Running Visual Studio 6 C++ in Windows 8.1

Question

I recently migrated my system to windows 8.1. Unfortunatly like some others, I am not able to start Visual Studio 6 anymore. The software is crashing at startup (splash screen).

I know there are some workaround, to be able to compile with vc6 in newer IDEs, but this is not working for me, since I have to compile a huge number of project and I cannot afford of modifying all the project files 1 by 1...

I already see the answer coming: that vc6 is so old, and not supported and so on... I am aware about all that! But migrating a lot of code can take a long time and for now we have no other solution!

Since vc6 was running just fine on Windows 8, I am sure that with some small trick we can manage to get it running under 8.1, but I haven't figure out how yet!

Did anyone manage to start Visual Studio 6 on windows 8.1?

Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks.

Answer 1

I find a simple way to solve the problem！

1. Look for "MSDEV.EXE" in this path:"C:\Program Files\vc6\Common\MSDev98\Bin".
2. Rename "MSDEV.EXE" as "MSDEV3.EXE".
3. Use compatible mode "XP SP2 or SP3".
4. Run MSDEV3.EXE, report error,rerun again and you will succeed!
5. If failed, rename MSDEV.EXE as other names and use compatible mode will lead to succeed.

Answer 2

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

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

It is unusual indeed that Windows 8 retained compatibility for VS6 without this additional work, and yet Windows 8.1 does not. I hope this helps!

Answer 3

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

I haven't tested it yet, but I will asap and let you know !

Answer 4

I have been successful with another method (similar to the method of @szc982):

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

Hope it helps

Answer 5

I had a critical need to use VS 6 to continue development of a large MFC application on my Win8 box after upgrading to 8.1. I followed advice from here and elsewhere to copy MSDEV.EXE into a file with a different name (let's call it MSDEVX.EXE) and to change the compatibility settings for the new program to Win 8.0. Unfortunately, the app ran very slowly as a debuggee whenever it used the HeapXxx APIs or an CHttpFile object. I concluded that the problem was the "Fault Tolerant Heap" shim. I cast about wildly for a way to get rid of the FTH shim, and I eventually found one:

I created another copy of MSDEV.EXE -- let's call it MSDEVQ.EXE. I installed the Application Compatibility Manager and followed the instructions to create a custom database with an Application Fix for MSDEVQ.EXE. To create the settings, you'd think you could just copy the MSWIN8 settings and then subtract out the FTH shim. Alas, there is a bug that prevents you from saving the resulting database. Microsoft arrogantly says it won't fix this bug because you should never need to copy compatibility settings. Fine, so I copied the shims one by one, leaving out the FTH shim that's part of MSWIN8. I saved and installed the resulting .sdb file. Voila! No more FTH shim, and I'm back to being able to debug effectively.

Answer 6

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

This is similar to what Francios has posted but you do not need to change the target.

Answer 7

Another simple solution:

1. Make a copy of MSDEV.EXE to anything (for example MSDEV_XP.EXE)
2. Set the compatibility of the copy MSDEV_XP.EXE to XP
3. Launch the renamed copy MSDEV_XP.EXE instead.

Explanation:

Microsoft installs two executables, MSDEV.EXE and MSDEV.COM, one of which can be made to run in recent WINDOWS versions. If you launch MSDEV in a shell or script (a makefile for example), you don't want to launch the COM instead of the EXE, and making a copy with a different name solves that. (Also, if you leave the two files Microsoft installed as is, you can be sure you're not breaking any existing functionality)

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

Answer 8

Run MS-Dos as Administrator and follow instructions..

For Windows 8.1 64bit, type:

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

For Windows 8.1 32bit, type:

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

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

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