VB6 on Windows 10

[Sam Selmer-Olsen]

Hi all. A laptop I had came with Win 8.2 that allowed me to load VB6. When it upgraded to Windows 10 the VB6 still worked. The laptop was stolen. A new Windows 10 Lenovo desktop sort of loaded VB6 in that it loaded the initial disks but would not install the Service pack 6. A techie at the computer shop said it just can't be done. Has anybody a work-around?
Thanks.

Sam

[Elroy]

See this link. If you're dealing with Win10-32-bit, most of what was said should still apply. The only difference I can think of is that your dependencies will go into C:\Windows\System32 rather than C:\Windows\SysWOW64.

And, just as an FYI, many of us here are running the VB6 IDE on Win10 without any problems. And I haven't really had problems installing the VB6 SP6. Maybe you could tell us the specific error you're getting.

Good Luck,
Elroy

[LaVolpe]

A techie at the computer shop said it just can't be done

When some says "it can't be done", get a second opinion.

Thousands of us have VB & service packs installed with Win10.

I didn't open the link that Elroy provided. One important key when installing anything VB: always do this with elevated admin privileges and that includes running the VB IDE when you are designing/editing your projects.

[dilettante]

Thousands of us have VB & service packs installed with Win10.

Well, hundreds maybe. But a valid point.

[LaVolpe]

Well, hundreds maybe. But a valid point.

Thinking worldwide. Yeah, don't have stats. Size of this forum and other VB6 related ones + feeling Win10 usage is more common than not, nowadays.

[baka]

no problem here. i do have many computers and vb6 installs easily on 10.
that techie can't be that smart, theres always workaround if you get stuck.
very hard to say about workrounds when i could install without problems.
more info about what errors occurs when you try to run the pack.
(did u run using admin rights?)

[dilettante]

I suspect serious VB6 users worldwide are down to 2000 or so. Copy/paste hobby users maybe around 8000 more if you include the cracker community who finds it a convenient payload delivery mechanism for prebuilt malware downloaded from those "recipe" sites. Then you have the LOB users mostly maintaining legacy VB6 as needed... maybe another 8000. I suspect those are generous estimates.

I don't count the millions of .Net users out there who every so often try their hands at converting a legacy VB6 application to VB.Net.


Of course we don't know. Nobody seems to be tracking any of this so we can make up any numbers we like. Tiobe is worthless because of the way they arrive at their figures. A lot of what they report as "VB" probably consists mainly of VBA with a slice of VB.Net in there too.

[DataMiser]

I have a feeling that a lot of those who do still use VB6 are using it on an older OS as well. I know I have saw numerous posts where people are using it under XP still. I personally am mostly using it under Windows 7 though I do have it installed on 8 and 10 and have used it on XP and 2000 quite a lot over the years.

I have also noticed that one of the forums I have been a member of for a long time now has saw a huge reduction in VB6 related posts. It used to be pretty active and now it will sometimes be several days between posts even longer if you do not count the ones that are really VB.Net or VBA it seems that about 2 out of 3 new posts there are not actually VB6 or earlier. So either the forum has lost appeal to VBers or they are moving on.

[Sam Selmer-Olsen]

Hi all. Thanks for the help. As I said before the earlier version of Win10 allowed the installation. Everything I tried ended up waiting for updating system. In the end I took what had been installed and then copied everything from my WinXP into the Program File directory. A hiccup with my ActX control when using regsvr32 also crashed, but after that my applications loaded correctly.

[Elroy]

Hi Sam,

Just copying the IDE from one machine to another probably isn't a good idea. The main thing that I know of that'll get you into trouble there is that there are two ways that those OCX controls are registered. One is just for a typical VB6 compiled program that may need them. However, there's also a second way that's for using them with VB6 IDE development. It's that second way that can't be done with the RegSvr32 trickery we often do.

And the best way to get them correctly registered "for development", is to get the VB6's IDE installation program to run.

