How To Install Visual Basic 6 (VB6) in Windows 10

XINSTALL BY CLICKING THE DOWNLOAD FILE
To fix various PC problems, we recommend Restoro PC Repair Tool: This software will repair common computer errors, protect you from file loss, malware, hardware failure and optimize your PC for maximum performance. Fix PC issues and remove viruses now in 3 easy steps:
  1. Download Restoro PC Repair Tool that comes with Patented Technologies (patent available here).
  2. Click Start Scan to find Windows issues that could be causing PC problems.
  3. Click Repair All to fix issues affecting your computer's security and performance
  • Restoro has been downloaded by 0 readers this month.

Visual Basic 6 (VB6) was one of the easiest programming languages to learn back in the day. It was released in 1998 and is now replaced by Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET). Even though it is outdated by several years, the programs created and compiled with VB6 can still work with the latest Windows operating systems which is why you can still find people attempting to install VB6 on Windows 10.

install visual basic (vb6)

If you’re trying to install VB6 on newer operating systems starting from Windows 8 onward, especially with 64-bit architecture, you are sure to encounter installation problems. These range from not being able to continue the install without first installing discontinued versions of Java to the setup process hanging and crashing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to successfully install Visual Basic 6 (VB6) in Windows 10 64-bit.

Bypass Update Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java Requirement

A computer should always maintain the latest version of Java and it’s pointless having the discontinued Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java on the computer just to install Visual Basic 6. The problem is, the VB6 setup does not allow you to continue with the installation if you untick the “Update Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java” checkbox as it grays out the Next button.

Vb6 java box

The solution is to bypass the VB6 setup by either tricking it into thinking Microsoft Java is already installed or by telling it not to install Java in the first place. Then you can reach the next phase of the installation.

There are two ways in which you can do this which we’ll list below, you only need to use one of them.

Trick VB6 setup into thinking Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java is Installed

The VB6 installer checks if the file msjava.dll exists in the SysWOW64 folder for 64-bit systems or System32 for 32-bit systems. Placing the file into the right folder will let the VB6 install continue.

a) For the quickest and easiest way of doing this, you can download the msjava.dll file from the link below and copy it to the required directory.

Download MSJava.dll

If you’re unsure about the architecture of your Windows operating system, simply try to copy msjava.dll to the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder. If it doesn’t exist, you have a 32-bit system and should copy the file to the C:\Windows\System32 folder instead.

b) Alternatively, the same DLL file is also present on the installation disc. You can extract it if you have an archiver such as 7-Zip installed on your system. Go to the IE4 folder located on the install CD, right click on MSJAVX86.exe, go to 7-Zip and select “Open archive“.

In 7-Zip, double click on javabase.cab which will open it. Look for msjava.dll in the list, drag it onto the Desktop and then copy it to SysWOW64 or System32. Copying to the Desktop first will avoid any access denied error when trying to copy the file directly from 7-Zip.

Copy msjava dll to desktop

After copying msjava.dll to either the System32 or SysWOW64 folder, you can launch the Visual Basic 6 setup.exe file to start the installation. It now doesn’t prompt you to update Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java.

Tell VB6 setup Not To Install Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java

If you have the VB6 setup files on your hard drive, it’s possible to edit the settings file for the installer and tell it not to ask for Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java. This will ignore the requirement and continue the install process.

a) The simplest option here is to download the SETUPWIZ.INI file from the link below. As the name implies, this is the setup wizard configuration file. Make sure to download the correct INI for your version of Visual Studio.

Download SETUPWIZ.INI (For Visual Studio 6 Enterprise)
Download SETUPWIZ.INI (For Visual Studio 6 Professional)

Place the INI file in the main installation files folder overwriting the current file. Then start the installation and it won’t ask to install Java.

b) If you want to edit the file manually, go to the main folder and open the SETUPWIZ.INI file with Notepad. Look for the line “VmPath=ie4\msjavx86.exe”.

Delete setupwiz vmpath line

Simply delete the whole line or everything after the “=” sign and save the file. The install can be continued but you must also follow the next steps as well or the installation will not complete successfully.

Change VB6 Setup Options To Prevent The Install From Hanging Or Failing

While fixing the above issue gets round the first hurdle of installing Visual Basic 6 on Windows 10, there are some other things that will cause the install to fail.

First of all, you will likely experience the “Setup is updating your system…” progress getting stuck and doing nothing else. After a few seconds, the installer becomes unresponsive and then hangs. Looking in Task Manager will show high CPU usage for ACMSETUP.EXE and the setup window has to be closed manually.

Vb6 setup is updating your system

If you fix that, another error that appears will be a “Setup was unable to create a DCOM user account in order to register…valec.exe” message box.

Vb6 dcom user account error

With the default install options, the VB6 installer will likely produce another error message which is “javasign.dll was unable to register itself in the system registry”.

Javasign dll unable to register error

These last two error messages will cause the install to halt with a message saying the setup could not be completed. Since the Visual Basic 6 installer is over 20 years old, there are unsurprisingly some components that will not install properly in Windows 10 which causes the failures. Excluding those components from the install process will allow VB6 to install without errors.

