I just recently found out about the need for a manifest file so that my native C++ Windows app will properly detect the Windows version. Previously my app was running under the "Operating System Context" of "Windows Vista", but thanks to the manifest file it now runs under the appropriate context for the OS it's running on.
This has sent me down a rabbit hole to learn more about what "Operating System Context" means, and why I should care about it. I've been searching for specific information on what happens under the hood and the best page I've found is:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371711(VS.85).aspx
This page details what the Windows Vista (default) application behavior is, and what behavior you can get if you add Windows 7 support via the manifest file.
Here's my problem; I can't find any information like this for Windows 8, 2012, 10, or 2016. I read through the Windows Compatibility Cookbook, but it doesn't seem to contain the type of information available in the above link.
What terms should I be searching for? Is there an up-to-date MSDN page I can bookmark that keeps track of the "Operating System Context" differences?
Thanks!
Partial answer -
Microsoft's page on Application Manifests for Windows 8 and Server 2012 has a section on the SupportedOS element, which refers readers to the download page for the Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Compatibility Cookbook. This Cookbook also covers Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Within this Cookbook, the heading "App (executable) manifest" discusses the the Windows features included in Windows 8 and 8.1 (as well as Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2) which are impacted by the presence or absence of the corresponding supportedOS element. Search this doc for supportedOS, as it is mentioned in other sections as well.
As for Windows 10 (and implicitly Windows Server 2016), the latest Windows Compatibility Cookbook can be read online or downloaded from this web page. Unfortunately, this latest Cookbook does not go into the details of the specific Windows features that are new or impacted by the supportedOS element for Windows 10. But many of the various behavior changes or compatibility issues with Windows 10 are discussed here.
Related
Microsoft no longer supports VB6 development and support from Microsoft has already stopped. But VB6 applications still run on Windows 8.1. See also this article titled "Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1".
When would a VB6 application stop running on Windows? Is there any official statement from Microsoft or any clue about the same?
EDIT:
In this link, the Visual Studio team has mentioned that, "It will be supported at least through 2024". But it's not clear whether they said it's supported in Windows 8 till 2024 or in future release of windows OS too.
The "2024" means as part of Windows 8. The link says the VB6 runtime is part of Windows and therefore will be supported in the same way as the rest of Windows. For example Windows 8 will be supported until 2024 because that's the support lifecycle for Windows 8.
EDIT: Microsoft have now said the VB6 runtime is officially part of Windows 10 too.
EDIT: the VB6 IDE (not runtime) is no longer officially supported on any version of Windows, but there are ways to get it to work on Windows 7 and 8.
Uservoice: The VB6 runtime it is still a component of the Windows operating
system and is a component shipped in Windows 8.1. It will be supported
at least through 2024
It seems clear they mean VB6 will be supported through 2024, not just VB6 on Windows 8 (whose mainstream support ends 6 years earlier anyway).
The VB6 programming language installs and runs on Windows 7, 8.x and 10.
There is a utility to install it here: VB6 IDE install utility
It is in Microsoft's interests for VB6 applications to run in Windows 10 and so they probably will. The same is probably true of most old application frameworks: Microsoft works hard to maintain compatibility. The IDE runs on Windows 7 (not sure about 8 or 10).
However, just because Microsoft says VB6 will run it doesn't mean your particular application will work, particularly if you use third party components. You should at least be thinking about migrating to another development environment.
From what I heard, VB6 applications still work on Windows 10 technical preview. I've seen no official statement yet, but it would seem that VB6 will stay supported for at least a few years.
Microsoft have just stated for VB6 programming on Windows 10:-
"Windows is committed to compatibility. The Windows compatibility team
has been looking at user telemetry and reacting to feedback from
Windows Insiders to ensure that existing apps work well with Windows
10. Windows 10 is designed to run Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 software programs. And yes, everyone’s favorite VB6 Runtime will
continue to work, too. In the near future, the compat team will go
more in-depth on this topic on Blogging Windows."
Everyone's favorite VB6 programming on Windows 10
So VB6 programming will work on Windows 10, as does VBA programming.
They also state that 'Project Centennial' Universal Windows Platform Bridge will work with VB6 code.
Instructions for installing the VB6 IDE are available here...
