VB6 on Windows Vista

[horazio]

Hello,
I am an intermediate/beginner ,I'm using VB6 and I was wondering if my VB6 apps will work on computers using Vista.

And by the way, do you guys think that everyone using VB6 should move to
VB.Net because it's a natural step or not ? Is it just a matter of individual preferences or it will be necessary sooner or later ? Just wondering.

Thankyou
Horazio.

[DanCool999]

Check this out: http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1895,1929552,00.asp

[horazio]

The article does not give any clear answer.

[gavio]

It's a bit "old" article. Yes, it will be supported.

...And by the way, do you guys think that everyone using VB6 should move to VB.Net because it's a natural step or not?...

Sorry, i don't see any need for that. I mean, i'm also concidering it but not because i like it (i don't need to and i can still develop in VB6), but because the complete market is doing it... slowly thow.

[RhinoBull]

... Yes, it will be supported...

The "rumors" are they will support it but I am yet to find any confirmation.
The fear is - most of the apps won't function as expected.

[gavio]

The fear is - most of the apps won't function as expected.

Well... that's just nice.

[RobDog888]

complete market is doing it... slowly thow.

Not as you think. Its actually the dominant language over VB 6 by far!

[the182guy]

And by the way, do you guys think that everyone using VB6 should move to
VB.Net because it's a natural step or not ? Is it just a matter of individual preferences or it will be necessary sooner or later ? Just wondering.

Thankyou
Horazio.

thats a huge question, everyone has a different answer, it depends entirely on what your using VB6 for....work? or just fun?

I think VB6 will eventually become completely obsolete more so than now, so if you intend to work as a programmer in the future in the VB environment, go for .net.

[RhinoBull]

But then again - they may... As I said I can't find confirmations one way or the other...

[RobDog888]

My feeling on it is that it wont be 100% complete support at least in the beginning. Also remember that there is no longer anymore support for VB 6 from MS so I doubt they would make it 100% compatible unless they get enough interest in it to make it as part of a future service pack or something.

[gavio]

MS should really decide:

- full support or
- no support at all

And that's it! The "something in the middle" thing gives us nothing. It's better to not develop at all and move to .NET or something instead of developing some... "defective" apps

[the182guy]

MS are shooting themselves in the foot if they don't make vista support VB6, think about it, millions of users/programmers using VB6 apps today, if vista not support them, a lot of people won't go near vista

[RobDog888]

No, quite the opposite. Professional developers will still be targeting XP for at least another year at a minimum as businesses does not upgrade their system usually for several years after a new OS comes out, if they upgrade at all. Some businesses still run Windows 2000 and some even NT4 or 98.

I dont think Vista should have supported VB 6 at all to be honest. VB 6 is 10+ years old.

[the182guy]

No, quite the opposite. Professional developers will still be targeting XP for at least another year at a minimum as businesses does not upgrade their system usually for several years after a new OS comes out, if they upgrade at all. Some businesses still run Windows 2000 and some even NT4 or 98.

I dont think Vista should have supported VB 6 at all to be honest. VB 6 is 10+ years old.

anyone in their right mind wont touch vista for at least a year or 2 after its released, as we saw with xp it came out with loads of security holes/bugs

[RobDog888]

Any release of a new OS will have issues but there has been so much more testing and development with Vista that it should be better then previous OS releases.

[techgnome]

From what I understand, MOST VB6 apps will continue to run on Vista.... not because Vista "supports" VB6, but because it simply just does.... I don't know if VS/VB6 will run.... I haven't heard one way or the other.... but it's not like there's something in Vista that says "Oh, this is a VB6 application, shut it down." It's either going to run or it isn't. It also depends if there's any problems with thrid party stuff that may or may not run under Vista.

-tg

[the182guy]

Any release of a new OS will have issues but there has been so much more testing and development with Vista that it should be better then previous OS releases.

There are always issues, I wouldnt like to find out what vistas are though on a first hand bases that is.

I suppose if vista doesnt support VB6 properly then _eventually_ everyone will have to choose .net or something else.

[techgnome]

Well, it will be a while before I upgrade to Vista.... not becaue of potential problems.... but because of hardware limitations....my less than 9mo laptop here isn't string enough to run Vista - I'm short on processor and memory.

Maybe my wife will be interested in this thing and I can get a new one.

-tg

[the182guy]

yes that is the other big problem with vista the h/w requirements. Most people wont see any benefit anyway over XP for what they use it for, at least for a while.

[RobDog888]

Tell her you cant do your job without hardware upgrade.

I will be loading Vista on a secondary system as I am going to continue to load XP on my new system that should be finished this week when ever I can get around to it (Intel Core 2 Extreme Edition ).

So my older system will be reloaded with Vista. This is probably the better scenerio, if you have an extra system, so you can still develop apps (vb 6/.net) for XP and yet start to develop apps, under .NET, for Vista.

[RhinoBull]

MS should really decide:

- full support or
- no support at all

And that's it! The "something in the middle" thing gives us nothing. It's better to not develop at all and move to .NET or something instead of developing some... "defective" apps

It's not as simple - there are milions (if not bilions) of $$$ invested...

