Good Citizenship

Microsoft for many years has tried to improve the end-user experience with its products by creating a list of guidelines for application developers. As a way of attracting vendors to use the guidelines, Microsoft created the Certified for Windows program. Applications that conform to the guidelines and pass an independent test can use the Windows logo as part of their product marketing and packaging.

As a developer, you should always adhere to the guidelines as much as possible. They take into account the needs of a broad set of users (just like the ones you're writing for) and help with the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Additionally, customers, particularly large organizations buying in quantity, give more serious consideration to certified products. This can give your product the necessary edge that makes it more successful than a competitor's.

Developers of Active Directory–enabled products will want to take special note of the requirements contained in the Application Specification for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. This specification contains information about the requirements for server applications that are integrated with Active Directory, such as how to use Active Directory appropriately and how to adhere to extensibility rules if you extend Active Directory.

For more details about the specific requirements and certification information, please refer to the Certification folder on the companion CD. Also included on the CD are test tools and a program to help document schema extensions. For up to date information on the Certified for Windows program, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/certification/.

Now, let's get on with learning about Active Directory!