In my personal experience if you build a dll in VB6 and add it as a component to COM Plus in Server 2016 it just won't add. You will get an error such as the following, even for a 'Hello World' component.
A registry value was changed while installing the following component
into a COM+ Application. If you are experiencing activation problems
with this component then please check the registry value for the
following key.
Component: C:\temp\Project1.dll
Registry Key:
CLSID\{D5DE8D20-5BB8-11D1-A1E3-00A0C90F2731}\InProcServer32
Process Name: RunDll32.exe Comsvcs.dll file version: not loaded
There is a project to provide a new language "RADBasic" which is intended to be compatible with the VB6 programming language.
New language compatible with VB6 programming
Looks like Microsoft just extended VB6 runtime support out to Windows 11 and Server 2022. No such luck for the IDE though.
Read more from Microsoft here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-basic-6/visual-basic-6-support-policy
It seems that it is impossible to find an image of Windows XP Professional x86 checked build. But I still need to support the software and do my work for that system. :(
Yes, I know that I can install only the checked kernel on the free build, but I still want to have a checked system, not a mix of the two.
Solutions, anyone?
UPDATE: It appears it is not clear from the question itself that what I am looking for is the installation image itself (an ISO image), so I can have the full checked build of the OS installed. NOT the service packs. NOT x64 image.
UPDATE 2: Why calling MS won't help: see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ff723773.aspx after "Products Unavailable due to Java-related Settlement".
UPDATE 3: See http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wdk/thread/5fa40892-8207-425a-8866-0fcaebb0c343 -- someone suggests that "The only install disk of a checked XP was the release, i.e. no service packs. MSDN and Technet distributions had the disk as one of the set." Does anybody here have those disks? Seems that ours were lost in the sands of time.
UPDATE 4: Narrowed it down to a MSDN CD named "Windows® XP Professional Checked/Debug Build (English)", disc 1013, volume label X08-48914, dated October 2001. Anyone has that one?..
I bet that if you support your software to work in Windows Server 2003 then your software will also work in Windows XP, even though Microsoft's debugging symbols differ. You can install the checked build of Windows Server 2003 RTM, add the optional component for desktop experience, and it will be approximately the same as Windows XP with SP1 with some increased security. Checked build service packs are available for Windows Server 2003. So you can approximate every service pack version of Windows XP except for Windows XP RTM.
Checked versions are only available in English. You can install an MUI pack but the result is not identical to an actual Russian version of Windows. You'll have to test your software again in the actual version of Windows that your customers use, and that will not be a checked version.
These files are downloadable from MSDN:
en_windows_server_2003_enterprise_chk.iso
en_windows_server_2003_enterprise_x64_chk.iso
(The first paragraph was edited to mention that the Windows Server 2003 RTM download is also a checked build. Of course the download would be useless otherwise.)
I have an old VB6 application that depends on MSINET.OCX. I'd like to know if I can distribute this application without registering MSINET OCX component. My target OSes are XP, Vista and Windows 7. Do all of them have this component preinstalled?
See if this information from technet helps you. The short of it seems to be that it does not come preinstalled, it is installed when you install an application that uses it. You will need to include it in your installation.
It's not shipping with the OS. It is however delivered with Visual Basic. You must include it within your application setup. For details on Vista and Win7 support see: Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7
I'm using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (VC9) to compile a project that has a .dsw file. I already have the 2010 and would prefer to use it, but it seems this dsw was built for 2008.
I'd like to compile and produce a binary that's also compatible with Windows 7. My questions:
if I compile with 2008, will the resulting binary be compatible with Windows 7? I'm not sure at which version of VS did Windows 7 support start.
or does this have nothing to do with the VS version, and is instead related to the Windows SDK? If that's the case, can I use VS2008 with a newer Windows SDK?
Can someone please clarify.
Microsoft has a great backwards compatibility "story", so pretty much anything you compile with any version of Visual Studio/Visual C++ will be compatible with Windows 7. The same may not neccessarily apply in reverse, i.e. if you use an API that's introduced in Windows 7, your application will error when you try to run it on prior versions of Windows.