You can use either method below to turn off the options during setup that cause the install to fail.

Disable the Setup Components Automatically

This method is the easiest and requires no manual changes to the setup options during install. We found that the install process is handled by an STF file in the Setup folder on the disc. The optional components are pre-enabled in this file so we found the offenders and disabled them by default.

1. Download the correct file according to the version of Visual Studio you are using. Click on the link below then right click on the grey Download button and select “Save link as” in your browser. This stops the file opening in a browser tab as a text file.

Download VS98ENT.STF (For Visual Studio 6 Enterprise)
Download VS98PRO.STF (For Visual Studio 6 Professional)

2. Make sure that the VB6 install files are on your hard drive as you need to replace the original STF file. You can do that by simply copying all the files from the CD to a folder on your drive. This won’t work if you are trying to install from CD.

3. Go to the SETUP folder and copy the VS98***.STF you downloaded above replacing the file already there.

Replace vs98 stf file

4. Run the installer and go through the setup steps as usual. When you reach the component selection window, nothing has to be changed because the edited STF already did it.

Any other options that you want to enable or disable can be changed although you must make sure “Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0”, “ADO and RDS”, and “Visual Studio Analyzer” remain disabled.

Disable the VB6 Setup Components Manually

This method is useful if you are installing from CD or the automatic option above doesn’t work.

1. During the setup, make sure the Custom install option is selected.

2. Continue the install until you’re asked to choose the components from the list. Highlight Data Access and click the “Change Option…” button to the right, then click “Change Option..” for a second time.

Vb6 highlight data access

3. Now you’ll get another list of components that belong to the ADO, RDS, and OLE DB Providers. Simply uncheck the first ADO and RDS option.

Disable ado and rds

A warning will popup that this component is an essential part of the application and it will not run properly if not installed. Click OK to acknowledge the warning and then click OK two more times to get back to the main install options window.

This will stop the installer hanging and crashing at the updating your system window.

3. Highlight Enterprise Tools and click the “Change Option…” button. At the bottom, uncheck Visual Studio Analyzer and click OK. This option is not in Visual Studio Professional so those users can ignore it.

Disable visual studio analyzer

Disabling the Visual Studio Analyzer will stop the DCOM user account error.

4. Uncheck Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0 box in the main install options window. This will stop the javasign.dll error from appearing during install.

You can, of course, enable or disable other options in this window depending on personal preference. But make sure the components mentioned here are not enabled or the install won’t finish properly. Continue with the install and you should be able to reach the end with no major errors after a reboot.

Run Visual Basic In Compatibility Mode

After the install is complete, Visual Basic 6 should start. If you get an error on the New Project screen, an optional step to help is running VB6 in compatibility mode. In Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98, right click on VB6.exe and select Properties.

run Vb6 in compatibility mode

In the Compatibility tab, check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” box and click OK. The default option of Windows XP (Service Pack 2) should be fine but you can experiment with Windows Vista or 98/Me if you wish.

