Windows 10 Manifest file for VB6?

[Darkbob]

I've got a VB6 program that I distribute. I know nothing about Manifest files but I hear we will need one with Windows 10. My application doesn't require Admin and works well enough on Windows 7 and 8 without a Manifest file. Will I really need one?

The program comes with a pile of .DLL and .OCX files for things like scanners and word processing. Do I need to list every DLL and OCX inside the manifest? Anybody have a decent sample for a VB6 program?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

[LaVolpe]

In my signature below is a link for a manifest creator. That project along with the posts on that thread can help a bit.

You shouldn't need to add those dll/ocx dependencies to the manifest. However manifests have several options and you should make yourself aware of ones that apply to you.

[dilettante]

I haven't heard of anything "requiring" a manifest in Windows 10 if you are limping along in legacy appcompat mode under Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 (Windows 8 being extinct since everyone was forced to update to 8.1 or stop getting Windows Update patches).

The main thing I've seen so far "requiring" a manifest was for programs that insist on checking the Windows version they are running on. Without a manifest specifying a <supportedOS/> node for 8.1, such a program will be told it is running 8.0 when run on 8.1. I'd assume the same applies to later versions of Windows (beyond 8.1) as well.


You only need <dependentAssembly/>, <file/>, etc. nodes when using SxS isolation and reg-free COM or SxS assembly selection. Of course those are huge pluses in themselve, but not required if you will be using normal installers for your applications and can live with the default assemblies for Common Controls, GDI+, and so on.

[LaVolpe]

The main thing I've seen so far "requiring" a manifest was for programs that insist on checking the Windows version they are running on. Without a manifest specifying a <supportedOS/> node for 8.1, such a program will be told it is running 8.0 when run on 8.1. I'd assume the same applies to later versions of Windows (beyond 8.1) as well.

Seems so, as quoted from another site

Note that the latest version of Windows includes the default version lie shim that was present in Windows 8.1. If you have the 8.1 GUID present in the <compatibility> section of the manifest, Windows 10 will report version 6.3 if your application uses the legacy GetVersion(Ex) APIs. Without it or with only older GUIDs, it will report 6.2. To get the version number reported as 6.4, you must add another GUID to your manifest:

<!-- Windows 10 -->
<supportedOS Id="{8e0f7a12-bfb3-4fe8-b9a5-48fd50a15a9a}"/>