There are a couple of things to consider though:
If the project was originally written to target Windows XP or earlier, it may fall foul of UAC
There are changes to directory structures (such as %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings becoming %systemdrive%\Users) that are fairly well handled by the link that Windows 7 creates in the root of `%systemdrive%, but you may fall foul of these.
VS2010 includes version 7.0 of the Windows SDK and VS2008 does not. You need Windows SDK v7.0 if you want your app to take advantage of Windows 7 features like jump lists.
Since you already have VS2010 installed, you can just change your include file / lib file paths in VS2008 to point to the Windows SDK v7.0 instead of the default one provided with VS2008. This is assuming you need that version of the SDK.
You do not need the latest Windows SDK if you do not plan to use the latest Windows 7 features like ribbons and jump lists. If you are building your app for the lowest-common-denominator OS (i.e. Windows XP), then really you should be fine using VS 2008 with default settings.
The other concern is, if your code was originally written before Windows Vista came out, it is likely that it will not work properly on Windows 7 unless it is run in Administrator mode, which is something you want to avoid. The only way to fix that is to rewrite much of your code to avoid writing to certain protected directories and avoid using certain APIs that require Administrator privileges.
Windows SDK is well backward compatible. See binary compatibility report between Windows 6.0 and Windows 7.0 on x86_64 generated by the abi-compliance-checker tool for the detailed comparison.
Reports for other Windows versions are here: https://abi-laboratory.pro/index.php?view=windows
I'm using msscript.ocx in my application which is an activex scripting host for windows.
Although I want to be able to use the same for XP embedded(XPe) which's highly customizable.
1.I want to know whether on XPe, msscript.ocx can be optionally installed or not?
2.Where does it get installed from, IE?
3.Or is it a windows core component which gets installed during the XPe setup?(I know one can unregister it, but can it be an optional installation)
Answering any or all of these questions will be of great help to me.
Thanks in advance.
Sam.
Microsoft's documentation of the MSScript.ocx library is somewhat contradictory on this issue. The short answer is, starting with Windows 2000, the MSScript.ocx library became part of the Windows OS. Subsequent service packs for Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 included bug fixes (1,2,3) for this library. Since that time, the library has remained part of the 32bit portion of Windows and is still included with Windows 7/2008 R2. Even 64bit versions of Windows still include msscript.ocx with WOW64 in C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
For a little history of this library's distribution keep reading.
Msscript.ocx was originally included on the Visual Studio 6 CD as a "optional" library - optional meaning it had to be manually installed. While the library was part of Visual Studio, it was migrated to being part of the Windows OS starting with Windows 2000.
This is where the confusion comes into play. Since msscript.ocx is considered to be a component of both VS6 and Windows 2000, updates were distributed in service packs for both. Even after the last service pack for VS6 was released, additional bug fixes needed to be distributed for older OS's, so a separate download was created specifically targeting Windows 95, 98 and NT4.
This download is targeted for older OS's for the simple fact that it had become a part of the OS in "modern" versions of Windows. If you are using Windows 2000 or greater, the download is unnecessary and - in my experience - can cause compatibility problems.
I think it is not shipped with Windows XP(not a 100% sure)...
But the best choice is to ship it with your installer(even if it was shipped, it can be removed). About the installing - you can put it where you want (in the program folder in Program Files is ok), the important thing is to register it.
The best choice for making installers - Wix
EDIT: reference
The Script control ships with Visual
Basic 6.0; however, Visual Basic 6.0
setup does not install the Script
Control for you. The control is
located in the CD directory
Common\Tools\VB\Script. To install the
script control, try the following
steps:
I think this answers your question....
For those having issues getting MSSCRIPT.OCX to work do the following:
Go to References in Project settings:
Microsoft Script Control 1.0
Microsoft Scripting Runtime
Microsoft Scriptlet Library
Check all those on.
you'llneed to change your development environment to produce a 32 bit version of your appliation, which for most apps won't matter.
For this goto Project,
then select Properties,
select Compile,
Target CPU: x86
In your code, and i'm using visual studio 2019,
' by using the references above the ScriptControl
' should become available for inclusion into your source c
Dim ms As ScriptControl = New ScriptControl
ms.Language = "JavaScript"
ms.Reset()
Try
ms.ExecuteStatement(RichTextBox1.Text)
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
End Try