Ask the FortyPoundHead

By: earlymeadow
Date: 2009-11-15

Super information - got VB6 up and running, your explanation saved me a lot of searching.

I'm still having a few problems with the INet transfer control - using it to transfer files via FTP, it seems to hang for a minut or so every now and then.

FWIW - using manifest files (as in XP) works in Windows 7 - giving the app the windows 7 look.

Thanks again.

Peter

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2009-11-16

Thanks, Peter! Great tip about the manifest files.

By: badbrad
Date: 2009-11-20

Missed one thing.... Create a zero byte file in C:Windows called "MSJAVA.DLL" to get around the Java install.

Also if you install the "VB6IDEMouseWheelAddin.dll" for scrolling, make sure that you run "cmd.exe" with elevated admin privleges when registering the DLL manually. Also ran it with the DLL in "c:".

Sorry... no links for this right now.

By: mccindy
Date: 2010-01-09

Thank you so much - I will be attemping this isnatll very soon.

By: nfordatfph
Date: 2010-02-09

Thanks for the tip on fixing slugishness. It was driving me crazy.

I have a problem with large forms in the IDE in Win7. It gets to something like 1000x800 and won't let me drag it any bigger. At runtime, I can set the form to a larger size, but not being able to see the full form in the IDE makes it pretty hard to work on.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-02-09

A little odd, but I'll see if I can reproduce it here, and maybe find a fix for you.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-02-10

I haven't been able to reproduce the issue here. I'm able to drag the form size to a much larger size than the screen, which is currently 1280x1024.

I've not seen this before - anyone got any ideas?

By: pamith
Date: 2010-02-17

What about third party OCX applications? I have a program that uses several of these. I want to move my VB6 work to Windows 7 but would need to know if the third party OCXs will work as well. Suggestions?

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-02-17

As long as the OCX's get registered properly, there should be no issue. That is, unless the OCX is doing something *really* strange, you shouldn't have a problem.

Let me know what OCX's you are concerned about, and I'll try testing them out on my installation, and see if they work.

By: caesarv
Date: 2010-02-17

pardon my ignorance...but...
I just got Win7 Pro 64 installed on my new computer last night. Most of my work is in VB6. Will the instructions shown work with 64 bit Windows? I have heard that VB6 IDE is not supported with 64bit. I have the original VB6 CD but, of course, it does not have SP6. Is this a concern or can I simply add SP6 after installation. FYI, I do have access to an msdn subscription if I need to download something different.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-02-17

Yes, it will work fine on 64 bit Windows 7. I am currently using 64 bit on my main workstation, and have had no issues.

Applying SP6 after installation of VB6 has posed no challenges, either.

By: PhilTilson
Date: 2010-03-04

Excellent - thank you! It all worked just as you said - and .exe files run quite happily as well - though with a considerable 'starting delay'!

By: mgpprasan
Date: 2010-03-28

what a useful information. thanks a lot. i was suffering from how to install vb 6.0 in windows 7. now it is working well.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-03-29

Glad to be assistance!

By: George
Date: 2010-04-28

I have an issue getting the XP manifest file to work in WIndows 7 when I run VB in IDE mode. It does not look like XP. I think it might have to do with permissions with either VB6, the manifest file. Any ideas?

By: vic
Date: 2010-06-04

I have a fairly large VB6 App that I've been maintaining in Windows 7 using Virtual PC. I decided to try to get it to work in Windows 7 with Virtual PC and there are a number of problems. I've gotten around each one but this one now has me stumped.

The app uses an Access Database and has lots of forms using ADO data controls. What happens on some of the forms (not all of them) is when I tryh to do a requery on an a recordset object i.e. Me.Adodc1.Recordset.Requery, it just hangs (no message, nothing). Then when I try to close the app I get the message "Visual Basic has stopped working" and it's gone.

Any ideas?

Vic

By: jnc39
Date: 2010-06-21

As a brand new Windows 7 user, I have a simple question: What is the "UAC" you refer to in step1? Could the fact that I didn't shut it off before starting your process have caused the computer to lock up and require a hard shut down at step 10?
Thanks for your help

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-06-21

UAC is user account control, which helps protect your computer from unauthorized changes. You can turn it off in the control panel.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-06-22

Guess it would help I posted the information about disabling UAC:

http://www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp?artid=19521

By: anotherhacker
Date: 2010-06-23

It tried installing a program that I created in VB6 on a W7 machine and I get an "Invalid Line In Setup Information File" errror on the install.....?

