Why would you want to run Visual Studio 6 on Vista? Two reasons. First, because it includes Visual Basic 6.0, the last version not based on .NET. Second, because Visual C++ 6.0 is still widely used to avoid issues with the C runtime library. There is little point in installing the other products in Visual Studio 6.0.

Visual Basic 6.0 is supported on Vista, but Visual Studio 6 is not. One reason is that it includes the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine which Microsoft promised Sun it would withdraw. This is the stated reason why Visual Studio 6.0 is no longer available for download, even for MSDN Universal subscribers. Fortunately I still have some old MSDN DVDs, so I dug these out and ran setup for the Enterprise edition of Visual Studio 6.0, installing on Vista Professional.

I can’t pretend it went smoothly. First there were compatibility warnings, which I ignored. I deselected applications other then Visual C++ and Visual Basic. Then setup appeared to hang on the screen where it detects installation components, and Vista popped up its “Program not responding” dialog. I believe this is just a matter of patience. My tip is to run task manager and see if the ACMSETUP process is taking up CPU time. If it is, give it more time.

So setup completed, but with an error towards the end:

RegCreateKey failed for \Interface\OLEViewerIViewerCLSID. Access is denied

followed by a DLLREgisterServer failure. I was informed that setup had failed, but nevertheless VB 6 and VC++ were installed and seemed to run OK.

Naturally I wanted to apply the service pack – SP5 or SP6. This is where I had the biggest problems. I could run SETUPSP6.EXE, but the install always failed. If I logged the install, I found this entertaining error:

Do not ship. Error message to log function that detects what VS products are installed in what language unable to function.

Hmmm. I Googled to no avail, though I found this thread where several others report the same problem. Then I tried removing Visual Studio 6.0 for a reinstall, but got the same error from add/remove programs. I finally twigged. The problem was that the first install never completed. Although the product was mostly installed, some part of the Microsoft Installer database had not been updated. The error message actually makes sense: the products were not installed.

Therefore I re-ran the original setup. This time I went into the Tools part of custom setup, clicked Change Option, and deselected the OLE/COM object viewer. Setup now completed without error; so too did SP6. Success.

The apps seem to work OK too – so far so good, though I’m resigned to having to use Run as administrator.

Try this at your own risk; as I mentioned above, Visual C++ 6.0 is not supported on Vista; in fact, I don’t think it is supported at all.

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To install Visual Studio 6.0 correctly on an operating system such as Vista do the following:

1. Uninstall any previous Visual Studio 6.0 IDE from your system.

2. Using a registry editor program make sure to remove all Visual Studio 6.0 key folders.
Note: Just remove any KEY FOLDERS nothing else.

NOTE: DO NOT install the Visual Studio 6.0 older editions, such as the 98 editions.
Install only the 2000 Visual Studio 6.0 version, because this version has
NT/XP support and will run better on Vista once installed correctly.

3. Insert the Visual Studio 6.0 CD and when asked do not run the setup, just close it.

4. Click my computer and open the CD directory.
5. Navigate to the folder “Visual Studio 2000″ or the folder containing the second
“Setup.exe” file.

6. Right-Click on the “Setup.exe” file and select properties -> Compatibility TAB.
7. Select the “Run this program in compatibility mode” Check box and select run as
Windows 2000. Now select the Check box “Run this program as administrator” and
click OK button. Now Double click the ICON Setup.exe program.

8. When a dialog box pops up just click run program.

9. Follow the instructions to install Visual Studio 6.0, such as CD key and company BLAH!
10. On the setup option screen click the custom setup radio button.
11. Select the default program installation directory.

12. If a dialog box pops up stating “ACMBOOT.EXE” BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! wait for 30 seconds
to see if you get a message box stating Visual Studio 6.0 BLAH! BLAH! as failed.
When you get the message box, Click OK button, if not continue to next step.

13. Click the “Run the program” button on the dialog box.

14. If you get a message box about Visual Sourcesafe found just click the YES button.

15. Unselect all applications and components, EXCEPT ‘Microsoft C++, Visual basic,
ActiveX, Data Access and Tools. You can if you want, select the graphics package as well’
NOTE: DO NOT modify any of the above selected default components.

16. Click Continue button and when a dialog box pops up stating Register Environment
variables click the check box and the OK button.

17. Let setup run and install Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0.

18. Do not even bother to install the NT DEBUG symbols they will not work with Vista.

NOTE:
For those of you who have not installed Visual Studio 6.0 prior to this installation,
will be asked to install the Java Virtual Runtime, Just select yes and let it reboot
your machine. Then perform steps 8 – 18.

Now we are all most done, we need to install the Visual Studio 6.0 service pack 6.

19. Extract the Vs6sp6.exe CAB file onto your desktop.
20. You will need the latest Visual Studio 6.0 Redistribute files.
This “vc++ redist_x86.exe” CAB file can be found by googling it.
When you do get it Right-Click on it and select properties -> Details TAB
to see if it says “Product version 6.00.

21. Now extract the “vc++ redist_x86.exe” 6.0 Redistribute file, onto your desktop.
22. Head into the “vc++ redist_x86″ folder and rename it to “vcredist.exe”.
23. Now Cut/Copy and paste the file to the “Vs6sp6″ service pack 6 folder and when
asked just overwrite the original.

24. Now within the “Vs6sp6″ folder find the “setupsp6.exe” file and Perform
steps 6 – 7 to install.

You now should have a good installation of the Visual Studio 6.0 on Vista 32bit
operating system.

If this is your first time running Visual Studio 6.0 on your machine you may get a
dialog box stating that this program is not compatible with Vista, just click the
DO NOT remind me check box.

I performed soooo many different types of Visual Studio 6.0 installations on Vista
and the above steps were the best choice. I have created tons of examples and programs
with Visual Studio 6.0 using the above steps and had NO problems what so ever.

Although I do like Visual Studio 6.0, the truth is I use it to program my C++ applications
and then I use DEV C++ to create the final release.

B.M