Installing VB6 Professional on Windows 11 - no admin and enrolled

[AdorablePlum]

Hello,

We're moving to W11 from W10 and I need to install VB6 on it.

Installing it on W10 didn't present any issues as far as I can recall, but this time around I've been told that, as the machine is enrolled on a domain, I won't be permitted Admin access to it, nor will the various anti-virus be disabled. Instead I need to call on IT whenever a UAC presents itself.

Has anyone had any experience in this situation?

[VanGoghGaming]

Use twinBasic instead. No installation required.

[Phill.W]

... the machine is enrolled on a domain, I won't be permitted Admin access to it, nor will the various anti-virus be disabled.

This is not a Technical Problem; it's an Institutional Management one.

You have a Requirement to install this software as part of your Job.
Your IT department must either provide you with the means to do so (admin access) or provide another means for you to obtain the software (through installation "packages" that can be added to any machine by automated means; "Software Centre", part of "Configuration Manager" is one such).

You should not need to disable the anti-virus. If you do, you're either doing something very "specialised" or very .. dangerous.

Regards, Phill W.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Agreed with the above. A requirement often pops up its head that is at variance with agreed company policies, designed and formed at a time when your specific requirement wasn't appreciated. In this case it is old software but sometimes it is new software, you have to go through with the pain of explaining that their policies are inappropriate or stupid in this configuration. That may be a struggle.

1. Run the application within a sandbox VM (bound to conflict with another policy).
2. Converting the application to TwinBasic might initially seem to be be the easiest choice but another difficult corporate decision given TB's Beta status.
3. Tell them to install VB6 on a system that is separate and not part of a domain, has its own specific configuration. Remember admin access is a requirement and if they want you to do your job, then you have have that role.

[AdorablePlum]

I agree, but currently I'm not getting any traction and the local IT are dictated to by a 3rd party handler with a very narrow perspective, so will have to "give it a shot". I was hoping that there would be some ability to image my current machine and upgrade the OS, but that seems not to be available.

Not heard of TwinBasic, so will investigate that.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Not heard of TwinBasic, so will investigate that.

TwinBasic is your solution but it is not production ready. It will be, possibly within 6 months - maybe one year. Development and bug fixing turnaround is fast. My opinion is that it will never achieve full 100% compatibility within that window and that its suitability for use will be on a test case by case basis. The vast majority of language differences and bugs will be fixed or workarounds provided but your specific issues will need to be raised and workarounds provided, bugs fixed as needed.

So, you need to get your boss on side for a temporary solution or just bring in one of your own laptops to do the majority of the work, synching the code as you go, with TwinBasic being the medium term goal to resolve the problem.

[Arnoutdv]

I agree, but currently I'm not getting any traction and the local IT are dictated to by a 3rd party handler with a very narrow perspective, so will have to "give it a shot". I was hoping that there would be some ability to image my current machine and upgrade the OS, but that seems not to be available.

Not heard of TwinBasic, so will investigate that.

I read somewhere that someone just copied the content of "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio" to a new computer and it seemed to work.
Can't find the post/link just anywhere

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I read somewhere that someone just copied the content of "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio" to a new computer and it seemed to work.
Can't find the post/link just anywhere

Yes, there is such a portable option but it will still generate UAC events that need to be handled and it may not operate correctly without admin. assigned

[Arnoutdv]

Isn't that only required on first time running?
The IDE only needs to run as administrator when compiling ActiveX DLLs

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I suppose it really depends upon the application but it might be do-able.

[tmighty2]

I did post that somewhere.

I installed English / non-English and somehow I think that wrecked things up, and it wouldn't allow me to install SP7 or so. XP style was missing in the IDE.

Then, at some point, I read that copying the content from Win 10 to 11 helped, and it did.
But as I said, I installed from setup at first and THEN copied stuff over.

[AdorablePlum]

Is this installer tool still availabe? None of the links seem live.

https://nuke.vbcorner.net

[xiaoyao]

In fact, vb6.exe can be used directly by decompressing more than a dozen files.No installation is required. It's like green software.

Need to write an item in the registry, otherwise it can not be compiled into exe.
The others are those DLL OCX to register.

run vb6.exe,I need to load some myself. Something like TLB. Administrator privileges are required.
The same is true of office. Relies heavily on various registry writes. There are also some limitations of the old way of starting.

Office97 can be unzipped and used without installation.
Perhaps vb5, vb3.0 can not be installed, direct decompression use.

