How can I open or access a Visual Basic application that I created in 2002?

How can I open a Visual Basic application that I created in 2002?

I downloaded a current version of Visual Basic 2010 Express and was able to connect a new project to the .mdb files but I couldn't figure out how to open the other files which I need in order to actually use the application.

Attached is a screenshot of the files I have. The main files seem to be the ones with .vbw, .vbp, .bas, .frm and .frx extensions, and I'm assuming that THREED20.oca is probably important too.

Is there a way to open these files in Visual Basic 2010? If not, how can I access them? I am running Windows 7 64-bit, but I may have access to an older version of Windows and/or to Unix.

You could try downloading VB2008 Express edition. That has a 'conversion wizzard' which will try to convert the VB6 code to VB2008. It's probably only good for fairly 'simple' VB6 projects. Once converted to a VB2008 project, if you then open it in VB2010 it will convert from 2008 to 2010.

Obviously, the conversion process will not implement the 'fancy' new things you can use / do with VB2008/VB2010 and I guess if you use any Control Arrays in VB6 you're going to have to manually convert those parts. (ie it will still use the 'old' VB6 type functions rather than the new bells and whistles.)

It's a long haul but may be worth a try. I also believe that you can purchase Conversion Utilities' but who know how good / bad they might be?

Only other suggestion I can make is a complete re-write in VB2010.

By the way, when I downloaded VB2008 Express (about an hour ago) and tried the Conversion Wizzard it failed. The Error Message was something like 'Could not bind with source'

It seems that on 32bit machines it incorrectly creates a registry key named 'Wow6432Node' in HKLM\Software\ which I had to delete (I exported it first, just in case). It also puts some keys in the wrong place and I had to import the following into the Registry

See here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/for...-959ac5ca402f/ for details.

(I've replicated the suggested solutions in that thread in case other forum members have similar difficulties)

Code:

---

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\visualstudio\9.0\VBUpgrade]
"HelpLink"="ms-help://MS.VSCC.v80/MS.MSDNQTR.80.en/commoner/redir/redirect.htm?keyword="

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\visualstudio\9.0\VBUpgrade\Source Language Drivers]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\visualstudio\9.0\VBUpgrade\Source Language Drivers\Visual Basic]
@="Visual Basic 6.0"
"FileLocation"="VBSLD"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\visualstudio\9.0\VBUpgrade\Target Language Drivers]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\visualstudio\9.0\VBUpgrade\Target Language Drivers\VB7]
@="Visual Basic 7"
"FileLocation"="vb7tld"

---

into the Registry.

I don't know how much longer Microsoft are going to keep VB2008 available, it's interetsing to note that VB2010 doesn't have the Conversion Wizzard so Microsoft are certainly actively implementing their 'VB6 is no longer supported' Policy / Strategy.

@ Doogle,

jmcilhinney suggests rewriting the whole code again from scratch rather than using the conversion wizard to convert the VB6 code to .NET. Although, the code may still work there is a strong possiblity that some functions, subs written in VB6 can be written much simplier in VB.Net.

I think it depends upon the Business Case. If it's going to take 3 man years to re-write and only 1 man year to get it working following a 'wizzard' conversion, the Bean Counters may well opt for the latter and then get some poor soul to 'totally .Net' it in stages.

If it's just 'fun programming' then I'd agree that it's probably better re-writing as you'll learn much more, as long as you remember to forget everything you know about VB6 :)

I'd rebuild it if necessary, but unfortunately I don't have screenshots or sufficient documentation and don't remember all of the components.

The converter only worked for one file, but I was able to open and save all the other files except those with .frx, .oca, and .ocx extensions. (.frx and .oca both gave me the error message 'There is no editor available for … Make sure the application for file type ___ is installed', and .ocx made the program crash and restart each time). Any ideas how to open them?

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit, so I'm assuming that the aforementioned problem isn't the culprit.

Alternatively, if I could make sense out of the files I was able to open I could try to rebuild it off that. They had all been part of a really user friendly application that I built for inputting expert rules, but at the moment they are thousands of rows of straight code (much of which relates to formatting). Is there a way to see a visual representation of it and/or some way to convert it?

I just learned that my application was created using an Active-X compiler, and it seems unlikely that it will work without it and I haven't had any success finding one :-(