VB6 Not Working On Windows 7

[MORRISPC10]

I've have developed a program in visual basic 6 (Which uses user contols which call API functions such as user32.dll and other standard dlls) as part of my computing A Level but i'm now having problems getting it functioning in my colleges new Windows 7 Computers. It works fine on the old windows XP computers but they are planning to upgrade all computers to Windows 7. The sytem administrator is adamant that it should work but I have attempted on my Windows Server 2008 R2 computer at home and it doesn't work there either (Visual Studio.Net works fine) I think it is because vb6 is a 32 bit program and the new computers have 64 bit processers and there is some incompatiblity isssue between WOW64 and VB6 but I do not know what the cause of the probelm is. Plese can someone tell me how to resolve this issue.

[dilettante]

People are running and even compiling VB6 programs under WOW64 with no problems. Since almost no software comes in 64-bit versions (including Visual Studio) Windows wouldn't be very useful otherwise.

[TysonLPrice]

Could you provide more details than "having problems getting it functioning in my colleges new Windows 7 Computers"?

Are there specific issues, errors, etc.?

[Jacob Roman]

Its working fine on my computer with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. At first I had the same issues. I just had to look it up and I found the solution here:

How to get VB6 working on Windows 7

Also for DirectX stuff since I always code with that, I had to manually register the dx7vb.dll and dx8vb.dll's through regsvr32.exe in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder.

[MORRISPC10]

Sorry for not being specific:-

The controls phase in and out and flicker lots, some dissappear,
Form freezes and some controls only appear on mouseover (No event handler)

[Jacob Roman]

Well if you would have read the bottom of that link you would have seen this:

You might notice after successfully installing VB6 on Windows 7 that working in the IDE is a bit, 
well, sluggish. For example, resizing objects on a form is a real pain.

After installing VB6, you'll want to change the compatibility settings for the IDE executable.

    Using Windows Explorer, browse the location where you installed VB6. By default, 
the path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\


Read more: http://www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp?artid=20502#ixzz1dyVIc9al


Right click the VB6.exe program file, and select properties from the context menu.
Click on the Compatibility tab.
Place a check in each of these checkboxes:

    Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
    Disable Visual Themes
    Disable Desktop Composition
    Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

[dilettante]

I find that disabling desktop composition and running elevated takes care of all IDE woes myself.

Don't use a Common Controls 6.0 manifest ("XP styles" as people still want to call it) with the IDE. It isn't worth the gain in appearance at design time because of the well-known blacked-out option/check boxes issue.

[MORRISPC10]

Well if you would have read the bottom of that link you would have seen this:

You might notice after successfully installing VB6 on Windows 7 that working in the IDE is a bit, 
well, sluggish. For example, resizing objects on a form is a real pain.

After installing VB6, you'll want to change the compatibility settings for the IDE executable.

    Using Windows Explorer, browse the location where you installed VB6. By default, 
the path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\


Read more: http://www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp?artid=20502#ixzz1dyVIc9al


Right click the VB6.exe program file, and select properties from the context menu.
Click on the Compatibility tab.
Place a check in each of these checkboxes:

    Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
    Disable Visual Themes
    Disable Desktop Composition
    Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

I'm at college, I can't access that stuff

[Jacob Roman]

Have a professor with administrator privileges do it for you

[yasrab]

Runtime error

[yasrab]

i also have the problem during installation of vb 6 program in windows 7 and found a error "Visual basic 6.0 setup toolkit has stopped working."
also i added some mentioned files in the setup from the link which i got in this forum:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q248055
however setup still gives the above mentioned error .
thanks.