For Linux wine, it is also more complicated for you to install Vb6.
It also took me a week to get the support for Dao to read and write access databases.However, there is no way to support ado-driven databases in normal mode.

Some wine versions package various environments or require some files that can directly support ado.

[xiaoyao]

I read somewhere that someone just copied the content of "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio" to a new computer and it seemed to work.
Can't find the post/link just anywhere

That's true. But if you want the addin plug-in project of the advanced , he can't use it. For example, some report designers need to be written in the registry.

[xiaoyao]

Isn't that only required on first time running?
The IDE only needs to run as administrator when compiling ActiveX DLLs

It's a very strange thing. If you develop a standard DLL project, it will automatically execute the DllMain code when you compile it.

[AdorablePlum]

So just to update. I don't have Admin access or the UAC disabled, but I do have an IT guy sitting there to enter the password when the prompt appears. I've also managed to get access to an elevated cmd and registry editor. Am forced to attempt this in the first instance due to the draconian protocols in place.

So far I've created the zero-byte dll for the Java.


Re Post #7, is this a real possibility? It seems that would be incredibly straightfoward if I just copied the folder over and it worked.

[AdorablePlum]

So I tried installing. Seemed to go ok but came up with a "Component not registered" message during the install, but didn't give any indication what the component was.
The IDE opens, but excluding MZ tools and the mousewheel fix which I haven't installed yet, it seems to be missing all the addins.

[AdorablePlum]

For instance, the resource editor. The RESEDIT dll appears to be present in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\Wizards

[Elroy]

Just read through all of this for the first time.

Yep, I agree that you're definitely going to need Admin (elevated) access to get the VB6 IDE installed.

Also, depending on your program, and which OCX files (and other references) are used, you may need Admin access to actually continue with your development.

For instance, I don't typically run elevated (Admin) for my day-to-day activities, which often include doing small-to-medium tasks with VB6 (typically using the IDE). When I'm doing that, there's never any need to have Admin access.

However, my main program, with 1000s of lines of code and 100s of forms, including ActiveX DLLs and all kinds of things, I'm requested to provide Admin access when I'm just loading the source code in the IDE. I've never spent the time to figure out exactly what's requiring Admin access though, as it's just not a priority for me, as I can easily provide that on my personal development machine.

Also, just to say it, once compiled, this big program does not require Admin access. It's only required during my development within the IDE.

---

And I totally agree. If I.T., and other management can't understand that you're developing software, and need additional privileges on your development machine, then something is very wrong, politically or strategically within the company.

---

Also, if you're a consultant, rather than an employee-developer, why aren't you bringing in your own laptop for development, setup however you want? I can already hear you saying, "well, the program is designed to run only within their environment". If that's true, then the program itself is badly designed. Any/all programs should be designed in such a way that the consultant-developer can test in their own office.

[AdorablePlum]

Hi Elroy,
Many thanks for your reply and support, and for documenting your process in the other thread.

To confirm, I'm an employee.

[Elroy]

To confirm, I'm an employee.

Hi Plum. I'll just speak to my experiences, since I can't claim to know yours. Now, I'm strictly a consultant, but, back in 1999, when the development of my primary program started, I was a full-time employee of the Shriners Hospitals system, doing software development for them (among other things).

At first, I had many run-ins with the I.T. department, needing to go to my boss to explain things (who was not in I.T.). After a few meetings, I.T. finally understood that I need full "local" administration privileges on my "development" machine. The word "local" doesn't really mean anything, but the I.T. department used it to differentiate my privileges from "network" administrative privileges (which I didn't need, nor did I want).

Over the years, I went through several computers, having administrative rights on all of them, and, eventually, became good friends with several people in I.T., even spending time after work with a couple of them. But, it was "some work" to get to that point.

On a somewhat related issue, Shriners makes (almost) everyone sign an Intellectual Property agreement as part of employment. However, I refused to sign such an agreement, explaining that I was bringing substantial software with me as part of my employment, and was unwilling to just turn all that over to them. Being a high-level non-profit, we finally came to an understanding that everything I developed would be covered under the GPLv3 copyleft license, which it still is (including my consulting work).

Good Luck with your issues,
Elroy

[yereverluvinuncleber]

A simple analogy. They hire you to drive a petrol racing car but company policy states "only diesel" for all their vehicles. In the end they are going to supply you with some petroleum.

[AdorablePlum]

I hope so. Seems to be a war of attrition.

[AdorablePlum]

If I got the IT bod to login with an Admin account and install it, would it be available under my user, do you think?

[Phill.W]

If I got the IT bod to login with an Admin account and install it, would it be available under my user, do you think?

