VB6 in Windows 10 can't Implements IDTExtensibility2

4
votes

I still maintain many old VB6 applications, a few of them are ActiveX Dll that Implements IDTExtensibility2.

Today I opened one of them on Windows 10, tried to run it, and the line Implements IDTExtensibility2 was highlighted and the message "Compile error: Automation type not supported in Visual Basic" appeared.

I created a VirtualBox with Windows 7, installed VB6, and the same project works without problems.

I had Windows 10 for many months now and i'ts unlikely that I never opened any of the old the ActiveX Dll projects, but I don't remember if I did. My feeling is that I did, it was working and it has been broken recently, but I'm not sure because they are old projects and I open them very seldom for minimal maintenance.

Unfortunately I still need to maintain those antiques. Do I need to do the maintenance in the Windows 7 virtual machine? Or do I have a chance to get it to work in Windows 10?

2
vb6windows-10activex
Is this just an artifact in the IDE? i.e do they actually run on Windows 10? Within the project references is the dll hosting the base interface listed correctly? - Alex K.
@AlexK. The old dll registers and runs on the same machine. I can open the project without problems. Checking properties and references I see nothing wrong. When I try to run it shows the message mentioned on the post - stenci

2 Answers

3
votes

Alternative fix if the @stenci SP6 reinstall solution doesn't work:

Open an administrative Command window. Issue the following commands:

regsvr32 /u "c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\DESIGNER\MSADDNDR.DLL"
regsvr32 "c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\DESIGNER\MSADDNDR.DLL"

As with the other solution, you may need to re-apply this fix after Windows 10 updates.

This fix got me going again with my VB6 Add-In project.

0
votes

I finally found the solution: I had the wrong version of the service pack 6 installed.

Installing the correct version it solved the problem, and now I can finally (and sadly) use VB6 on Windows 10.

The correct version can be downloaded from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=7030

EDIT

When Microsoft pushes an update the problem pops up again. Trying to re-install the service pack fails showing a message about a phantom network folder.

In order to fix the problem after a Windows update right click on the file downloaded from the link above, uninstall, then double click on it to re-install, and all is good until the next Windows update.