Installing VB6 in Windows 11

[daveyk]

I have no problems installing VB6 in Windows 10, but the install program does not get very far in Windows 11.

Very early in the process, I get the following error: Visual Studio 6.0 Professional Setup was not completed sucessfully.

It could have to do with security permissions in Windows 11, which as the admin, I find a real pain in the ass.

Thought, experience please.

[daveyk]

Stupid Windows 11 will not let you change the permissions of c:\program Files (x86), to the Administrator.

Frustrating...

[JPortici]

Question: Do applications made in VB6 run?
If they don't 2022 will be a complete nightmare

[daveyk]

"The Visual Basic 6.0 IDE is no longer supported as of April 8, 2008. "

Yes, but it installed just fine in Windows 10.  I can not get it to install in Windows 11.   I might just revert this new PC back to Windows 10 (it was supposed to come with 11 but had 10 installed on it).  HP spend three hours remote putting Windows 11 on it yesterday.

[Peabody]

Stupid Windows 11 will not let you change the permissions of c:\program Files (x86), to the Administrator.

Frustrating...

Could you explain more about this, or provide a link that explains it?  Is it just the 32-bit stuff?

[Mechatrommer]

Question: Do applications made in VB6 run?
If they don't 2022 will be a complete nightmare

not really yet. we still have Win7-10 thats still have life in them... last time about a year ago, i have to bid farewell to my WinXP, not because i have problem with WinXP directly, but with more and more modern SWs that cant run properly in it. so i dig into Win7 64bit now, add some used RAM from 3GB before to 8GB now, replaced the PC casing and my 13yrs old PC is like new again... all important modern SWs (mostly for the HWs i bought such as 3d msla printer) now can all run properly, along with all my old VB6 IDE and diy apps. all this WinXP->7 transition is possible because of one crucial thing... i found better replacement to Windows Explorer XP from suggestion in this forum, ie XYPlorer. because Explorer is my #1 app that i cant live without. all Win Vista's,8-10's (including this 7's) Explorers are nightmares. and XYPlorer is built from VB6 too! ps: and i still got Win7 update notifications from M$ until today, so they are still supporting it, looking at this roadmap, i believe my VB6 will still have a long way to go up to Win10, and i believe i can die gracefully with my VB6 CD's on my chest when the time comes

[SiliconWizard]

Stupid Windows 11 will not let you change the permissions of c:\program Files (x86), to the Administrator.

Frustrating...

Could you explain more about this, or provide a link that explains it?  Is it just the 32-bit stuff?

Not that I'm very interested in Windows 11 so far, but I'd be curious about this point as well. Could it be just a change that would prevent an application (here, the installer) from asking the user for elevated rights (with a confirmation dialog), as Windows did before? If that is so, I wouldn't find the change that stupid. So maybe the "fix" here would be to run the installer as administrator? (Not that it's very pretty, but if that works...) And if it doesn't fix the issue, then I probably have not gotten what the problem was. So some more details would help.

[bobcat2000]

Just a guess.  Can you make a new folder and install VB6 to that new folder?  Windows now enforces the file protection to the files in the Program Files and Windows folder.  Many older apps don't follow the Windows programming standard and save files to these folders.  That is why they don't work anymore.

[BeBuLamar]

I didn't know that you can install VB6 in windows 10. I tried to install to a PC with windows 7 and it didn't work. I would try on Windows 10 and see.

[SL4P]

A couple of years ago, I wanted to resurrect a large VB6 project (just to examine something)…
Win10 was very unfriendly, but I raised a Win7 VM, and it came up just like new.

[JPortici]

Question: Do applications made in VB6 run?
If they don't 2022 will be a complete nightmare

not really yet. we still have Win7-10 thats still have life in them... last time about a year ago, i have to bid farewell to my WinXP, not because i have problem with WinXP directly, but with more and more modern SWs that cant run properly in it. so i dig into Win7 64bit now, add some used RAM from 3GB before to 8GB now, replaced the PC casing and my 13yrs old PC is like new again... all important modern SWs (mostly for the HWs i bought such as 3d msla printer) now can all run properly, along with all my old VB6 IDE and diy apps. all this WinXP->7 transition is possible because of one crucial thing... i found better replacement to Windows Explorer XP from suggestion in this forum, ie XYPlorer. because Explorer is my #1 app that i cant live without. all Win Vista's,8-10's (including this 7's) Explorers are nightmares. and XYPlorer is built from VB6 too! ps: and i still got Win7 update notifications from M$ until today, so they are still supporting it, looking at this roadmap, i believe my VB6 will still have a long way to go up to Win10, and i believe i can die gracefully with my VB6 CD's on my chest when the time comes

VB6 IDE runs so much better in WIN10 than in WIN7. Was less pain to install, too.

