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Thread: [RESOLVED] What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

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    Resolved [RESOLVED] What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Look at this - numeric values instead of add-in names:
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    I did not notice it earlier, but one of my customer told me that it happened on his pc too after upgrading Windows 10 to Fall Creators Update (version 1709).
    Do you know how to cure VB6 Add-In Manager?

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Works just fine here. Sounds like VB6 was not properly installed to me.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    there was a post here recently, by Elroy on this, with some solution
    i do my best to test code works before i post it, but sometimes am unable to do so for some reason, and usually say so if this is the case.
    Note code snippets posted are just that and do not include error handling that is required in real world applications, but avoid On Error Resume Next

    dim all variables as required as often i have done so elsewhere in my code but only posted the relevant part

    come back and mark your original post as resolved if your problem is fixed
    pete

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Hi wisekat,

    Yeah, I had a similar problem back when I switched to Windows 10 a few months back. I'm certain I posted about it here, but I can't find my old post. Also, I'm not sure what I finally did to get it going.

    The one thing I can say is that I had to install the VB6 IDE a couple of times to get it going correctly. And I'm still not sure that everything is 100% copacetic, but it's working well enough to get work done.

    I did wind up writing a bit of a tutorial about getting it installed. Here's a link to that tutorial. Be sure to read all the comments. There's some good information there.

    Best Of Luck,
    Elroy

    p.s. The only continuing problem I have is with using ShellExecuteW API call when opening Excel XLSM (macro) files. They won't open correctly when using ShellExecuteW, but they open just fine if double-clicked from explorer, or if executed from a compiled VB6 program. They just won't work when running from the IDE. It's truly a mystery to me.

    p.p.s. Well, also the little control handles on the edges of controls (for resizing them) don't work correctly, especially when simultaneously selecting several controls. I believe everyone is having this problem when running the VB6 IDE on Win10. I wrote a little Add-in to build the handles on my own, but I've gotten used to not having them.
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    here is the thread i was thinking of
    http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...ghlight=addins
    i do my best to test code works before i post it, but sometimes am unable to do so for some reason, and usually say so if this is the case.
    Note code snippets posted are just that and do not include error handling that is required in real world applications, but avoid On Error Resume Next

    dim all variables as required as often i have done so elsewhere in my code but only posted the relevant part

    come back and mark your original post as resolved if your problem is fixed
    pete

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I also tried search but couldn't find any related thread. So westconn1, thank you for the direct link.

    I checked my registry key Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins and the add-in names nside this key (the FriendlyName value in every key). They all are set to "#...". Does anybody know, should they be so and the add-in names are located in a resource files using these # id's?

    If not and the FriendlyName value must be the name displayed directly in the VB6 Add-in Manager, then I do not understand who and when changed this. What me and my customer definitely know, this happened after upgrade to Win10 version 1709. At least, we both noticed this problem after the upgrade.

    As for me, I have not changed anything in my VB6 installation past months. It has been working ok for many months (maybe even a year or two). And at the moment, the idea of reinstalling VB6 just to fix this problem looks uninspiring.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I have mostly '#...' in the registry. However in the addins dropdown all the names are there. Also the 3 addins I do use are shown in the registry like this one for the mousewheel. Certainly seems like VB6 is not installed correctly even though you have had no trouble for many months.
    Attached Images Attached Images  

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I also have the MouseWheel Fix add-in installed:
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    However, its name is displayed correctly.
    As I understand, the names of those standard VB6 add-ins whose names are displayed as "#..." may be retrieved from a VB6 resource DLL. Perhaps, something happened to VB6 after upgrade to the Fall Creator Update and it can no longer read those resource strings.
    Does anybody know the DLL or EXE in which the standard add-in names sit as string resources?

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Hi wisecat,

    I've got no idea what the numbers are, beyond the #2000 are that westconn1 so graciously found, which is the "Resource Editor". All I could recommend is to load them one-at-a-time and see if you could figure it out, possibly patching up the registry by changing the "FriendlyName" values when you get it figured out. Also, just staring at the "\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins" entries may also help you.

    The only other thing I could think of would be to re-install the VB6 IDE ... ughh.

    Good Luck,
    Elroy
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    This is what I could glean from my install of VB 6:

    #13200 - Package and Deployment Wizard
    #2000 - VB 6 Resource Editor
    #21000 - VB 6 Class Builder Utility
    #23000 - VB 6 Application Wizard / VB 6 Data Form Wizard
    #3000 - VB 6 Wizard Manager
    #31000 - VB 6 Property Page Wizard
    #32000 - VB 6 ActiveX Doc Migration Wizard
    #4000 - VB 6 Add-In Toolbar
    #48 - VB 6 Data Object Wizard
    #5000 - VB 6 Template Manager
    #6000 - VB 6 ActiveX Ctrl Interface Wizard

    Note that the "FriendlyName" value in the below two keys is set to #23000, so that is why above I inlcuded both possible names. Note that the SatelliteDllName value differs between the below two keys, being AppWz and DFWiz respectively.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins\AppWizard6.Wizard
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins\DataFormWizard6.Wizard

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Also, it's a bit off-topic, but I use the X-Mouse utility to fix the scroll-wheel. Dilettante turned me onto it a while back, and it's the only one I've ever found that correctly scrolls when you have your code displayed as a split-window. There are a couple of more recent versions, but I use version 2.15 which can be found here (or many other places).