182 Comments - Write a Comment

  1. Howard 1 year ago
  2. SP6 not installing 1 year ago
  3. MM 1 year ago
  4. Marco 1 year ago
    • Dusajn 1 year ago
      • tim 1 year ago
  5. Stan S 1 year ago
  6. YK 2 years ago
  7. David 2 years ago
  8. Dennis G Allard 2 years ago
  9. Tony Jackson 2 years ago
  10. Simon Conway-Smith 2 years ago
  11. Tata Ikun 3 years ago
  12. Tinus Van De Wouw 3 years ago
    • Laker 3 years ago
    • Ron 2 years ago
    • Roman 2 years ago
    • Anthony Jackson 1 year ago
  13. Alma 3 years ago
  14. Schubi 3 years ago
  15. Dominic John Chan Maca 3 years ago
  16. Phil frankel 3 years ago
    • Antonio 3 years ago
  17. Thomas 3 years ago
  18. Rajbir singh 3 years ago
  19. Dorset Boy 3 years ago
  20. Gio 3 years ago
  21. Herry 3 years ago
  22. Amin 3 years ago
    • Robert Chisholm 3 years ago
      • Ruadh 3 years ago
      • Mike Cetera 3 years ago
  23. Adrian Stern 3 years ago
  24. C W 3 years ago
  25. a 3 years ago
  26. M.Tyson 3 years ago
  27. Keith U 3 years ago
  28. Valeriu Beligan 3 years ago
  29. Gangamallaiah Madavedi 3 years ago
  30. OldDEV 3 years ago
  31. Ron 3 years ago
  32. Steve 3 years ago
  33. Sebastian 3 years ago
  34. Dmitri Dumas 3 years ago
  35. BB 3 years ago
  36. Laura H. 4 years ago
  37. Eduardo 4 years ago
    • HAL9000 4 years ago
      • NoOneImportant 4 years ago
        • HAL9000 4 years ago
      • just a guy 4 years ago
    • just a guy 4 years ago
      • zoran 3 years ago
    • Robert Harmon 3 years ago
  38. Farooq 4 years ago
    • Bart 4 years ago
  39. Justin 4 years ago
  40. GuruTeja Chilukuri 4 years ago
  41. Smhiker 4 years ago
  42. Niamat 4 years ago
  43. Peter Cook 4 years ago
  44. Jack Decker 4 years ago
  45. Joaquim 4 years ago
  46. Gaudens 4 years ago
  47. Delerium Dog 4 years ago
  48. Ankita 4 years ago
  49. norbert 4 years ago
  50. Joe M 4 years ago
  51. Greg Brylski 4 years ago
  52. Frank Williams 4 years ago
  53. Gary Darveaux 4 years ago
  54. Matthew Setzekorn 4 years ago
    • John Fogle 4 years ago
    • Chris 2 years ago
  55. Parashuram 4 years ago
  56. Jack Blackmore 4 years ago
  57. Laura 4 years ago
  58. Herman van der Blom 4 years ago
  59. Yousif 4 years ago
  60. kraigbreton87 4 years ago
  61. Ricardo H Inhan 5 years ago
  62. Yvonne 5 years ago
    • sachin 5 years ago
  63. KeithSz 5 years ago
  64. Roberto Reynoso 5 years ago
  65. loviealbertson 5 years ago
  66. kermitmoynihan2 5 years ago
  67. tfxdane33248 5 years ago
  68. Kyle 5 years ago
  69. Kavallappa V 5 years ago
  70. Charlie Hieroglyph 5 years ago
    • Harold 5 years ago
    • Kirk 5 years ago
  71. HARSH SINHA 5 years ago
  72. dk 5 years ago
  73. SDR 5 years ago
  74. Rusty Bascom 5 years ago
  75. Raghu 5 years ago
  76. CLARK DAILEY 5 years ago
  77. Satyam 5 years ago
    • MW 5 years ago
    • mikec 5 years ago
  78. Vignesh SK 5 years ago
  79. Ben 5 years ago
  80. Joetech 5 years ago
  81. kag 5 years ago
  82. Anders Lindén 5 years ago
    • Marcus 5 years ago
  83. Robert Hughes 5 years ago
  84. Brent 5 years ago
  85. Brent Lawrence 5 years ago
  86. Bill 5 years ago
  87. Craig 5 years ago
  88. Asifur 6 years ago
  89. John 6 years ago
  90. Chris 6 years ago
  91. Simmy 6 years ago
  92. Peter Jakob 6 years ago
  93. Vikas 6 years ago
  94. Lee Boon Teck 6 years ago
  95. Kevin Kelly 6 years ago
  96. Antonio C. 6 years ago
  97. Vic 6 years ago
  98. Michael 6 years ago
  99. Michael 6 years ago
  100. TdFayez 6 years ago
  101. Scott 6 years ago
  102. LuisC 6 years ago
  103. AndyW 6 years ago
  104. Pradeep Lakhotia 6 years ago
  105. Makis 6 years ago
  106. najeeb 6 years ago
  107. tm 6 years ago
  108. Niels Munch 7 years ago
  109. Simon Morgan 7 years ago
    • Simon Morgan 7 years ago
  110. Gaby 7 years ago
  111. xihco 7 years ago
  112. Mirza Shams 7 years ago
  113. Sam 7 years ago
  114. burhanmeerza 7 years ago
  115. Heince 7 years ago
  116. Jacob 7 years ago
  117. Adrien 7 years ago
  118. Fajar 7 years ago
  119. andik 7 years ago
  120. Peter 7 years ago
  121. Harshad 7 years ago
  122. Michael 8 years ago
  123. fuj1w4r4 8 years ago
  124. Mohit 8 years ago
    • zdimension 8 years ago
  125. kuldeep sawhney 8 years ago
  126. ejolos 8 years ago
  127. Vishal 8 years ago
  128. S Ten 9 years ago
  129. Mark 10 years ago
  130. Sten 10 years ago
  131. venkats 10 years ago
  132. Linesh Jose 11 years ago
  133. Arif Uddin 11 years ago
  134. mazgandhen 11 years ago
    • Anoop 11 years ago
  135. Yudis 13 years ago
  136. harsha45 13 years ago
  137. RyonanGT 13 years ago
  138. Marios Filos 13 years ago
  139. Jehoven 13 years ago
  140. joseph 13 years ago
  141. Jyo 13 years ago
  142. Nitin Gadekar 13 years ago
  143. srikanth potnuru 13 years ago
  144. Merlin_Magii 13 years ago
  145. Ivan 13 years ago
  146. Arun 13 years ago
  147. Ahmad 13 years ago
  148. Anish 13 years ago
  149. Anish 13 years ago
  150. sirius 13 years ago
  151. Chandra 13 years ago
  152. Tharun Jacob George 13 years ago
  153. INDRANIL 13 years ago

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Your comment is subject to approval. Read our Terms of Use. If you are seeking additional information on this article, please contact us directly.