[coromonadalix]

have you tried some compatibility modes for the installation ??

[Melt-O-Tronic]

I don't use Windows 11 (and never will), but my solution was to install it on XP in a VirtualBox VM.  Works great for reverse engineering old source code.

[Mechatrommer]

some guidance if the installer cant install or stucked... https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1191047/Install-Visual-Studio-on-Windows

[mariush]

There's a third party project that creates an installer using the original files from Visual Studio 6 discs for Visual Basic which is compatible on Windows 7 and 10 , but I didn't check personally if it runs on Windows 11.

I'm at work and don't remember right now the link for the project or what it was called, but I'm writing so I'll remember when I'm home to check and edit this post with the info.

[voltsandjolts]

This thread made me wonder how popular is VB6 really, in 2022?
I popped over to the VB Forum and at that random time over 300 people were on the VB6 board!
OK, still popular, understood!

[Mechatrommer]

OK, still popular, understood!

if you get used to VB6, you wont touch any of those modern nonsense, i've tried, even the latest Ms Visual Studio package. esp like me who have few codes and libraries that i will hate to port... if not, then be happy with your python.

[bd139]

I still have VB6 stuff in production. Fortunately it's behind layers of COM and service calls written in something else 

It's slowly being replaced with C#

[mariush]

Ok, just remembered about this thread.

The attached New_Visual is an archive with inno setup installer scripts (templates, or instructions for inno setup to create an installer)

from the readme inside the archive

NOTICE:
* VB6-generic.iss, SP6-generic.iss, and VS6-generic.issare Inno setup Script files.
* Use VB6-generic.iss for porting Visual Basic 6.0 installer CD.
* Use SP6-generic.iss for porting Visual Studio 6.0 SP6 installer.
* Use VB6-VS6-generic.iss for porting Visual Studio 6.0 installer CD (Creates VB6 installer only).
* Use the output installer for personal use only. Always keep Visual Studio 6.0 CD for future use.

INSTRUCTIONS:
* Download and install Inno Setup 5.4.3 (Download Link: http://files.jrsoftware.org/is/5/isetup-5.4.3.exe)
* Copy all the contents of VB6/VS6 installer CD into a directory
* Place the inno setup script beside SETUP.EXE
* Open the script with Inno Setup.
* On menu bar click BUILD->COMPILE or press CTRL+F9
* Wait until it finish compiling.
* When compiling is finished. The created installer was on a folder named OUTPUT beside SETUP.EXE (For example if the path of setup.exe is C:\VB60, then the created installer is located at C:\VB60\OUTPUT)

I did it like this ... mounted the Visual Studio 6 CD 1, copied the contents in a temporary folder, copied the VB6-VS6-generic.iss in same folder, loaded it in Inno Setup and compiled the installer.  It generated a 33 MB installer with only VB6

The vb6mousewheelfix attachment adds scroll support in the VB6 GUI.

There's an "extended runtime"  or "vb6 sp6 security rollup update" here (VB60SP6-KB2708437-x86-ENU.msi)  : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30505

This package updates the Microsoft Windows Common Controls, mscomctl.ocx and comctl32.ocx, found in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Service Pack 6. This package will not install these Common Controls if the Visual Basic 6.0 IDE is not installed. This package cannot be uninstalled. Please refer to the security bulletin for additional details.

The Visual Basic 6.0 IDE is no longer supported as of April 8, 2008, however, the Visual Basic team is committed to “It Just Works” compatibility for Visual Basic 6.0 applications. Please refer to this Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788708.

To ensure you have the latest update, please check http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957924.

Link goes to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/description-of-the-cumulative-update-rollup-for-the-visual-basic-6-0-service-pack-6-runtime-extended-files-e02acc79-217b-fc0a-6edc-540403af2081


Oh ... and you'll want to download VSSP6, can't attach it cause it's 60.8 MB.. if you don't have it I can upload it on Google Drive. 
Supposedly this is Visual Basic 6 SP6 only, around 20 MB, but can't guarantee it, didn't test it : https://web.archive.org/web/20200812041814/http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/0/3/f03c202d-1ce4-4267-9393-a8a4b400a982/Vs6sp6B.exe

It's probably the right file, you can search for that GUID and it's referenced everywhere.