Microsoft Confirms Dynamics AX Compatibility with Windows 7

Moving an ERP system to a new operating system is, by its very nature, fraught with peril.  But upgrading to Windows 7 won't be a problem for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers because Dynamics AX 4.0 and AX 2009 are compatible with Windows 7, as well as with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, according to a blog posted on October 7 by the Microsoft Dynamics Sustained Engineering team.

"This is particularly important for AX because it's a product that customers and partners carefully customize to their business processes," said Rob Helm, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. "And once they've got it working they let it run for quite awhile, so it's quite likely that customers would like to move clients to Windows 7 without necessarily upgrading their Dynamics AX installation because of the risk of an upgrade of that particular application."

By supporting Windows 7, even in the older version of AX 4.0, Microsoft has made it possible for customers to move to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 while leaving their often highly customized installations of Dynamics AX in place, he said. That means they won't have to go through version upgrades of the applciation just to get onto the new operating system, he added.

That's important with AX because enterprise resource products' customers are conservative; they don't want to have to update the ERP product to take advantage of a new operating system because of all the problems involved, he said.

And that's a big selling point for Microsoft Dynamics AX partner, Merit Solutions Inc. in Wheaton, Illinois.

"We're excited to see this because we can go to our customers and say, ‘OK if you guys have plans ...