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Visual Basic 6 on Windows 8

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For those interested and supporting legacy visual basic applications and need to install VB6 onto your windows 8.1 builds heres how: (tested with the pro-preview build which you can download, test and give us feedback - https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview-download

1) run setup as administrator from the vb6 installation media
2) go through the custom setup and de-select the data access components
3) the install will go straight through and will request a restart of windows
4) after a restart, start your visual basic and confirm all works well, advised to set the program to run in administrative mode so it can write to areas of the registry
5) close it down and install the vb6 service pack 6 components which you can get from here - (again make sure you run as administrator)
6) Once installed, restart VB6 and check the help about box to confirm you see SP6 installed

And away you go.

Please do take the time to review the support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 running on Windows 8 

All the best with your developments - exciting things are happening with Visual studio

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2013
    You really got the IDE to work in Windows 8.1? For me it worked perfectly in 8.0, but under 8.1 it crashes after displaying the splash screen (this is 64-bit windows...are you running 32-bit?)

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2013
    You really got the IDE to work in Windows 8.1? For me it worked in 8.0, but under 8.1 it crashes (this is 64-bit windows...are you running 32-bit?)

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2013
    Installed great under 8.0 using this methodology, but with 8.1 the install announces that an .ocx (the web designer) will not install and then announces vb6 did not install (yes I ran setup as administrator). Afterwards, SP6 will not install even though vb6 is (somehow) listed as installed in Programs and Features.

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 14, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 27, 2014
    Works like a champ.  I didn't have to install anything extra for data because (I assume) sql server and newer visual studios were installed.  Thank You so much!  Now I can use VB6 in 2014 (ugh!)

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2014
    is thi visual basic is also applicable for windows 8.1 62-bit

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2014
    aoa plz tell me that if I have setup of vb 6 in window 8 then how am I run and get interface of vb 6.

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2014
    I am having problem installing VB 6 IDE on Win 8.1. After going through all the above mentioned procedures, I’ve encountered an error message saying “VB 6 Enterprise Setup was not completed successfully”, with no explanations. Any ideas, guys? Many thanks!

  • Anonymous
    July 10, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 19, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 28, 2014
    For those installing on Windows 8.1.  Steps 1-4 above went successfully, however step-5, the installation of the service pack failed saying that "Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 product" must be installed.  Apparently, the link in step-5 is a cumulative update.  I found an MS link to the original SP6, but apparently the file is corrupted.  Fortunately, I already had previously obtained a copy of the parent SP6 "Vs6sp6B" (All though I don't know where I obtained "Vs6sp6B", here's a link I found, but not tested: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx); it expands the contents into a user specified folder. Then I ran "setupsp6" from the expansion folder and SP6 was successfully installed.  I then ran the "Cumulative SP6 update" (provided in the link above) and I too successfully installed.

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2014
    OWWW OK! BUT QHERE IS THE LINK? I CAN`T SEE THEM

  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2014
    This worked so wonderfully, thank you so much!!! Windows 8.1 64bit and Visual Basic 6. Never thought they could play nice together.

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2014
    The VB6 programming language seems fine on the Windows 10 technical preview too. Apps run with the runtime and the VB6 IDE installs.

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2014
    Ahem.  I'll just drop this here. You'll find instructions for installing VB6 on Windows 7 (all versions), Windows 8 (all versions), and Windows 10 Technical Preview (Latest Build): www.fortypoundhead.com/search_results_kb.asp

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2014
    Followed the instructions above, but adjusted based on Allen's comment. Based on that I was able to successfully install VB6 on Windows 8.1

  • Anonymous
    January 29, 2015
    Good to see that VB6 programming continues on Windows 8 and Windows 10 Will Microsoft now add the same updates to VB6 that they have already added to VBA programming ?

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2015
    Anyone have an issue loading a project and getting the following error: MSCOMCTL.OCX could not be loaded

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2015
    @Rick: try: cd C:WindowsSysWOW64 regtlib msdatsrc.tlb

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2015
    Don't give up, I got it sort of working on Windows 10 Pre release. My biggest problem is getting the old files to run.

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2015
    An article about installing the VB6 programming IDE on Windows 10 ...     www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2015
    or This if you need only install VB6 application sourceforge.net/.../vb6extendedruntime

  • Anonymous
    July 27, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2015
    VB6 installs just fine on 8.1 of course, but apps designed to work in the background hang the shutdown process how do we get windows to terminate such apps without direct operator intervention?

  • Anonymous
    September 04, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 06, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2016
    Microsoft say "Windows is committed to compatibility. The Windows compatibility team has been looking at user telemetry and reacting to feedback from Windows Insiders to ensure that existing apps work well with Windows 10. Windows 10 is designed to run Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 software programs. And yes, everyone’s favorite VB6 Runtime will continue to work, too."Microsoft support VB6 on Windows 7, 8 and 10 for the lifetime of the operating system (so until at least 2025 for Windows 10). The support statement is here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788708.aspx