6 on 8.1 - VB6 on Windows 8.1...

a blog or 2 - Visual Basic 6 on Windows 8

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 - http://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

..." [GD: Post Leach Level = 99%]

While it's been a while (though less than a year) since I've done any VB6, it's good to see it will still be supported on Windows 8.1. But I wonder how much longer...? There's going to come a time in the next few years where the final OS nail will be put into the VB6 coffin. That or maybe it will come back from the dead! Imagine a future where VB Classic was released as open source/orphan source... We could call it ZB! Zombie Basic! Muahahahaha.... (Sorry, been a long day).

 

Related Past Post XRef:
6 on 8? Will VB6 be supported on Windows 8? Yep (mostly)!