Win10 AppCompat VB6 IDE

[dilettante]

Since there is no code here, this didn't seem to make sense for the CodeBank. It is only of interest to VB6 programmers so General Discussions didn't seem to fit either.


Once people get VB6 installed they often struggle with the little tweaks required. Often people will use one of the Windows Version Compatibility Modes, but those have undesirable shims bundled into them such as version-lies.

I realize that few VB6 programmers have installed or used the Application Compatibility Toolkit, so I thought I'd post a custom Shim Database (.sdb) file. I have included two versions, but one pattern-matches on a specific patch level and will become obsolete as Microsoft releases VB6.exe patches (which do actually still occur though rarely):

Original

Because of that I've included a less restrictive version as well. Sadly there is no support for wild-carding in versioning values so it might also match another program, but the risk is probably quite low:

Less restrictive

That's the one you'd want to use. The attachment includes Install.cmd and Uninstall.cmd for that one.

To run the install you can right-click and Run as administrator and that's all there is to it. You can even do that before installing VB6 itself.


It seems to work fine in Windows 10 (Threshold 2, i.e. current level of patches to Windows 10) though I can't say regarding Windows 10 after the Redstone "Anniversary Update" patches coming in August 2016.

This set of shims addresses the DWM issues that can cause Designer-drag lagging in the IDE. Weirdly enough, you get a red rubberband when stretching, sizing, etc. but it works just fine. It also has RunAsAdmin.

I was a little doubtful about the HighDpiAware shim, but it seems ok so far.

This has been working great for me. It might also work unchanged for Windows 8.1, Windows 8, and even Windows 7 for all I know.

Avoiding the version-lie shims means you have access to APIs and ActiveX components you'd be denied otherwise. Of course for some you'll still need a manifest embedded into VB6.exe to get Common Controls 6.x access and you may also want to add <supportedOS /> elements as well for full access to new APIs. But the application manifest for VB6.exe is another topic.