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-06-23

I am currently attending HP techforum in Las Vegas, and as such am currently experiencing limited connectivity. But I'll look into this for you when I get back to my room.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-06-25

AnotherHacker: have you seen:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216156

It directly addresses the issue you are experiencing.

By: Jovick
Date: 2010-06-28

Great article! I have installed VB6 on Win 7 64-bit successfully. Some things I ran into that I didn't see mentioned is that when registering OCX and DLL files the file MUST be placed in the C:WindowsSysWOW64 directory. I know, I know... it seems the reverse of what you should do. You MUST also use the regsvr32.exe file in the SysWOW64 folder (not the one in the System32 folder) to register the files. One other tip is to ALWAYS install everythig as "administrator". I found that I also had to modify the properties of the VB6.EXE file (in the compatibility tab) to "run as administrator".

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-06-29

Thanks for the great tip, Jovick!

By: raycomp
Date: 2010-07-10

Thanks for ht useful information. One problem I sometimes need to register 3rd party ocx files but in most cases Windows 7 32bit does not allow copying them to Windowssystem32 for registering but place the in the incompatible folder. Any ideas please

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-07-10

Need some more info from you, Raycomp. Are you simply copying the files with Windows explorer? Or is the file copy part of a setup process?

If it is part of your application set up, you might try running the setup program as administrator - right click the setup file, and select Run As Administrator.

By: raycomp
Date: 2010-07-10

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a few minutes ago found the answer and was about to post the fact here when I saw your post.

I am developing an app to keep track of all my movie files ant to also play them with either WMP or Gom from inside the App. All ok.

By: mwrob
Date: 2010-07-20

I followed the instructions and was able to get VB6 installed just fine on a Windows 7 64 bit system. However, I am unable to get service pack 6 installed.

I have set the properties of acmesetup and setupsp6 to run as administrator and Windows SP 3 mode. Right after agreeing to the license terms, I get a dialog box that says "Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 6 Setup was not completed properly."

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-07-20

Have you turned off UAC during the installation?

I just tried in a test environment, utilizing Windows 7 64 bit, installed VB6 using the above procedure, then downloaded the VB6 SP6 from the Microsoft site (direct download from MS).

Double clicking the executable allowed me to select an temp folder to extract the SP6 files to. After extraction, I browsed to the directory where the files extracted to, and ran the SetupSP6.exe application.

The installation went normally, with no errors, and the final dialog stating setup was successful.

However, after resetting the environment, I was able to reproduce the error you mention by leaving UAC turned on.

By: mwrob
Date: 2010-07-21

Yes, I did exactly as you described. I tried again this morning, double checking all the settings and still got the same result. I'm open to suggestions. Thanks.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-07-21

I'm currently out of town, but I'll check into it more this evening.

By: mwrob
Date: 2010-07-23

Ok, suppose I can't get SP 6 installed. What do I need to beware of if I try working on a project last worked on in SP6 and I work on it in VB6 with no service packs installed?

By: latino
Date: 2010-08-30

Hi,

I have VB6 working perfectly. Sourcesafe works too, but I can't work with sourcesafe from within the IDE. The SS add-in is loaded, there are no errors shown, but I don't have any extra contextmenu-items. Anyone here had the same problem?

By: philyuko
Date: 2010-09-01

Great info for Windows 7 … works like a dream.
Thank you!!!
For Vista – there is no service pack 3 so I clicked 2.
For the most part it works OK … but two hiccups

1/ From time to time you’ll click SAVE AS and no box will come up
2/ When a save box does come up it doesn’t have the name of the file in it … in other words … I don’t think this works for vista … any ideas?

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-09-01

Are you using the common dialog control?

By: philyuko
Date: 2010-09-01

No ... but I'd like to. I had to take out all the CD controls because it meant my users without XP had to do too much installing of too many things in sys32. I'm sure you know what I mean.

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-09-02

I'll hammer on this today, and see if I can duplicate the behavior. Are you getting any weird event log entries that might be related? Along the lines of Path not found or access denied, or some such?

By: philyuko
Date: 2010-09-03

Nope ;-)
Just won't won't give me the current name of the form or project when using save-as.

Could it be related to not have "Service pack 3"?

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-09-04

MMM... prolly not. Have you installed SP6 for VB6 yet?

By: philyuko
Date: 2010-09-04

I have not ... I should?
Any idea why that would a thang for Vista and not for Windows 7?

By: FortyPoundHead
Date: 2010-09-05

To put it simply, Vista is a bit more picky than Windows 7. That's why you didn't see businesses rolling Vista out to their employees, and IT folks every made the sign of the cross whenever they had to support it.

Give the SP6 a try and you might see your problems clear up.