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I want to open a program (written in Visual basic 6) to be open in Visual Studio.net. Please guide, how could I do that?

While trying to open VB6 (.vbp file) program directly from the OPEN project option in visual studion.net, I was getting this error,

"Visual Basic 6 (.vbp) files cannot be opened in Visual Studio"

Michael Paulukonis
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Asad Waheed
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    What version of Visual Studio? Versions 2008 and earlier include a converter for old projects; later versions don't. – Joe Jan 15 '13 at 01:56
  • i think versions of VS2005 can open also .vbp files – Patrick Guimalan Jan 15 '13 at 02:45
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    [How do I open Visual Basic .vbp files?](http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vbide/thread/17ef3146-1368-4d09-8efc-1753ddb9fb54) – Victor Zakharov Jan 15 '13 at 02:48
  • I am trying to open in VS 2010. – Asad Waheed Jan 15 '13 at 03:22
  • I have used VS 2005 upgrade engine to upgrade VB6 code to VB.NET and .NET 2.0. It worked just fine except some components need to be replaced with .NET 2.0 and VB.NET components. Well of course upgrading depends also on the quality of the code you have in VB6. Probably the easiest way is to run the VB98.exe nameOfYourVB6Project.vbp which is the VB6 IDE from your current Visual Studio installation by clicking a button with that Process Windows API. But this means you need to have VB6 IDE installation bought. – Vlad Mar 08 '20 at 16:38
  • If you have VB6 IDE and need it installed on Windows 10, then check this link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/luisdem/how-to-install-visual-basic-6-0-on-windows-10 Windows 10 doesn't allow changing some system registries, so you need to bypass this behavior and allow VB6 IDE installation to change those Windows registries it needs for it to installed properly on Win10. – Vlad Mar 08 '20 at 16:46

5 Answers5

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I am trying to open in VS 2010.

Visual Studio 2010 does not support VB6 projects. See the link here

From the msdn documentation:

Visual Studio 2010 does not provide tools for upgrading applications and projects from Visual Basic 6.0. If you want to upgrade your project from Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic 2010, you can use the upgrade tools provided with earlier versions of Visual Studio and then upgrade the project again in Visual Studio 2010.

alstonp
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    Lord knows for how long this link will be good, but it is supposed to be to VS2008 Express ISO: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104679 – rskar Aug 14 '14 at 17:24
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Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio

There's a plugin called Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio that provides the following features:

  • load classic VB workspace- and project-files and offers quick access to the extension´s options

  • integrates with the solution explorer and the code editor having support for syntax highlighting, basic outlining (allows to expand/collapse methods, properties and types) as well as navigation bar support.

  • Classes, Types, Modules, Forms and Controls can be inspected using the Object Browser and Class View.

From the reading, it's unclear if you can actually build the project, though it does say:

The import tool creates a new solution and MSBuild compatible projects.

Links to the plugin by VS Version

RAD Basic

There is also an independent IDE called RAD Basic that claims the following features:

  • New and modern IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with form designer supporting drag and drop, code completion, refactoring tools, etc.
  • RAD Basic Compiler: Compiler 100% compatible with your VB6 project (vbp, frm, bas and cls files). Generate native executables (exe and ocx) in both 32-bit and 64-bit.
  • RAD Basic Forms: Reimplementation of common VB6 controls and components supporting 32-bit and 64-bit.
  • etc.
Brandon Boone
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    [Here is the version that supports Visual Studio 2015](https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/00cc8ff8-beb3-4f08-8aa6-59eefba3bb40). – Quolonel Questions Nov 06 '16 at 18:52
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Speaking from my experience, it's not easy to open a Visual Basic 6.0 project in any versions of Visual Studio above 2008.

Although 2008 and below versions do provide an automatic function to convert Vb6 code to the VB.net framework. But, the problem starts after the conversion - it can skip some code, add functions/variables on its own, or modify the functional behavior on its own, and with that the VB.proj will be created with errors and you will not be able to open it anywhere as a solution file. The same with any 3rd party tools.

If you want to open the VB6 code try Visual Basic 6.0 Portable edition. But headache will still follow you there, please refer this link Installation of VB6 on Windows 7 / 8 / 10

RoastBeast
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Dhiliban
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Make sure you are clicking on the project file itself... Right click on the file and select "Open With" and select your visual studio program. It may need to be converted and if so, it will prompt you to convert the project.

Thanks!

Trevor
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Download Visual Basic Tools for Visual Studio,allows to work with classic VB workspaces and projects

Hillary Otati
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