    All that's needed is to install it, and then, under setup, add a "vb6.exe" app. And then, on that app's "Scrolling" tab, setting the scroll method to "Method 1 (SCROLL Msg)".

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    Enjoy,
    Elroy
    Last edited by Elroy; Feb 6th, 2018 at 01:24 PM.
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    If all developers have those "#..." numeric id's instead of meaningful names in FriendlyName's, then we should know how VB6 converts them to strings in the Add-in Manager dialog. If we understand this, we'll know what fails in Win10 Fall Creators Update and theoretically can fix it. I feel that it is something related to restricted rights. Perhaps, the VB6 IDE exe can no longer access a DLL to read those names or something like that. I think we could use an API function calls spy app for that.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    When I did my testing, I used Process Monitor to view what happened after the values in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins\ subkeys are retrieved, but unfortunately I was time limited and couldn't conclusively determine what was being queried to convert the #VALUE to the name. I may have time later today to take another look.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Ok, from looking at Process Monitor results, and looking at the Add-in files themselves, it is clear to me that the both the FriendlyName and Description registry values point to String Resources in the specific individual add-on files themselves.

    That would indicate, for example, that the TEMPMGR.DLL file has a String resource inside of it with an ID of #5000 that is set to "VB 6 Template Manager", and a String resource with an ID of #5001 that is set to "Template Manager add three additional template types to the Visual Basic Development Environment. Menu, Code, and Control template menu items are added to the Tools menu."

    And if you examine the contents of TEMPMGR.DLL you will notice that those strings are indeed present inside the file.

    The same is true for the other Addin files as well, both the add-in name and description that are displayed in the VB 6.0 Add-ins window can be found inside of each associated dll file.

    I would suggest the following:

    -Launch VB 6.0
    -Run Process Monitor and start capturing events
    -Open the VB 6.0 Add-ins window
    -Stop capturing events in Process Monitor
    -In Process Monitor, do a search for "Addins", which should bring you to the first time the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\6.0\Addins key is accessed.
    -You should see a large series of Registry accesses of the Addins key and its subkeys by VB6.exe
    -After that series of accesses, you should see VB6.exe going out and "touching" each dll file associated with the installed add-ins, where about 20-30 events are logged for each add-in dll file.
    -Look for any instances where the Result column has something other than "Success" and start digging in to those events. Note that you may see some instances of "Path not found" where it might try to initially find a copy of the add-in file in the "wrong" location, and those can be ignored.

    Good luck!

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Quote Originally Posted by OptionBase1 View Post
    -After that series of accesses, you should see VB6.exe going out and "touching" each dll file associated with the installed add-ins, where about 20-30 events are logged for each add-in dll file.
    -Look for any instances where the Result column has something other than "Success" and start digging in to those events. Note that you may see some instances of "Path not found" where it might try to initially find a copy of the add-in file in the "wrong" location, and those can be ignored.
    Exactly what I wanted to hear and to research myself! The problem I have looks like a general problem in all cases, i.e. the reason why VB6 can't retrieve add-in names because of the same failure in all cases. I will try to play with it and will let you know if I find a way to fix it.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I traced what VB6 does when I open the VB6 Add-In Manager. It searches the registry keys for every add-in using the standard COM CLSID's technique. Here is the corresponding part for the VB6 resource editor:
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    Yes, some values are not found, but it seems VB6 can successfully find the location of the DLL. But I do not see that VB6 tried to open the DLL to retrieve the friendly name from it.
    It would be nice if anybody uploaded a similar log for a VB6 installation that displays add-in names properly - to compare with mine and find the differences.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    After posting the previous post, I found the culprit very fast . I am using VB6 in the compatibility mode with Windows Vista to avoid any visual glitches in the VB6 form editor:
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    VB6 started to display add-in names properly after I uncheked "Run this program in compatibility mode" checkbox.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Some more info about what VB6 does with the ResEdit add-in when the compatibility with Vista is turned off:
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    And the next screen after PgDn:
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    Any idea why compatibility with Windows Vista leads to improper work of the VB6 Add-in Manager?

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    BTW, setting any compatibility mode for VB6.exe - from Windows XP till Windows 8 leads to this problem with the Add-in manager.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    It causes more than just problems with the Add-In manager. It causes problems with the way the ShellExecute API works as well. It even causes problems with certain Office (Excel and Word) automations.

    I've just recently (yesterday) been studying all the ins-and-outs of the "Compatibility Administrator". For the latest Windows 10, you must download and install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit and select the "Compatibility Administrator" during the install. (It's not selected by default.)

    For earlier versions of Windows (Vista thru 8.?), you can download it here. Again, be sure the "Compatibility Administrator" is selected when you install.