Yes, it would, but it's unlikely to be fully useable.

You would not be able to do anything (in VB6) that requires "elevation" like touching the Registry, writing to "protected" directories, doing anything with COM Components, etc., etc. and if it decides to do anything like that for itself, then you're stuck.

Regards, Phill W.

[VanGoghGaming]

I would still refer you to post #2 above. Have you tried that?

[wqweto]

Yes, it would, but it's unlikely to be fully useable.

You would not be able to do anything (in VB6) that requires "elevation" like touching the Registry, writing to "protected" directories, doing anything with COM Components, etc., etc. and if it decides to do anything like that for itself, then you're stuck.

Regards, Phill W.

Btw, VB6 *works* unelevated under Win11 so I suppose VB6.exe is shimmed to be able to register COM component under HKLM. No other reasonable explanation how it would not totally go south otherwise.

cheers,
</wqw>

[Arnoutdv]

Sometimes I do get "registry errors" when running VB6 non elevated, especially with projects which have never been opened before on this computer. Then opening the project with an elevated instance of VB6 fixes this.
Also compiling ActiveX DLLs don't work when running VB6 as a standard user, at least not for me

[wqweto]

> Sometimes I do get "registry errors" when running VB6 non elevated, especially with projects which have never been opened before on this computer.

Same here. A bit annoying but "On Error Resume Next" is our slogan these days :-))

There is a bug in the shim, go report this. . .

> Also compiling ActiveX DLLs don't work when running VB6 as a standard user, at least not for me

Yes, HKML registration is apparently impossible but the shim (probably) virtualizes the HKLM hive so running Ax-DLL/OCX in a project group works fine i.e. the Std-EXE project instantiates/calls into Ax-DLL project in IDE, not the currently registered DLL/OCX binary.

cheers,
</wqw>

[Arnoutdv]

What shim do you refer to?
I just start the VB6.exe (W11), no self applied shims and/or comparability settings.

[AdorablePlum]

I do run it elevated on my current W10 machine. When I set that up I had admin rights. These were subsequently revoked but an exception was made for VB6 and a few other applications.

I'm not being given the admin rights to set up a W11 PC. I've noticed also that when the IT bod does something elevated, it executes in their user context not mine.

[wqweto]

What shim do you refer to?
I just start the VB6.exe (W11), no self applied shims and/or comparability settings.

They shim almost everything nowadays. For backcompat the OS is virtualizing whatever it can for legacy apps not to fail on newest hot take from Redmond.

At some point almost all win32 apps will be considered legacy by the OS :-))

cheers,
</wqw>

[AdorablePlum]

So I tried opening a project in TwinBasic and has some errors:

Control variable does not match the opening For statement
Can't see any issue

                        For i = 0 To Me.lstValues.ListCount - 1
                            lstValues.Selected(i) = True
                         Next i

It's also saying that i is an "unrecognised symbol".


Again in this line, fld is an "unrecognised symbol" when in fact it's a variable.

fld = CStr(rs.Fields(0).Name)

Doesn't like GetForegroundWindow

 If Me.hwnd <> GetForegroundWindow Then

Doesn't like "Lines" or "Ubound(Lines)"

            Open sFile For Input As #ffile
                    Lines = Split(Input$(LOF(ffile), #ffile), vbNewLine)
                Close #ffile
                If UBound(Lines) > -1 Then

On this line, it said that Len() failed due to an internal errror

If Len(sOld) = "" Then

None of these errors seem genuine, so not sure what to do to correct.

[Arnoutdv]

Did you dimension your variables? Aka do you use "Option Explicit" on top of all your forms, modules and classes?

[AdorablePlum]

Not consistently.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

You MUST!

[AdorablePlum]

I do use it some instances, but I guess the thinking was that using a variant type means the same variable can switch datatypes according to the situation avoiding having to trap a lot of type mismatches.

I just checked and it is used most of the time so I'll declare everything, try again and feed back.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

These are basics... always use option explicit ON

Everything should be declared, avoids sloppy programming using variants. These are basics... We can't go into the value of ensuring types are correct and consistent here but do realise that everyone here will expect your code to be able to stand scrutiny and live up to certain minimal standards, we want to help you and we do NOT want to fight against your code.

I think using TwinBasic is going to improve your programming style across the board.

[AdorablePlum]

Thanks for the feedback. Those are fair points. I will make sure everything is declared and post back after retrying.

[AdorablePlum]

Ok so I declared everything which helped a lot.

Is there an Immediate Window equivalent?