Has anyone had success with Visual Studio 6 on Windows 7?

Question

VS6 popped off a series of errors before bombing out completely during install on Windows 7. I specifically need to get VB6 functioning on Windows 7. Anyone having any luck?

Answer 1

Recently I had to debug an ancient application written in Visual C++ 6.0 on Windows 8.1. Tried different solutions all of them failed, only this one worked.

This guys made a special installer that allows installing VC++6, VB6, and SP6 on Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 without any errors whatsoever.

Hope it would be helpful to someone.

Answer 2

I had a Vista x64 box with a working copy of the VB6 IDE (which was supported). I upgraded the OS to Windows 7 x64 and the VB6 IDE still works fine. You could try that. I know, a huge PITA and kludgy but still, it worked for me.

Answer 3

I installed VB6 on Windows 7 Pro without having to use compatibility settings or run as administrator.

Doesn't really help you, but does show that it can work.

Answer 4

Folks on the VB6 newsgroup report they have managed to get it working on Windows 7.

There's this step-by-step guide on how to install the IDE on Windows 7 (including 64 bit).

If that doesn't work (scrapes barrel) try this old tip about persuading the install not to install the Java VM? Link is now broken so here is the tip:

Before trying to install VB6. Create a new file, name it msjava.dll and place it in your windows directory. The file can be zero length. You can then happily install without the prompt to install an old version of Microsoft's flavour of Java. Once you have installed VB6, delete the msjava.dll otherwise windows update will prompt you to update it.

Or (scrapes hole in barrel) these tips from an article about getting the IDE working on Vista?

Footnote: if developing with ADO, be aware of this.

Answer 5

I have successfully installed vb6 on win 7 32 bit by installing xp first then installing new win 7, (not upgrade), and do not format. then it will install vb6 without a problem

Answer 6

Several people in my office have installed Visual Studio 6 (without VC++) on Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit with no problems. The one thing we have in common: we've all turned UAC down to it's lowest setting. Nothing else special required.