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I am trying to install a legacy VB6 app on a Windows 10 Enterprise PC. The app has an install program and it is installed on many Windows server 2016 machines. This program uses active user documents (dob files) that load in a webbrowser control. The install is successful but when I run the program instead of loading the user document in the webbrowser control i get a dialog box asking me if I want to download or save a 'vbd' file with the same name as the active x dll the user document creates.

My question is if anyone knows if there is a prerequisite to having the vb6 webbrowser control or active x documents work on a Windows 10 machine? I have the dll registered and the registry entries match the Windows 2016 server.

Thanks in advance, Hank

Hank Anzis
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  • Can you verify that you can display things like XPS or PDF files in that webbrowser control on those machines? – GSerg Jun 13 '22 at 19:20
  • What happens when you double-click on the dob file in the Windows 10 machine? You may need to set up the extension so it automatically opens with IE browser – dbmitch Jun 13 '22 at 22:24
  • @Gserg I can display these file types using the webbrowser control on the Windows 10 machine. I suspect there is some kit I need to add for the activex document on the windows 10 machine - thanks for the advice – Hank Anzis Jun 14 '22 at 13:07
  • @dbmitch - The dob is the source file - it creates a dll and vbd file that gets installed. The vbd file does want to open with Internet Explorer. - thanks for the advice. – Hank Anzis Jun 14 '22 at 13:09

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Here's the relevant (I think) part of the VB6 help for ActiveX Documents:

A few of the more common problems in Internet Component Download and their solutions are listed in this section. These include: [...] Prompt: "Opening file DocumentName.VBD. What would you like to do with this file? Open it or save it to disk?

The proposed solution to this is

This error occurs when the Visual Basic runtime library (MSVBVM60.DLL) is not installed. Generally, this occurs when the safety level in Internet Explorer is set to High. To correct this, you must set the safety level in Internet Explorer to Medium or None.

Note sure when this help entry was written, but with the latest IEs, you add the site in question to the Intranet zone and change the setting there. If that actually resolves the problem, you then should try turning security up again by going into "Customized" and add restrictions again that don't cause it to break again.

Hel O'Ween
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  • thanks for the advice. The dll is registered and the IE is set medium (none not available for selection). I also went to security options to 'Allow active content to run in files on My Computer' but to no avail. – Hank Anzis Jun 14 '22 at 19:13
  • If "None" or "Low" are not available, you most likely have some GPOs preventing these. You might also want to check out [this site](https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/168/Q168428/), which appears to be a mirror of the old, now defunct MSDN Knowledge Base. BTW, the above quote is from the old MSDN October 2001 library. If you have access to what is now Visual Studio Subscription (I think), you might the full help text there. – Hel O'Ween Jun 15 '22 at 07:51
  • I had stumbled on this document. I'll have to check with the powers that be in my shop - we do a lot of GPOs and it may be that the Windows Server 2016 machines have special permissions. Thx for all the help. – Hank Anzis Jun 15 '22 at 16:34