Hi!

Is anyone still using VB6 nowadays ?
For fun I've installed it on a Windows XP Virtual Machine running on VMware Workstation and it reminds me of the old days.. :-(

How easy and fun was it to create applications ..

What's your reason for still using VB6 ?

Doom Ported to VB6! Uses FreeDoom assets. Started with a Wolfenstein 3D which have on github as well (issue was free licensed assets), Have Quake in the works as well. Just want to see how good VB can do with commercial games, made with Claude/LLM.

https://github.com/VBGAMER45/VBDoom

Hello to the Visual Basic community. I'm Christopher Drum and I run a blog called Stone Tools. Unlike most retro-focused technology blogs, I do not cover games at all, I look at 8/16-bit productivity software. The tone is lighthearted and opinionated, and the software I cover I actually use, for weeks on end.

My latest post looks at Visual Basic 3.0 running on Windows 3.1. 32-bit apps built in Visual Basic 6 are still alive and kicking, so to get a little more "retro" with my research, and in keeping with the general 8/16-bit theme of the blog, I went 16-bit for this research.

I found that stripping back the layers of the program, that built up over the 32-bit era, gave me a strong sense of the program's core and the design philosophy behind its tools. I covered HyperCard previously, and this was a fun way to see how Microsoft approached the same goal of delivering a visual programming tool to the community. It's also an interesting case study in how both companies yanked these useful tools from their supporters.

I hope the community enjoys the article.

I am just wondering, many posts are asking which language is "the best", or fastest to learn for new programmers (please put AI in the shadow for this post). As I am a bit older engineer with some experience in developing different applications using, just to mention a few, C, C++ (using wxWidgets, SFML and SDL), PHP (with JavaScript, HTML, CSS), Java Servlets (with ORACLE DB) on Apache, ASP, React kit, VB .NET and most important, here mentioned, Visual Basic.

The largest software I ever wrote was using "Visual Basic .NET" and MS-SQL Express DB. Took me a whole year and a half to deploy it.

As per my experience, using VB and VB .NET was always the fastest way to get the best and quickest results in developing Desktop and Network Applications. I mean, in just a few clicks one is able to create stunning looking applications in basically no time. And when I compare that with these days, when there are emerging new and "improved" languages and "frameworks", making many kind of software is still fastest using graphical interface of Visual Basic or similar. It is also very readable compared to other languages.

Now, in comparison with my long term experience, I have a feeling things are going backwards in sense of simplicity and speed of development.

And also, just by my opinion, I feel a bit sad that I am not able to use Visual Basic on Linux the same way I was able to use it on Windows in time of Visual Basic 6.0, or Visual Basic 8 Express in the past.

What is your opinion on concept for application design in terms of simplicity and speed of development as it was with Visual Basic in the past, compared to the ways we are programming today?

Hi everyone!

Recently, I've been researching ways to debug VBScript running inside third-party Windows applications, especially applications that embed their own scripting engines and expose internal COM objects to scripts, but DO NOT expose those objects as externally accessible COM interfaces.

This creates an interesting challenge: you can write and execute scripts within the application, but debugging them with external tools like cscript.exe or a regular VBScript debugger isn't straightforward, because the scripts depend on the application's internal runtime and object model.

I've been experimenting with this problem and recently managed to get debugging working with Altium Designer DXP 2004, an older PCB design application.

Here's a short demonstration video.

I'm also working on a VS Code extension to make VBScript development more convenient, including debugging, code completion, and COM object exploration.

However, I'm curious about the current state of VBScript development:

• Are people still writing VBScript for legacy Windows applications?

• Do you still encounter applications that embed VBScript but don't provide a proper debugging experience?

• Are there other applications with similar scripting environments and internal COM object models?

• Is building better debugging tools for VBScript still worthwhile in 2026, or has this become too niche of a use case?

I'd particularly like to hear from people who maintain legacy automation scripts or work with COM-based Windows applications.

I'm interested in hearing about your experiences and whether you think this is still a problem worth solving.

Thanks!

I’ve been building Visual Gasic — a real programming language that keeps the parts of VB6 we actually miss, not as a nostalgia toy, but as something you can ship games with today.