There used to be a program distributed by Microsoft named VB6CLI.EXE that was used to "fix" the IDE development licenses on these OCX controls. However, Microsoft quit distributing that program quite a while back. You may be able to do a "deep" search and find a copy (possibly looking on FTP sites). I'd be sure to do a virus scan on anything you find if you go that route. And I've never tried to run that program on a Windows 10 machine either. It's just a thought.

However, with just a bit of work (and a valid license number), I do believe you should be able to get the VB6 IDE installed.

Good Luck,
Elroy

[Sam Selmer-Olsen]

Hi Elroy. I'm an engineer first and a software guy second. I cut my teeth on an 8080 using octal. I think computers are the ultimate machine. The early versions of VB cured me of using the supplied tools, so now I end up using the basic VB. My copy of VB6 is bought and paid for. I expect Microsoft to allow me to run programs I've paid for. I'm still upset that my copy of Autocad for Windows 3.1 doesn't work on new PCs.

I think that that Microsoft changed Win10 in more recent updates, else why else would it work on my earlier PC. Could someone more knowledgeable look into it?

Best regards, Sam

[Elroy]

Oh Sam,

I love the 8080. It's trivial to get the entire assembly language in your head, and then have fun.

Here's my latest 8080 creation which was actually written back in 2004.

Good Luck,
Elroy

I think computers are the ultimate machine

Oh goodness. Don't start yet another Turing discussion.

[Sam Selmer-Olsen]

Hi Elroy.

Turing, no way. If you ever saw a hard-wired (pre-computers) electrical control panel with hundreds of relays to control a set of 6 pumps in sequence according to demand, and allowing for differential flow values, then you would agree a simple process controller is wonderful.

These days I use C for the process controllers I sell, (I have a friend who makes them) and VB6 to provide a SCADA front end. Since VB6 produces 32bit code I expect that will go the way of the 16bit code eventually. How long do you think it will be before Windows doesn't run 32bit code? I am 69 now, so will 32bit code outlast me?

Nice chatting, tghank you.

Sam

[Elroy]

How long do you think it will be before Windows doesn't run 32bit code?

Hi Sam,

There was a recent thread that had a long-running discussion about this very issue. I didn't participate much, because I know that I'm sticking with VB6 regarding my primary application.

Personally, I think it's more of a hardware issue than a software issue. From my perspective, the question should be, "how long do you think it will be before Intel and AMD truly try to phase out the x86 (i.e., 32bit) instruction set architecture?" Back in 2001, Intel attempted to introduce a 64bit only instruction set (the IA-64 in the Itanium CPUs). However, compared to sales of other CPUs, it failed miserably. In response to the desire for a 64bit instruction set, AMD designed the x86-64 set (which ran both 32bit & 64bit code), and it was wildly successful, quickly adopted by Intel, and is the default instruction set in all Intel/AMD desktops and laptops today.

Yeah sure, someday we'll be forced to move into the 64bit world, possibly needing to abandon COM-based languages in the process (including VB6). However, if the ability is trivially there in the CPUs (the x86 portion of x86-64), I just don't see why Microsoft would strip out the ability in Windows.

Also, just thinking about my users (motion analysis labs in hospital settings), they use a great deal of software to get their work done. However, the vast majority of that software (if not all of it) is x86 (32bit) based. I remember when we were forced to give up any 16bit software. It was painful, but nothing like it would be if we were forced to give up all our 32bit software. When 32bit computers came along, the idea that a computer belonged on absolutely everyone's desktop (at both home and the office) was just beginning to take hold. These days, it's an absolute fact that I can walk into any user's office, and they'll have two or three available workstations (often with multiple monitors at each) for me to sit down at and get some work done.

In other words, I think the x86 (i.e., 32bit) instruction set is much more ingrained into our lives than the 16bit Intel instruction set ever was, and Intel, AMD, & Microsoft just aren't going to walk away from that. But who knows. I'm certainly no fortune teller.

All The Best,
Elroy

EDIT1: Ahhh, and here's another interesting statistic. This was captured just now: