mms

My computer at work is being replaceed with a new one next week, obviously it will have Windows 7.

Does anyone here use VB6 with Windows 7 issue free?

passel

I do, but then I don't do a lot of advanced VB6 stuff, so I'm probably not stressing anything.
Most of the machines I currently work with are still XP. Sometime in the next year my work machine will be updated (mandatory company update).
So any "serious" VB6 code is mostly done at work, and was done on XP machines. The machine I'm typing this on right now is a Windows 7 box, but it is a very basic Windows 7 machine (an inexpensive Acer Laptop, not great graphics by any means), so it is not using the Aero Interface.
I only bring up the VB6 IDE and do stuff here when a question comes up on the forum.
At work, we do have much higher end Window 7 machines, (Intel i7s with a recent Nvidia card), and I run some VB6 applications I wrote on one of them, but they aren't doing anything too intensive. One application just services two serial ports, acting like a modem to both sides of a connection, simulating a Iridium satelite link between the two computers involved. Iridium satelite phones are a pretty slow connection, data wise, so it isn't a big deal.
Another app just passes Ethernet UDP packets through it in both directions which represent data over a Radio Data link. I'm not simulating anything here, I just need to monitor the packets going from the ground station to the aircraft so that when flight plan data, waypoints, etc, are being uploaded that I collect that information and then forward it in another packet to be displayed on an Instructor station map display.
A third app just has a serial link to act as a terminal to an embedded computer, with some auto response logic so that when the embedded computer is powered on, the terminal program can respond to prompts to get through the startup sequence and intiate the downloading of the (not so embedded) software. This allows the computer to be brought up, and software downloaded without the user having to type anything.

These all ran fine on the Windows 7 box without modification, (for which I was relieve, or I would have had to do a quick upgrade or rewrite in VB.Net). The applications aren't that big, so they wouldn't be too difficult to port, but is not in the current budget.

Anyway, there are links already in the forum, and if you search the net, about setting up the IDE on a windows 7 box. I believe there were a couple of runtime libraries that I had to install in the WOW64 directory to allow my apps to run at work.
I'm mostly playing around with VB.Net now, and most new things will be done in .Net, unless it is just a quick thing I need to knock out in as few minutes as possible and not for permanent use.

dilettante

When you install VB6 you'll want to be sure both phases of the setup run elevated.

You can just ignore the error dialog about Anders' Folly version 1 ("Microsoft JVM") though some people put a dummy file named the same as that DLL into System32 (or SysWOW64 on a 64-bit edition of Vista/Win7). Anders' Folloy version 2 (VS.Net) generally doesn't cause a problem if installed before VB6, but really should be installed afterward if you need it too.

To avoid problems down the road, after installing you really should mark VB6.exe so that it always runs elevated. This can be done via File Properties or a manifest. If you fail to do this, as you work with VB6 you will produce all sorts of virtualized COM registration entries and other sources of confusion, and some debugging features in the IDE will fail.


If you use proper Setup or Installer packages to deploy applications you should never need to mess around putting things into SysWOW64 by hand when you have a 64-bit target system.

mms

Thanks guys...

Hopefully our IT guy won't have any issues with the install, and I won't have to post back here with questions.

One question now however, I don't really understand the pro/cons regarding 32 bit or 64 bit editions of Windows 7

Also I don't understand the ramifications this would have on
1. creating programs with VB6
2. running VB6 created executables

Maybe I ask too many questions, but
I don't want to have to run in some kind of virtual XP mode,
nor do I want to have problems afterwards that VB6 programs created on my new Windows 7 machine won't run on older XP machines,
or vice versa programs created on XP machines won't run on my new Windows 7 machine.

dilettante

You should be fine as long as you avoid quirky deployment techniques and watch out for the compatibility break in Win7 SP1's version of ADO.

You even have to worry about High DPI scenarios now. People keep buying oversized high-res monitors and Win7 will automatically shift these to High DPI settings, wihc can distort your UI if your programs aren't prepared.

But it is hard to "catch you up" on changes in Windows that date back 6 years or more through a little Q and A.

Your stuff will run, but wil probably have appcompat shims applied to it. Sometimes this works fine, sometimes your programs don't work quite right. There is much more to appcompat than "XP compatibility."


"Rip Van Winkle" developers coming into the post-XP era at this late date face many issues. It isn't just about 64-bit vs. 32-bit Windows, which we even had in the XP era (2001). A lot more has changed.

During the beta stage of a new Windows version Microsoft tends to publish large amounts of "getting up to speed as a developer" documentation, webcasts, etc. Sadly these often disappear within two years or so, and they are not cumulative. For example some things you encounter were in the Vista dev help materials and still apply to Win7 (and even Win8) but those were not reproduced again during the Win7 era.