What feels familiar

• Sub / Function / End Sub

• Dim x As String, If … Then … End If

• Event handlers by name: Sub btnStart_Click(), Sub Form_Load()

• Properties on controls: Caption, Left, Top, Width, Height, Visible, Enabled

• Timers: Interval, Enabled, Sub tmrGame_Timer()

What’s different (on purpose)

• Runs as a Godot 4.6 plugin (GDExtension) — 2D/3D, export, modern engine

• No COM, no ActiveX, no 32-bit Windows lock-in — Linux + Windows installers exist

• Built for reading code — especially AI-generated code — not clever one-liners

Example that should look like home:

Sub btnPlay_Click()
    If lblScore.Caption = "" Then
        lblScore.Caption = "0"
    End If
    tmrGame.Enabled = True
End Sub
Sub tmrGame_Timer()
    Dim score As Long
    score = CLng(lblScore.Caption) + 1
    lblScore.Caption = CStr(score)
End Sub

Why I care as a former VB6 person: the thing that killed us wasn’t the syntax — it was tooling and platform. This keeps the syntax that made forms and line-by-line debugging easy, and puts it on an engine people still use in 2026.

There’s also an in-editor AI pair (Narcea) that writes .vg in this style — but the pitch is the opposite of “trust the black box”: the language is verbose on purpose so you can audit what it wrote.

Status: public beta (5.4.x). Form designer is experimental; the active path is Godot’s editor + VG script tabs. Honest about rough edges — see known issues on GitHub.

Links

• GitHub (releases, demos, corpus): https://github.com/xgreenrx-star/VisualGasic

• Godot Asset Library: https://store.godotengine.org/asset/visual-gasic/visual-gasic/

• Beta showcase video (made in VG, ~6 min): https://youtu.be/FUw8zgbn_tU

If you still have .frm muscle memory or half-finished VB6 projects in a drawer — curious whether this feels like a natural step or a weird fork. What would you need to take it seriously: IDE parity, database stuff, report writer, something else?

Hi there as someone who grew up in the 90s with VB and the use of IDE I thought it was great to recreate this experience for the modern web. As I moved to Python over the years I created this rapid IDE development tool for Python to build applications in the modern webbrowser.

Love to recieve your feedback and suggestions!

What My Project Does

WebVB Studio is a free, browser-based IDE for building desktop-style apps visually. It combines a drag-and-drop form designer with code in VB6-like syntax or modern Python, letting you design interfaces and run your app instantly without installing anything.

• 🧠 What it is: A free, open-source, browser-based IDE for building apps with a visual form designer. You can drag and drop UI elements, write code, and run applications directly in your web browser. Over 35+ UI controls.

• Build business applications, dashboards, data science apps, or reporting software.

• 🧰 Languages supported: You can write code in classic Visual Basic 6-style syntax or in modern Python with pandas, mathlib, sql support.

• 🌍 No installation: It runs entirely in your browser no software to install locally.

• 🚀 Features: Visual form design, instant execution, exportable HTML apps, built-in AI assistant for coding help, and a growing community around accessible visual programming.

• 🌱 Community focus: The project aims to make programming accessible, fun, and visual again, appealing to both people who learned with VB6 and new learners using Python.

Target Audience

WebVB Studio is a versatile development environment designed for learners, hobbyists, and rapid prototypers seeking an intuitive, visual approach to programming. While accessible to beginners, it is far more than a learning tool; the platform is robust enough for free or commercial-scale projects.

Featuring a sophisticated visual designer, dual-language support (VB6-style syntax and Python), and a comprehensive control set, WebVB Studio provides the flexibility needed to turn a quick prototype into a market-ready product.

Comparison

Unlike heavyweight IDEs like Visual Studio or VS Code, WebVB Studio runs entirely in your browser and focuses on visual app building with instant feedback. Traditional tools are more suited for large production software, while WebVB Studio trades depth for ease and immediacy.

Examples:
https://www.webvbstudio.com/examples/

Data science dashboard:
https://app.webvbstudio.com/?example=datagrid-pandas

Practical usecase:
https://www.webvbstudio.com/victron/

Image:
https://www.webvbstudio.com/media/interface.png

Source:
https://github.com/magdevwi/webvbstudio

Feedback is very welcome!

I manage to install VB6 after many problems, but when I tried to install the Service Pack 6, I couldn't because my VB6 is in spanish while the only SP6 I found is the english one, I have a university assignment tomorrow and I'm not sure if I have the time to uninstall my program and install it again in English.

