Summary

Synopsis

Beginning with InstallShield 2013, a number of outdated or obsolete items were removed from InstallShield. Although we removed some of the in-the-box tools and redistributables for VB6 that helped developers build a new installation for a VB6 application, InstallShield can still install VB6 applications. InstallShield allows you to create installations for applications created in any programming language.

Discussion

VB6 Virtual Machine (Runtimes / Redistributables)

Although a number of Visual Basic 6 redistributables were removed with InstallShield 2013, you may find that it is no longer necessary for you to redistribute these components with your installer. Microsoft advise that the Visual Basic team is committed to ?It Just Works? compatibility for Visual Basic 6.0 applications on the following supported Windows operating systems: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 including R2, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 including R2, and Windows 10.

Every OS since XP SP3 and Server 2003 all include the latest VB6 Virtual Machine runtime. These supported runtime files are actually protected files and if you do include them in your installer, the installation of these files would be blocked.

Microsoft have broken down the Visual Basic 6 runtime files into 3 main areas:

Supported Runtime Files which ship with the operating system. These include all key Visual Basic 6.0 runtime files which will be used in the majority of application scenarios. You do not need to include any of these files in your InstallShield project.

Supported Extended Runtime Files which do not ship with the operating system, but are typically installed by the VB6 IDE. If you need to redistribute any of these files then you should include them in your InstallShield project. You can download the latest extended runtime files from Microsoft here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/957924.

Unsupported Runtime Files - these files have either fallen out of mainstream support or have never been included with the runtime redistributable. These files are not supported on Windows.

You can find a full list of which libraries ship with Windows and which need to be redistributed by your installer on this Microsoft article https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788708.

Dependency Scanning

InstallShield doesn't scan for VB6 dependencies automatically, but you can still manually include any required files with your installer. As noted above most key VB6 dependencies are now OS components and so may not be required. If you're not sure if your application will work without redistributing these files you can test your application on a clean machine without any additional runtime files installed to see if your application functions as expected.

Visual Basic Wizard for importing VB6 Projects

There is no longer a tool included with InstallShield to import a VB6 project and automatically build an installer, but you can still add your VB6 files to InstallShield and build an installation.

Related Documents

http://flexerasoftware.force.com/articles/en_US/INFO/Q212461 - Removal of Outdated and Obsolete Items in InstallShield 2013

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788229.aspx - Visual Basic 6.0 Resource Center