Application Compatibility Toolkit: Fixing other people's mistakes

While doing research for a Super User answer, I reminded myself of the existence of the Application Compatibility Toolkit. The ACT is highly interesting in that it exists only because software developers wrote buggy code that worked by chance at one point but then broke in a later version of Windows. It's not intended to be used by normal users, but it doesn't hurt to have a little knowledge about the ACT.

Some Compatibility Fixes in the Compatibility Administrator

Perhaps the most interesting part of the ACT is the Compatibility Administrator, which is used to apply fixes to programs. If you look in the "Compatibility Fixes" entry in the left pane, you'll see a big list of fixes that Microsoft has developed to address common issues. Under Applications, you'll see a surprisingly massive list of buggy programs and the fixes Microsoft applied to them. I noticed a couple well-respected programs that I have personally used.

You can apply fixes (or compatibility modes, which are groups of fixes) to arbitrary applications by adding entries to a custom database. Once you're done, you can install it on the machine and/or save it for use on other computers.