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Copa-Data Moves Fast with Windows 7 Certification

07/06/2010

By Andrew Bond, Industrial Automation Insider

Austrian SCADA- vendor Copa-Data has had its zenon 6.50 industrial process control and visualization software certified as "Compatible with Windows 7" by Microsoft. The certification confirms that the rules of the new operating system are supported without limitation, obviating the need for laborious changeovers or adaptations and enabling zenon users to switch to Windows 7 immediately.

Arguably the most important benefit is that it enables users to take advantage of the enhanced security features of Windows 7 as senior consultant Markus Helbok explained. "The user account control implemented in Windows 7 prevents important system components being damaged by malware or a virus," says Helbok. "However, this results in limitations for any application developer who, for instance, may not be able to write directly to the Windows directory, or for whom certain areas of the registry are taboo. Software that does not accept these security criteria is immediately considered incompatible. zenon accepts them fully and is 100% percent compatible."

Copa-Data stole something of a march on its competitors back in 2007 when it was the first SCADA vendor to have its software Windows Vista Certified  and that proved to be a significant advantage when Windows 7 was launched. "In the first months of Windows 7 being on sale, it was already evident that demand for the new version of the operating system was very strong," said product manager Reinhard Mayr. "This was to be expected, which is why we quickly sent our new version of zenon, version 6.50, for testing. The comprehensive expansions we undertook as part of (the) Windows Vista certification process proved to be worthwhile. The current compatibility tests were completed quickly."