IE7 has definately broken VB 6!

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:29 AM

Hi guys, thoughts here...

We have a VB6 app and the browse control is definately shafted once IE7 is installed on the client. Anyone else having the problem.

This is a pretty serious issue for anyone that develops in VB6. We are trying to find a workaround but several functions including refresh2 and refresh and so on are just not working...

Views? Fixes?

B

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by Ballistix

Anyone else having the problem?

There's an easy way to find out...See the link marked "Search" with a down-arrow next to it? Try clicking it and putting "IE7" in the box that comes up. This is called "searching" and is a very good way to find out things

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:37 AM

Great reply. Of course I have searched, do you think I'm some sort of idiot??

[Removed by Mod] Anyone got anything sensible to say? This is a great forum and I'm not used to getting replies like this frankly.

All the comments I have seen is for the beta. Not the full release which came out over the past 2 days.

Regards,
B

**szlamany** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:39 AM

Have you tried looking around the MSDN site and the MS blogs for information?

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:40 AM

Did you mention that you had the full release? Does it make any difference? Didn't think so :-P

**szlamany** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:41 AM

Google for: "ie7 vb6 refresh refresh2"

finds a very odd CHANNEL9 MS link...

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:42 AM

Hi, yes, thanks for the reply. We've been over the web and can see things starting to surface about this but no solutions yet. I believe it's a big issue and anyone that has any products that use the IE browse control are going to be in trouble.

Regards,

Tony

**DigiRev** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:44 AM

Originally Posted by smUX

There's an easy way to find out...See the link marked "Search" with a down-arrow next to it? Try clicking it and putting "IE7" in the box that comes up. This is called "searching" and is a very good way to find out things

I think we all know how to use the search function.

All the comments I have seen is for the beta. Not the full release which came out over the past 2 days.

Chances are, that if it just came out 2 days ago, you'd be lucky to find any help. Your best bet would be to wait at least another week or search on MSDN or maybe you'll get lucky with a google search.

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:44 AM

So basically, the same issue that was in IE7 beta is in IE7 final...now you see why I said it doesn't matter, I know what Micro$oft is like when it comes to bugs like this, and now you see why I use firefox :-)

Originally Posted by DigiRev

I think we all know how to use the search function.

Yeah, but I like massively overplaying my sarcasm to the point of almost (or sometimes actually) insulting the person :-P

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:47 AM

sMUX OK, get your point. Do you know of another browse control we can use then and compile that into our VB product. At the moment our product is broken if people install IE7 so we need to find a workaround and a fix.

It's only been out for a couple of days. But this is going to have a big impact.

We did see bugs in an earlier version but not the last beta...now bugs are back... /sigh.

T

**DigiRev** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by Ballistix

sMUX OK, get your point. Do you know of another browse control we can use then and compile that into our VB product. At the moment our product is broken if people install IE7 so we need to find a workaround and a fix.

It's only been out for a couple of days. But this is going to have a big impact.

We did see bugs in an earlier version but not the last beta...now bugs are back... /sigh.

T

You can use the gecko one (the same one FireFox uses), and I hear it works exactly the same as the IE one.

http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/control.htm

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 05:54 AM

I am assuming that people will actually have installed IE7 on their PCs and that is why you want to make sure it works...isn't there some way of packing required IE6 DLLs with your program so that it still works through IE6 even though they've installed IE7?

If you have IE7 on your main PC there's ways to uninstall it if that's the issue.

Others here will know more than me about using IE6 DLLs if you've got IE7 installed...I'm not very good with DLLs, although I'm a good problem solver *theoretically* :-)

**vnviews** · Oct 20th, 2006, 06:04 AM

Hope that it's NOT true!
We are in final stage of project and if that we have to throw all to dustbin!

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 06:25 AM

It *is* true that users who have IE7 installed will have problems running programs you write because M$ in their infinite wisdom decided to leave their infinite wisdom on the bus on the way to work :-)

Can't say how long it will take them to fix it, and I don't even know what the bug is (nor do I care; I don't program for others, only myself :-)), but I am sure M$ will eventually sort it out so that VB will work with IE7...although do bear in mind that VB6 is now not supported by M$ so unless this affects .NET too (not sure if it does) then M$ won't give a flying about whether it works for us or not :-)

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 06:36 AM

vnviews...I suggest you look at IE7 pronto...

DigiRev if we use the control you suggest will it work across all browser platforms...like the IE6 one "did".