[RhinoBull]

No, quite the opposite. Professional developers will still be targeting XP for at least another year at a minimum as businesses does not upgrade their system usually for several years after a new OS comes out, if they upgrade at all. Some businesses still run Windows 2000 and some even NT4 or 98.

I dont think Vista should have supported VB 6 at all to be honest. VB 6 is 10+ years old.

Agreed indeed.

[litlewiki]

I remember reading an article (technical one) about working with vb6 on vista.and he did give a few working samples on the new features of the common controls and stuff(I guess it was task dialog)...

[RhinoBull]

So what did HE say about it? Did it work at all ?

[litlewiki]

Hehe i found the link .See it for yourself

http://www.vbthunder.com/

Check out the "meet the task dialog" section

[the182guy]

It will cost MS to implement it so they will have to decide is it worth it when VB6 might not be generating substantial income anymore, if any.

[RobDog888]

What do you mean? Vista has already been Released To Manufacturing (RTM) so for the most part its a done deal unless they implement something for VB 6 support in a future service pack (very doubtful).

[litlewiki]

Released To Downloading(RTD).

lol

[RhinoBull]

What do you mean? Vista has already been Released To Manufacturing (RTM) ...

And it will be in stores very soon... so it is indeed very much done deal.

[RobDog888]

@litlewiki, No, its not. It must be a beta version or pirate version. Microsoft scans the forums so if I were you I wouldnt post content like that.

Even Rhino and I cant download the RTM version it until tomorrow.

[realbogus]

No, quite the opposite. Professional developers will still be targeting XP for at least another year at a minimum as businesses does not upgrade their system usually for several years after a new OS comes out, if they upgrade at all. Some businesses still run Windows 2000 and some even NT4 or 98.

This is absolutely correct.

I dont think Vista should have supported VB 6 at all to be honest. VB 6 is 10+ years old.

I disagree. Think about it for a second... everytime Apple makes a prior platform obsolete, everyone gets pissed.

If you think that VB6 being 10 years old is old, take some solice you are not dealing with COBOL, Assembler, Pascal... or even BASIC, which is now 40 years old.

Just because it is older does not mean it lacks value. VB6 has much value, and with the costs associated with transistioning to .NET, it won't happen all that rapidly.

[RobDog888]

Well I am in the industry directly working with companies, both small and large, and I see them, if not already running, upgrading to Server 2003 and ASP.NET webapps. Being old doesnt mean its bad, just not in demand as a mainstream development language. I really dont see an Assembler programmer doing many consulting projects per week. Maybe once in a while but nothing like a .NET developer has.

[RhinoBull]

...If you think that VB6 being 10 years old is old, take some solice you are not dealing with COBOL, Assembler, Pascal... or even BASIC, which is now 40 years old...

Age isn't the point - every language has/had its purpose. So does/did VB6 - it lives/lived in the COM+ world which gave us nothing but tons fo headach. MS realized that and they are trying to change it (in my opinion quite successfully with the introduction of .Net).

...Just because it is older does not mean it lacks value...

No it doesn't but it's a matter of time when that happens... No one can blame me for not loving VB6 (I might be one of the foremost ambassadors ) but would you want to go back to Windows 95 (only 10[!] years later)? I know for sure - I wouldn't.

Best regards.

[RobDog888]

Lets run DOS 6.22 still so we dont have to upgrade our hardware to run the new Windows 3.11

[esposito]

Most of the VB6 apps will work just fine under Vista.

To tell the truth, until a few months ago VB6 apps were risking a lot because a common VB6 statement (SendKeys) was made incompatible with the new OS. (It just made VB6 apps crash.)

I complained to MS about it and, thank God, they heard my prayer.

Chris Mayo (the VB Program Manager responsible for Visual Basic 6 on Vista) replied to me personally and reassured me about the SendKey issue:

Pasquale,

I'm the VB Program Manager responsible for Visual Basic 6 on Vista. The SendKeys issues has been corrected and will be released in Vista RC1. The calls to SendKeys that work under Windows XP will work the same way under Vista.

Hope that helps.
Thanks,
Chris Mayo
Visual Basic Program Manager
Sunday, July 30, 2006 7:38 PM by cmayo

Yuo can read the entire discussion on

http://blogs.msdn.com/davbosch/archi...26/539470.aspx

[RhinoBull]

I won't argue Chris's respond but will tell you this: SendKeys is just drop in the ocean of unknown. Until applications are fully tested no one can be sure - even Chris.
... but it's promissing ...

[esposito]

I won't argue Chris's respond but will tell you this: SendKeys is just drop in the ocean of unknown. Until applications are fully tested no one can be sure - even Chris.
... but it's promissing ...

Have you actually tested SendKeys under Windows Vista?

[RhinoBull]

No I didn't nor I have any intention until some year later (perhaps when SP1 is out)...
I'll never forget W95 that crashed many businesses and home PCs.

[esposito]

No I didn't nor I have any intention until some year later (perhaps when SP1 is out)...
I'll never forget W95 that crashed many businesses and home PCs.

Well, you may not like Windows Vista, but if you develop software for the general public (as I do) you should not ignore a new OS. Otherwise you may just have to stop selling your products.

[RhinoBull]

I develop business applications and businesses don't just do upgrades because something new and cool came out and so far it's been quite in my neighborhood as nobody expressed any remote wishes... so I guess I'll be alright for awhile.