program, visit the Certified for Windows Vista area of Microsoft’s http://www.InnovateOnWindowsVista.com site. This Web site has a document that lists all of the technical requirements for the Certified for Windows Vista program. It also has a document that contains all of the test cases that a product must pass.

Certified for Windows Vista Validation Suites in InstallShield

Validating your installation package or merge module may help you identify whether your product meets installation requirements for Microsoft’s Certified for Windows Vista program. If a package or merge module fails one or more validation rules, InstallShield reports the specific rules that were violated and offers additional information to help you troubleshoot the problem.

Therefore, if you are interested in being able to use the Certified for Windows Vista logo, consider using both of the following suites to validate your installation package:

InstallShield Certified for Windows Vista Validation Suite—This suite consists of a number of InstallShield internal consistency evaluators (ISICEs) that help you identify issues that may make your installation behave unexpectedly on Windows Vista systems. This suite checks for issues that may not be revealed in the Full MSI Validation Suite.

Full MSI Validation Suite—This suite consists of ICEs that Microsoft created.

If you create a merge module in InstallShield, use the following suites to validate your merge module:

InstallShield Certified for Windows Vista Merge Module Validation Suite—This suite consists of a number of InstallShield ISICEs that help you identify issues that may make your merge module behave unexpectedly on Windows Vista systems. This suite checks for issues that may not be revealed in the Merge Module Validation Suite.

Merge Module Validation Suite—This suite consists of ICEs that Microsoft created.

The Windows Logo Guideline alert appears throughout the InstallShield Help Library whenever the information relates to complying with the Certified for Windows Vista program guidelines.