    Dilettante also put together a nice thread about the actual shims that are needed for VB6.

    Basically, there are these steps to using this "Compatibility Administrator":
    1. After it's running, create a new shim database (SDB file).
    2. Create a new application with shims in this database.
    3. Add the shims you need.
    4. Save the new shim database (I saved mine in my VB6.EXE folder, and named it VB6_IDE.SDB).
    5. "Install" the new database (this is actually what "sets" the shims) (right-click, install).


    We should really try and use a minimum set of shims with our executables. Here's a pretty nice page on what these shims actually are/do. Here's a partial but still extensive list of the various shims. There are 100s of them.

    Each of these shims alters the way a program (VB6.EXE or whatever) interfaces with Windows. Ideally, we'd like it to interface with Windows in as direct a way as possible. However, that's not always possible, and that's what these shims are about. However, the more we use, the more likely we are to start doing something that Windows (or the program) isn't going to like.

    Good Luck,
    Elroy

    EDIT1: All said differently, these are the "details" behind what's going on when you use the "Compatibility" tab under Properties. I'm now convinced (because of problems I've had) that nothing on that "Compatibility" tab should be used, with the exception of "Run As Administrator". A couple of individual shims will take care of the rest, including the way control selection/sizing/moving works.

    EDIT2: Just as an FYI, I went through every single shim (taking them in groups), trying to get the multi-select-interior-control-handles back, but failed. With Windows 10, I think they're gone forever. However, with Dilettante's recommended subset, everything else seems to work quite well.

    EDIT3: As another FYI, the compatibility settings on the "Compatibility" tab under Properties are basically "groups-of-shims". However, each of these available "groups" fixes certain things about the VB6.EXE program, but breaks others. In other words, these pre-defined groups don't work correctly for the VB6.EXE. Therefore, we must specifically choose and set our own shims, via what was outlined above.
    Last edited by Elroy; Feb 12th, 2018 at 03:16 PM.
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I guess each of us has a different experience with VB6 installation on Win 10; I just want to share with you what I had towards the end of last year when I did mine on a new machine.

    I ticked off some checkboxes as usual, e.g. Source Safe and was prepared to skip MSDN at some point towards the end of the installation process. When I was with the first disk, I saw some "Copying ....." or alike messages on the screen. After some while, the screen flagged an "Updating ....." message. Since the screen didn't disappear after several minutes, I decided to have a reboot, thinking it must be a failed installation similar to what I had had before. So I rebooted. Thereafter, I couldn't help considering I was the luckiest man in VB6 installation, because I found that my VB was there and I could start using it without any hiccup. I've been using it almost on daily basis since.

    So my VB6 installation used only the first disk, yet I haven't come across any problem running my existing VB programs in IDE, compiling or EXE. I had never had such an easy experience on ME, XP, Vista and Win 7 before.

    Comparing to other Win versions, the only odd thing I've found is that the speed is much slower when I reposition a bundle of controls on the Form - I am not sure you feel the same?

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Brenker, that moving/resizing of controls is precisely the problems that a couple of shims will solve.
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Elroy,

    Pleased to know it, thank you.

    Brenker

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Elroy, is there just one reliable shim that fixes the problem with drag handles in Win10? I turned on compatibility with Windows Vista in VB6.exe file properties only to fix this problem with drag handles.

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Hi wisekat,

    Yeah, that fixes the problem with moving/resizing of controls in the IDE. However, that "group of shims" (i.e., Windows Vista) introduces at least two other problems. One is that the ShellExecute API call doesn't work correctly. And another is the entire issue of this thread (the Add-In names get corrupted).

    And just as an FYI, the Compatibility Modes you see on the properties tab are large "groups of shims", and not single shims.

    Best Regards,
    Elroy
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    I bet you can guess which one from Post #13 in dilettante's thread

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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Yep.
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    Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    DEXWERX, yes, dillettante's SDB solves my problem perfectly! Frankly speaking, I do not need to make VB6.exe DPI-aware for compatibility with my customers, so I excluded this fix from my SDB that looks like this now:
    Name:  2018-02-23_17h33_39.jpg
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    Attached is the SDB. For me, the problem is solved.
    VB6_SDB.zip

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    Re: [RESOLVED] What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 buil

    No, that can't be true! I am "da baaad man" around here:

    Quote Originally Posted by Schmidt View Post
    ... I see no such
    encouragement from you so far in this forum (towards people wo invest a whole lot of their time to bring VB6 "out of abandonment").

    Olaf
    After all, the obvious solution is for you to wait until some closed source undocumented vaporware VB6 replacement comes along... so you can be held captive.

  30. #30
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    Re: [RESOLVED] What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 buil

    hahaha, geeez.
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    Thumbs up Re: What happened to add-in names in VB6 Add-In Manager in Windows 10 build 1709?

    Thank you for all the helpful advice here! I got it to work finally!
    Last edited by rhug; May 17th, 2018 at 02:31 AM. Reason: changed my mind

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