Why does the setup for my ActiveX .exe hang up when "Setup is updating your system"? - vb6

I am currently trying to install my vb6 app on a Windows 8.1 computer via TeamViewer (it's kind of like remote desktop). However, the installation always hangs up after all the files are copied and this message is displayed:
Setup is updating your system
We've tried it on our own Win8.1Pro desktop (via Remote Desktop this time) and Win2008Server(both via Remote Desktop), and it installed just fine.
Right now, we've narrowed it down to one culprit - MyProjectInfo.exe the actual ActiveX .exe. Whether it is me trying to run the .exe for the first time to register it to DCOMCNFG or whether it is the setup.exe running the script $(EXESelfRegister) it just freezes up.
What differences should i look for between 1) our win8.1Pro and win2008server and 2) their win8.1? If it some coding/reference/dependency issue, what could be the cause for why it doesn't error in our desktops?
Thank you for all the help.

Uhmm... this is getting embarrassing.
Avast (present in the other person's Win8.1) was blocking MyProjectInfo.exe from running (which is basically what is does with $(EXESelfRegister).
To properly proceed with registering my ActiveEXE program, I had to turn Avast off for a while. And that was that.
This problem may also occur with other anti-virus scanners as well.

Related

Clickonce App Doesn't start with Windows 1803

I have a Clickonce app from Visual Studio 2015 SP3 that is published to the network server and used in-house only. The program works just fine when launched from Visual Studio. It runs just fine on a Windows machine that does not have the 1803 update. But once a machine updates to 1803, the application no longer starts. I get the "Checking for updates..." window then nothing. On a fresh install, I usually get the Smartscreen telling me the program may be dangerous. It doesn't get that far.
I've created the Clickonce from a computer with the 1803 update and the problem still exists.
I've disconnected the machine from the network. The application starts but then has no database access and it needs the database. It's also written to hide buttons that would use the database to prevent users from trying to do things that require it.
I found a workaround (third paragraph) at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/7cbd16f5-526e-4b0b-a186-3ebf41b7b349/smartscreen-prompt-does-not-show-for-clickonce-app-since-windows-10-update-1803?forum=win10itprogeneral. When I start the application from the directory mentioned, I get the Smartscreen and can tell it to run anyway. Every time I click the desktop icon, it works just fine.
If a new release is published, the new release is downloaded and the program updated, but the Smartscreen no longer appears and the application never starts.
So somewhere between installing the latest update and the Smartscreen, this is failing. Anyone else experiencing this and have an idea as to why?
Yes, frustratingly I also experienced this today. Presumably a security update that they'll release another patch for given this is quite a pain for developers and users of small business apps.
Rather than disable Defender or SmartScreen I chose to add my deployment website to the Trusted Sites in Internet Explorer and that then re-instated the warning dialog and my app updated and ran as before.
Really annoying given the nature of the issue and how long it took to figure out, but at the same time I had to use IE today, which is a rare event nowadays.
This works for me...Warn doesnt warn anymore...
After running in the same problem, I just found that my application was going to halt after a stupid uncaught exception.
Despite the fact that the image below is in Portuguese, Event Viewer shows the right error cause.
In my case, was a corrupted settings file!
It appears as though some subsequent Windows Updates have fixed the issue on several of our PC's that were previously experiencing the issue.
Check for the updates listed here.
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4338548
Running winver.exe will show you which build you have.

System Registry Error VB6 running as User Windows 10

I just recently upgraded to Windows 10 and ever since I have upgraded I can't get into VB6. I keep getting the System Registry error. I have googled and tried about everything and nothing seems to work. Running VB6 as Administrator is not an option, don't ask but we can't have admin to our computers we have to be logged in as users. The way we use to fix it was to trick Windows 7 log on as Admin run VB6 as Admin then switch me back to user and it worked, but this no longer works. Does anyone have any suggestions that currently have VB6 working as a user and not admin? I really don't want to resort to have to run it out of my virtual machine :( Thanks in advance!
Amanda,
I know it is 3 years later and I wonder what you did. and my solution may be late.
I moved VB6 Enterprise to a Windows10 machine, I did not upgrade the machine to Win10 with the IDE. However to make it work for some of my clients with Win10 machines I:
Back up all the VB6 files, folder and directories.
Using control panel in Win10, uninstall VB6 app. That's right, uninstall!
Using the original install disk, running it as an Administrator, install the program.
If the program has been updated to a later version, you need to get a copy of the latest version and copy over the one that was installed.
Or, Sweet Talk your IT guy into making you a new install disk with the latest version you are supposed to be running.
Go to the folder where the exe file is installed, Right Click on it and open the Properties, and go to the Compatibility tab.
Choose run as an administrator, and also click the Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack3, or if it shows Latest version of Windows XP try that. You may need to check with your IT department.
Warning: if the VB6 program uses any non-Microsoft tools you may need to register them by hand.
I suspect this has already been worked out for you, but I put it here for anyone that may stumble across it, needing it.