Thanks

T

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 06:43 AM

Usually controls are OCXes or DLLs and such that are installed with your program so they'd be deployed by you and the browser the user has is unimportant...HOWEVER there is one important thing to point out...if they're using IE and they need special proxy settings to get access to the internet, there is *no* guarantee that any other control will be able to access the same proxy details. Make sure this isn't an issue you will face, or wait until IE7 is fixed (if it is going to be :-))

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 06:50 AM

Fair point smUX I can see this being an issue tbh. We do have a proxy setting in our AP. As long as we can fiddle that so that the control uses it rather than the proxy settings that we pickup from the IE control then we might be ok...needs a thorough test.

T

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 07:01 AM

There might be ways around it, but would require some serious messing about with using inet/winsock and the gecko control...basically using inet or winsock to download the data and gecko to display it (I assume it's just as easy to access the gecko document as in webbrowser).

You're way better off waiting for M$ to sort themselves out though...the way above would be lots of programming and probably wouldn't be as flexible as a webbrowser would be on its own on an IE6 system...but it is an option if you only need basic stuff :-)

Although I still think that using IE6 DLLs would work...dunno how reliable (or legal...seeing as you need to be licenced to distribute IE6 DLLs) it would be though

**DigiRev** · Oct 20th, 2006, 07:10 AM

According to that site you should be able to just replace the IE control with it, and not even have to change any code. I don't know about proxies though.

DigiRev if we use the control you suggest will it work across all browser platforms...like the IE6 one "did".

What do you mean by browser "platforms"?

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 07:41 AM

Sorry my bad phrasing of platforms I meant client browsers.

Can we just inject that new browse control DLL into our build and not have the other 4MB of the install? That would have a nasty effect on the size of our product.

We'll try it I guess but wondered if you knew.

T

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 07:51 AM

We've found the issue. We just need to hone in on the root cause but it looks like that MS have removed some GUID references with the installation of IE7 ..doh!

T

**RhinoBull** · Oct 20th, 2006, 07:57 AM

Originally Posted by smUX

It *is* true that users who have IE7 installed will have problems running programs you write because M$ in their infinite wisdom decided to leave their infinite wisdom on the bus on the way to work :-)

Can't say how long it will take them to fix it, and I don't even know what the bug is (nor do I care; I don't program for others, only myself :-)), but I am sure M$ will eventually sort it out so that VB will work with IE7...although do bear in mind that VB6 is now not supported by M$ so unless this affects .NET too (not sure if it does) then M$ won't give a flying about whether it works for us or not :-)

@smUX (and only @smUX):
Whould you stop this nonsense about Miscrosoft please? Seriously!
If you don't have much to say then please be quiet!
VB6 is about 10 years old and IE6 even older (well, technically they both much "younger" but they both are based on at least decade old technology) so whould you like MS to produce new products to be backword competible with things they've done when they started?
In fact they do and they do a darn good job (much better job then any other software company in the world) but they cannot go back that far... So, stop complaining at once.

Thank you. (you don't have to respond to this...)

**leinad31** · Oct 20th, 2006, 08:10 AM

I have yet to understand what he meant by the control being "shafted." :P Yes its broken, but in what way specifically?

**RhinoBull** · Oct 20th, 2006, 09:15 AM

... and shortly it's going to be even more painfull for some of you:

Be Ready for Automatic Update Distribution of IE7 by November 1

**RobDog888** · Oct 20th, 2006, 10:21 AM

I dont see what the fuss is all about. This is by far - not new. IE 7 beta 1-3 all had this issue with VB 6. Its known and has been posted on VBF for months now.

You should never update your system without knowing which updates are being applied and what their effects are.

http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t...&highlight=IE7
http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t...&highlight=IE7
http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t...&highlight=IE7

Please do not use inappropriate language.

**smUX** · Oct 20th, 2006, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by RhinoBull

@smUX (and only @smUX):
Whould you stop this nonsense about Miscrosoft please? Seriously!
If you don't have much to say then please be quiet!

I think you'll find I wasn't *just* M$-bashing, I was actually commenting on other stuff as well. Please point out the section in the forum's T&C stating that I am not allowed to M$-bash, because I would like to see it for myself. If you're just telling me not to do it because you're a M$ lover then please feel free to ask me to tone down my bashing...but I am an avid M$ hater and would install and use Linux if I was able to get a working copy of VB6 for it (I like programming...I don't *need* it but I like it) and I will feel free to ignore your request.

And regarding your other comments, IE and VB are both many years old, IE6 and VB6 are *not* 10 years old...IE6 and VB6 are not IE and VB, they are improved versions of said products and they were backward compatible with previous IEs and VBs. And BTW my problem isn't with M$ dropping support for VB6, it's with the fact that when they make such a monstrous foul up as this with IE7 they won't even attempt to make sure it will work with VB6...a critical problem like this should be exempt from the "we're not supporting VB6" because it is so critical, esp. with your other post about IE7 being forced on us (as M$ so often does...not FireFox, that one *asks* you if you want to update and you decide for yourself)

**Ballistix** · Oct 20th, 2006, 01:08 PM

I'm with SmUX on the age of the products etc. IE 7 has broken bits of VB6. We've found what it is...it removes a GUID that is shouldn't. We are now fixing this with our product. It's fair to say that a migration to .NET or C is now the option for us.