These sorts of issues are still found in MSDN reference articles, but not gathered together into "dev help" tutorials and intros.

AtmaWeapon

Yeah, Microsoft pretty much deleted the XP->Vista articles within a year of release. It was frustrating as I was looking for them during the Win7 release timeframe. One of the nastier things they did and I'm quite angry about it.

It's almost like their primary business model involves selling a new OS every couple of years, and any investments in their proprietary languages (or a version of their OS) with a lifetime of longer than 10 years might not be the wisest move. I'm probably just falling into conspiracy theories though, they definitely haven't recommended then abandoned at least 3 platforms in the past 2 years.

EpcH

Better keep a winXP or win 7 without SP1 around for your new compiles as it is clear that you are still maintaining VB6 projects, otherwise ADO is seriously broken - but I do not know if they fixed it, the last time I checked Microsoft was talking about rolling a fix with the next service pack, and they claim that they fixed it on windows 8, and this claim is confirmed by a couple of people at the time I read the discussion.

dilettante

The issue and some workarounds are described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2517589

As far as I know the "backcompat" TLB approach works fine, though I find Vista to be a vastly superior VB6 development platform to Win7 anyway.

EpcH

That article revised 7 times, last in January 2012, I wonder which revision we followed and failed since "backcompat" TLB approach didn't work for us at that time. I remember there were people again confirming success but it has some time ago.

The thing is we all use win 7 prof. 64 bit editions at work, and our primary development environment is web centric JEE applications but we maintain our legacy vb6 products , too. So recompiling a vb6 project is a rare thing but happens now and then.

We ended up setting a Windows XP box and doing recompiles on that machine. Then we use the new compile with InstallShield running on windows 7 machines, since the target platform is windows 7 nowadays. And it worked without any problems so far.

dilettante

That works as long as you don't use any of the new stuff introduced in Vista, or the few more new things introduced in Win7.

EpcH

We are not extending the applications in that way/sense, and moreover the installation process at client side is fully under our control, I mean the installation of the equipment and the software is done by our people.

But with the incidents like this, and more in terms of policies ... the real impact is, with each year passing by, I kind of lost my trust in Microsoft, not the products yet but the company itself.

dilettante

I can't argue with that.

In the post VS 6.0 era they continue to do one dumb thing after another, sacrificing what used to be a preeminent market position.

Cerian Knight

It is somewhat difficult to justify reinventing the wheel without occasionally doing something radical (e.g. making it square) and convoluting the explanation to be plausible (e.g. flat sides can support more load).

Actually, I don't have any problem with this... I just expect to have to rely on 'XP Mode' if all else fails. Not really where I want to be, but at least it is there. Failing that, then I guess Passel's signature applies.

dilettante

Newer "fix" for Win7 SP1 vs. ADO:

A Better solution for the Windows 7 SP1 ADO GUID changes

Of course they still have a can of worms on their hands here by creating the silly DAC 6.1 that a lot of uninformed people won't realize is a time bomb. So many code plinkers have the goofy idea high number better, grunt grunt and they'll be in for a shocker.

mms

Finally after 2 months I received my new PC with Windows 7

IT installed VB6 and all seems to work OK

My only complaint is the sluggishness of adding and dragging controls on
a form in the IDE

Anyone else experience this problem and come accross a solution.?

Flyguy

Try to disable the theming in the compatibility tab for VB6.exe

TRSDOSBasic79

same exact thing and I also noticed that the ide sometimes just closes after a test run.

mms

Flyguy
Disabling visual themes has no effect, but
Disabling desktop composition fixes the problem

Thanks.

Cerian Knight

I've seen that mentioned before as a collision between forced VS6 IDE rendering and Win7 Desktop Composition wait on Vertical Blank Interval. Here is the only reputable link (and link there-in) that I find that attempts to cover the subject of install and operation in its entirety:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...6-c74758078bb5

dilettante

I'm pretty sure it was covered in several places in the developer documentation Microsoft provided back in the 2006-2007 Vista beta and developer preview period. It was definately a fairly visible topic of discussion on the old DevReadiness.org site Microsoft ran back then.

Since Windows 8 is supposed to be gutting Aero and Desktop Composition out of Windows we should see this repeated question tapering off in the future.

The IDE elevation requirement was also presented by Microsoft way back in that era.


Seems there are still more Rip Van Winkle programmers "awakening" at this late date. Too bad most of that documentation is no longer online but the DevReadiness downloads site has been gone for years now.