application experience service

This service checks a Microsoft maintained database for known problems with popular programs and automatically enables workarounds, either at first installation (using UAC) or at application launch. I currently have this service disabled on my systems. I have not found an issue yet, but older "non-Vista compatible" programs may need this service running. Turning off this feature may increase over all application responsiveness at launch time (due to avoiding the database lookup), however, it will not fix application installation issues. As such, if this service and Group Policy is modified, I highly recommend to ensure that all of your software is updated to the latest version as well as be Vista compatible along with proper architecture (32 or 64-bit).

You can also configure this behavior system wide using the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) which is available on Vista Business and Vista Ultimate.
Group Policy Editor is launched from the "Run" box located in Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run -> gpedit.msc

The settings are located in:

Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Application Compatibility

• Select Turn Off Application Compatibility Engine
• Select Enabled under the Settings tab
• Select Turn off Program Compatibility Assistant
• Select Enabled under the Settings tab

The settings listed above are system wide and will affect all users/accounts. As of March 9, 2008, I have both settings "Enabled," which turns off the stated functionality. This also turns off "Compatibility Mode." As such, if you use compatibility mode, you should leave these settings at the default setting.

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