Just to be clear. This BUG has NOT been in the betas. This bug has manifested between the RC candidates and the release of two days ago. So there "with brass knobs on"

T

**RobDog888** · Oct 20th, 2006, 02:05 PM

Well for your particular issue it may or ma not have just shown up but usually its best practice to test out any updates/upgrades before updating a production system or system that you do critical development on.

I dont want this thread to be a I hate MS or IE or Linix etc. If there are views to be expressed on these then it should be a new thread in the general developer forum.

FYI, VB 6 was released back in 1998 with preview versions before that so its at least 9 years old at a minimum.

**Maven** · Oct 20th, 2006, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Ballistix

Hi guys, thoughts here...

We have a VB6 app and the browse control is definately shafted once IE7 is installed on the client. Anyone else having the problem.

This is a pretty serious issue for anyone that develops in VB6. We are trying to find a workaround but several functions including refresh2 and refresh and so on are just not working...

Views? Fixes?

B

I threw a webbrowser control on a forum and installed IE7. When you go to use refresh, it generates an error on refresh. Humerously "On Error Resume Next" stops the error of course, and refresh seems to be working.

Go figure =P

VB Code:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    On Error Resume Next
    Open ("c:\test.html") For Output As #1
    Print #1, "<html><body>"
    Print #1, "THE SECOND VERSION"
    Print #1, "</body></html>"
    Close #1
    'WebBrowser1.Navigate ("C:\test.html")
    WebBrowser1.Refresh
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Open ("c:\test.html") For Output As #1
    Print #1, "<html><body>"
    Print #1, "THE FIRST VERSION"
    Print #1, "</body></html>"
    Close #1
    
    On Error Resume Next
    WebBrowser1.Navigate ("C:\test.html")
    WebBrowser1.Refresh
End Sub

**Maven** · Oct 20th, 2006, 03:08 PM

wow

I restart vb6 and it can no longer locate the OCX.

**leinad31** · Oct 20th, 2006, 03:12 PM

what was the error.description?

**Maven** · Oct 20th, 2006, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by leinad31

what was the error.description?

I dont remember and currently cannot even load a web browser control onto a form. The exe I made stilll works though, but the ocx for dev has been moved some place by ie or deleted all togheter.

**ghall426** · Oct 22nd, 2006, 11:04 PM

If the error you've having is concerning the webbrowser control, go into components and select Browse. Add ...windows/system32/shdocvw.dll. Be sure to look at all files, not just .OCX extensions.

**Doomguy0505** · Oct 23rd, 2006, 02:06 AM

You're lucky, you can still open help files, IE7 stuffed my installation of XP up.

**BruceG** · Oct 27th, 2006, 10:23 AM

If a user has a currently running, installed application that was developed with VB6 that uses the WebBrowser control, if that user upgrades to IE7, will the installed VB app have issues or not?

**GaryMazzone** · Oct 27th, 2006, 10:55 AM

The VB6 apps that I had using the web browser control all broke when upgrading to IE7. The control was just a curtisy in the apps so I just removed them all.

**BruceG** · Oct 27th, 2006, 11:22 AM

Well that's scary. I have one app out there that uses the WB to view Word documents (all local, no actual Internet access). I suppose that wouldn't make a difference?

**BruceG** · Oct 28th, 2006, 02:10 AM

I am happy to report that I installed IE7 on a test box and the compiled app in question ran with no problems. Further, I created a test project in VB, slapped a WebBrowser control on the form (even though the control now points to "ieframe.dll" instead of "shdocvw.dll") and was able to do a "Navigate2" to a website with no problems.

So I've got somewhat of a warm and fuzzy so far. I didn't do extensive testing yet, but so far so good ...

**RobDog888** · Oct 28th, 2006, 02:37 AM

Thats great to hear Bruce but why then do the others have so many issues?

**BruceG** · Oct 28th, 2006, 12:27 PM

I can't say why the others had issues, and hopefully none will manifest themselves for me later - I was disheartened when I saw this thread so I thought I better test this stuff out. I can tell you that the version is 7.0.5730.11, which I downloaded from MS yesterday (10/27).

Also, in re-reading thru this thread, I saw that some folks were having trouble with the Refresh method. I am happy to report that I tried that as well and it worked with no issue.

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