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Running Visual Studio 6 C ++ on Windows 8.1

I recently migrated my system to Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, like some others, I can no longer run Visual Studio 6. Software crashes on startup (splash screen).

I know that there is a workaround to compile with vc6 in the new IDEs, but this does not work for me, since I have to compile a huge number of projects, and I can not afford to modify all the project files 1 on 1 ...

I already see the answer: vc6 is so old, and not supported, and so on ... I know about all this! But porting a lot of code can take a lot of time, and so far we have no other solution!

Since vc6 worked perfectly in Windows 8, I’m sure that with a little trick we can get it working under 8.1, but I don’t know how to do it yet!

Has anyone been able to run Visual Studio 6 on Windows 8.1?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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c ++ windows-8 vc6
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8 answers

I found this: http://www.wavosaur.com/forum/run%20vc6%20with%20windows%208.1%20%28if%20msdev.exe%20crashes%29-t1362.html

I have not tested it yet, but I will tell you about it!

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I have VS6 running on Windows 8.1 after I found these useful instructions:

http://blog.wavosaur.com/run-visual-c-6-on-windows-8/

Unusually, Windows 8 retained compatibility for VS6 without this extra work, but Windows 8.1 does not. Hope this helps!

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I find an easy way to solve the problem!

  • Find "MSDEV.EXE" in this path: "C: \ Program Files \ vc6 \ Common \ MSDev98 \ Bin".
  • Rename "MSDEV.EXE" as "MSDEV3.EXE".
  • Use compatible mode "XP SP2 or SP3".
  • Launch MSDEV3.EXE, report an error, try again, and you will succeed!
  • If this is not possible, rename MSDEV.EXE as other names and use a compatible mode that will succeed.
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I succeeded in another method (similar to @ szc982 method):

  • Go to "C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Microsoft Visual Studio \ Common \ MSDev98 \ Bin"
  • Rename "MSDEV.exe" to "MSDEV-S.exe" (or any other name)
  • Right-click on "MSDEV-S.exe"> "Properties"> "Compatibility"> "Change Settings" for all users.
  • Check "Disable display scaling with high DPI settings" and click "OK"
  • Go to the section "C: \ ProgramData \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs \ Microsoft Visual C ++ 6.0"
  • Right-click the "Microsoft Visual C ++ 6.0" shortcut and change the target to "MSDEV-S.exe"

Hope this helps

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I had a critical need to use VS 6 to continue developing a large MFC application in my Win8 window after upgrading to version 8.1. I followed the tips here and elsewhere to copy MSDEV.EXE to a file with a different name (let it be called MSDEVX.EXE) and change the compatibility settings for the new program on Win 8.0. Unfortunately, the application ran very slowly, like a debugger, when it used the HeapXxx API or the CHttpFile object. I came to the conclusion that the problem is laying the Failover Heap. I threw wildly to get rid of the FTH pad, and I ended up finding one:

I created another copy of MSDEV.EXE - I called her MSDEVQ.EXE. I installed the application compatibility manager and followed the instructions to create a user database using the Fix application for MSDEVQ.EXE. To create the settings, you can simply copy the settings for MSWIN8 and then subtract the FTH pad. Alas, there is an error that prevents you from saving the resulting database. Microsoft brazenly claims that it will not fix this error because you will never have to copy compatibility settings. Ok, so I copied the gaskets one by one, leaving the FTH gasket with that part of MSWIN8. I saved and installed the resulting .sdb file. Voila! There are no more FTH pads, and I will return to being able to debug efficiently.

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  • Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin"
  • Rename MSDEV.exe to MSDEV-S.exe (or any other name) - first try the name mentioned earlier; if it does not work, use MSDEV3-S.exe or any other name like this.
  • Go to the search by moving the mouse right down the edge of the screen and type this C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
  • Open it and go to Common\MSDev98\Bin and run MSDEV3-S.exe . If this causes an error, try again and I hope you succeed!

This is similar to what was published by Francios, but you do not need to change the goal.

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Another simple solution:

  • Make a copy of MSDEV.EXE for anything (e.g. MSDEV_XP.EXE )
  • Set compatibility of copy MSDEV_XP.EXE on XP
  • Run the renamed copy of MSDEV_XP.EXE . instead of this.

Explanation:

Microsoft installs two executable files, MSDEV.EXE and MSDEV.COM , one of which can be launched to run in recent versions of WINDOWS. If you run MSDEV in a shell or script (for example, in a makefile), you do not want to run COM instead of EXE, and copying with a different name solves this. (In addition, if you leave the two files installed by Microsoft as is, you can be sure that you are not breaking existing functions)

This solved my problem when I was building a make file that I changed to call my copy, which was changed to XP compatibility. Please note that in some cases I needed to use the original MSDEV.EXE , so it's good to have both.

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Launch MS-Dos as an administrator and follow the instructions.

For Windows 8.1 64bit, enter:

 ren "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin\MSDEV.EXE" MSDEV3.EXE

For Windows 8.1 32bit, enter:

 ren "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin\MSDEV.EXE" MSDEV3.EXE

Now go to your desktop and right-click in any free space, then select New → Shortcut , and then, if you have Windows 8.1 64bit, set the location value: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin\MSDEV3.EXE

or if you have Windows 8.1 32bit installed: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin\MSDEV3.EXE

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