WDS ImageUnattend does not run

We've successfully set-up WDS (Windows Deployment Services) and had it all working (it's serving an unattended Windows 7 x64 installation, the user only has to F12 then wait for the install to finish) but it no longer works the way it did before.
We're trying to F12 the exact same machine where it used to work. The WDS part of the installation is still automatic (unattended) but ImageUnattend.xml does not seem to run on the client at all now, it gets stuck at the language selection (everything after that is manual as well which is supposed to be automatic).
Inspecting C:\windows\panther on the client machine shows that WDS pops up with an error: WDS CallBack_WdsClient_CopyPrivatesDone: Failed to process client unattend variables.
Changing "%MACHINENAME%" to "*" in the ImageUnattend.xml file makes it all automatic again, however it then renames the computer incorrectly.
The variable %MACHINENAME% worked before, so why does it not work now? Has anyone else met this issue before?
Using a different user (domain administrator) in the ImageUnattend.xml file does not seem to change anything.
After countless of attempts with at least 15 new ImageUnattend.xml files, I decided to restart the server and use the original files I knew worked before.
This fixed it.

VB6 application no longer opens on Vista computer

I have a VB6 app that formerly worked perfectly on a Vista machine as a scheduled task, but it will no longer open on the same machine. The app generates export files in a specified folder with no direct output on the screen. I get no errors, no missing references, just absolutely nothing.
The machine is running Vista Business 32-bit, UAC is disabled with a single administrator account, and automatic updates are turned off. The app resides in a non-protected folder, and the export files are put in a folder on the desktop. The client swears that the only change they made to that computer since I installed this app was installing Norton Antivirus, which has never caused problems before with our software.
In addition to the normal VB6 references, the app references Microsoft Scripting Runtime (scrrun.dll), and Microsoft DAO 3.6 (dao360.dll). Both of these files are present and registered on the target machine, along with all the other VB6 dependencies. I added MsgBox statements at the beginning of Sub Main() just to see if anything is being executed, and its not. Disabling Norton yielded no results, nor did reinstalling VB6 runtime to rule out any corrupted libraries. Not once did I get any messages, error or otherwise from my app.
I've never had an issue like this before and I'm completely stumped. Is there anything else that could be causing this?
Edit - The app does not run even when I run it manually, so the part about it being a scheduled task is irrelevant to my problem, sorry for including it.
The user has full administrator credentials, no compatibility mode was needed on the initial test which at the time, was done on this very machine I am having the problem on. For grins I tried compatibility mode for XP and 2000, still nothing.
Try to inspect - if you can access them - the Event Viewer messages. Maybe you will find some tell-tell signs in there...
You could try running the program in Windbg, a free standalone debugger from Microsoft. Compile your VB6 EXE into native code with symbols (create PDB files) and you will be able to debug your application in Windbg.
I would guess one of two things will happen.
Windbg will fail to load the EXE. Presumably with an error message that will identify your problem.
Windbg will load the EXE, and you can single-step through to see what happens.
Here's a 2006 blog post by a Microsoft guy about using Windbg with VB6, and 2004 blog post by another Microsoft VB guy with a brief introduction to Windbg.
Has the user changed their password? That will cause the scheduled task to fail until they re-enter the password on the task.
Have you tried running the process directly, instead of as a scheduled task? I'm far from an expert, but it may be that any errors being generated are not showing up because the program is running as a task.

windows help: Application failed to Initialize Properly (0x80000003)

I am trying to build a windows service that includes a Lua component, and links with Lua's shared libraries. I am building the code in Eclipse/CDT with MinGW. It builds fine, but when I run it, I get "Application failed to Initialize Properly (0x80000003). Click OK to terminate".
I am looking for clues as to what might be going on. A Hello World program compiles and runs fine, so there are no basic environment issues (I hope!). BTW, I am running on XP Home.
Update:
OK, I have figured out, by some guesswork, what was going on, and thought I'd post this for the benefit of others who might run into a similar problem - I think the lua DLL I was linking to, at runtime, was a different version than the one I built with. This caused the app initialization to fail I guess. When I made them to be the same file, things started working. I have not looked into why this would cause app init to fail, but I guess some symbol being at a different address or something? Or could it be that the DLLs were built with different tool chains?
This might be caused by not having permissions to access the DLLs required by the application. Are you logged in as an Administrator or member of the Administrator group?
Try logging in as Administrator to see if the problem goes away. This will help determine if it's a permissions issue, and then you can explore that further.
You could also try using the Dependency Walker (depends.exe) to see if this highlights any problems.
Cause of this problem is to try to run DOS programs, or 16-bit programs in Windows XP
To run DOS programs, or 16-bit environment in windows xp
To do so go to Start , Run and type gpedit.msc
And there go to:
User Configuration
Administrative Templates
Start Menu and Taskbar
And double-click on
Add "Run in Separate Memory Space" check box to Run dialog box
Select Enabled and then OK.
If the problem is not resolved, we will have to disable the Dr Watson , Do the following:
Go to the Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
System Information
Then go to:
Tools
Dr Watson
Or go to Start , Run and type drwtsn32
And disable:
Dump All Thread Contexts
And
Create Crash Dump File
And press:
OK
And then restart your computer .......
And then you will be able to run any game or program is running Dos or 16-bit, within Windows xp.

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