Does Windows 8.1 support installation of Visual Studio 6.0 (Visual Basic 6)?

Question

I have an old project developed in Visual Basic 6, in which I need to do an enhancement.

I need to confirm whether I can install Visual Studio 6 on Windows 8.1.

Last time, when I installed it in Windows 7, I faced difficulties in installation, but finally made it through after adding some DLL's.

I don't want to waste time, so, if anyone have already managed to install it, could you please share with us?

Guinna

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788708.aspx – Syringa

I'm running VB6 on Windows 8.1, although I installed it on Win 7 and upgraded to Win 8.1. On Win 7, the install wasn't really that difficult--just ran the setup as Admin. Give it a shot and see what happens--the install and service pack don't really take all that much time. – Giffy

Besides Admin mode VS6 setup needs an empty msjava.dll file in SysWOW64 (or System32) so to skip old JVM installation. – Imbrue

The hints in the Windows 7 question might be useful #10496180 – Crawford

I have never found a need for any "empty msjava.dll" and find that OK-ing the complaining dialog is enough. VB6 doesn't need it, the VS6 installer just has a check for it. – Hold

If you're going to have to dip into the VB6 on-and-off at various times, you could make yourself a Windows 7 VM/Virtual Box to run VB6 in. Then you don't have to figure out the install each time. – Enrichetta

possible duplicate of How to install VB6 SP6 on Windows 8.1 x64? – Romano

Answer 1

While you can run VB6 in Windows 8.1 it's not going to do well and there will be any number of issues.

The sensible way to use VB6 in Windows 8 is to create a Virtual Machine using Hyper-V Manager, install Windows XP*, Visual Studio 6, MZ-Tools, and any other support software. Remote desktop to your virtual machine and you're good to go.

Also, when windows 9, 10 and 11 arrive, your virtual machine can be transferred over to them or to a new PC all without breaking your VB6 development environment.

*Or Windows 7 32 bit if you have to but XP is better for VB6

Armstead

No need for a virtual machine. It works even on windows 10 – Amplification

Answer 2

If you need to install it WITH DAC, then run the installer as administrator. Select DAC, the installer will crash at the end. End Task on installer in Task manager. Rerun installation with ONLY core language files (VB6 and/or VC++ etc.) installation will complete successfully. Run installer for SP6 as administrator.

Itself

Answer 3

Yes you can install VB6 on Win 8.1. I have already installed it on my machine and it works really well. Except the SendKeys "{Tab}" To install VB6 you have to disable UAC from Control Panel Run the setup as Administrator Disable Data Access Component in the Custom Installation option It will install and restart it After that Install VB SP6 and that's it :)

Valora

Answer 4

I installed VB6 from the CD a few weeks ago. The installation hung up at a point where the screen displayed "Updating files". I stopped and restarted the install and it immediately said the installation was complete. I did NOT de-check database components, which may have had something to do with the hang-up. I did "run as administrator".

Next I installed MS Access 2007 without a hitch. My main database application uses MS Office 12.0 Access database engine object and MS Office 12.0 Object library.

I've been working on it steady for a couple of weeks without problems.

Barlow