In the midst of all the excitement around the general availability of Windows Vista, it's almost strange to talk about IT Pro & developer tools, but if you are an IT Pro, or developer, this should be pretty exciting too.

Today the final version of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 was released. If you are already familiar with ACT 5.0 make sure you download the new bits and the refreshed product guide here. If you want to learn more about the tools and resources around application compatibility for Windows Vista - visit Microsoft's TechNet site.

For people new to ACT, it is a single toolset that can help detect, diagnose, and mitigate compatibility issues found in Windows Vista. Possibly the coolest feature of this tool is that you can deploy it in your current environment, Windows 2000 or Windows XP and get an inventory of your applications and see how they'll work with Windows Vista. Other highlights include the Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool; there have been many changes made to improve overall security and reliability in Windows Vista, and this tool looks for possible issues resulting from those changes for users running as Standard Users. There?s also the new Internet Explorer 7 Test Tool to test apps for use with the latest version of Internet Explorer, and the Setup Analysis Tool which detects any issues your setup packages might have with installing on Windows Vista. Finally, IT Pros can use the new and improved Compatibility Administrator to pull compatibility fixes from a database of existing fixes and apply them to apps one-by-one, or in predefined groups.

Download ACT 5.0 here.