Could I still use VB6 without the service pack 6? Or I'm forced to uninstall it because the too many error the program could have without the SP6?

Hey everyone!

After the intense and passionate discussion on my last post, many veteran developers pointed out the single most important truth about Visual Basic:

"A Basic compiler without the visual Drag & Drop Form Designer isn't a complete product."

So, I got straight to work. Today, I'm releasing the first public alpha of VBX Studio (v0.1.0)!

🪟 What is VBX Studio?

It’s an ultra-lightweight, cross-platform visual RAD IDE designed specifically for the VBX language, inspired by the classic VB6 workflow.

⚡ Key Features:

1. Classic Visual Form Designer: Authentic dotted-grid canvas with 8px snapping, control placement (Button, TextBox, Label, CheckBox, Frame, Image, Timer), 8-handle resizing, and moving.

2. Live 2-Way Property Inspector: Real-time property binding (Caption, Width, Height, Left, Top). Modifying properties updates the canvas instantly, and moving controls updates the property grid.

3. Double-Click Event Wire-Up: Double-clicking any placed control automatically generates the boilerplate subroutine (e.g. Sub Button1_Click()) and switches straight into the code editor.

4. Legacy VB6 Project Importer (.frm, .vbp, .bas): You can now click File -> Import VB6 to open classic 1998–2005 Visual Basic projects! It automatically parses .frm forms, converts twips to pixels, maps controls to the canvas, and extracts source code into our modern .vbxp project format.

5. Insanely Lightweight & All-In-One (Only 3.5 MB!): No 50GB Visual Studio installation. No Electron bloat. The entire release package—including the desktop studio, frontend, and the bundled native C99 compiler executable—is packed into a ~3.5MB standalone zip file that starts in under a second!

📦 Pre-Built Binaries Available Now:

Pre-compiled standalone packages are ready for download across all major platforms and CPU architectures:

• Windows (x86_64 and ARM64)

• Linux (x86_64 and ARM64 / Raspberry Pi)

• macOS (Apple Silicon M-series and Intel)

Release & Downloads: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx-studio/releases/tag/v0.1.0 Studio Repository: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx-studio Compiler Engine: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx Any Problem? https://x.com/M5Devs

Special thanks to everyone in this subreddit whose tough feedback and questions pushed me to build this faster. Would love to hear your thoughts on the Form Designer!

Look — I've been ranting about the state of Visual Basic content online for the better part of a decade. Same forum threads, same Stack Overflow questions, same "VB is dead" takes from people who never used it. The actual history, the actual stories, the actual people who built BASIC — none of that was getting written down anywhere.

So I stopped complaining and started writing.

A History of Visual Basic — first chapter is live, marked Draft because I'm in the middle of scheduling interviews with people who were actually there to flesh it out further. The thirty-five-year arc from Dartmouth BASIC in 1964 through Microsoft's acquisition of Alan Cooper's Tripod, the QuickBASIC dynasty, the VB6 peak, and the long .NET-shaped shadow VB6 still casts. The people who don't get named in the existing histories. The decisions that shaped what VB became.

The original creators are already gone. The rest of the dynasty is ageing. The stories need to be collected before the window closes.

Why "Draft"? Because the chapter that's up now is the foundation, but I'm actively booking interviews to add first-hand accounts and the names that don't appear in the published histories. As those land, the chapter grows. You're reading it as it gets built — not after it's been sanitised.

https://evilgeniuslabs.ca/books/visual-basic-history

Free to read. Sign up on the site if you want a ping when new chapters and interview-driven sections drop — no spam, no paywall, no AI-generated filler.

If you've got VB war stories, corrections, or names that should be remembered — comments are open. And if you were there — particularly anyone with first-hand QuickBASIC, VB1–6, or Tripod-era stories — I'd genuinely like to talk to you. DMs and the site contact form both work.

EDIT: I will modify the code base today, it looks like the permission system requires you to be logged in to see draft books. I will make it anonymous. Thats my mistake.

Hi Guys,

Back in the 90s I used code a lot in VB5 and then VB6. It was great. Drag and drop elements on a form. Do some coding. Nothing fancy. I used to make small programs to do simple things. It was great fun building these desktop apps for Windows 9x.

Now I want to get back into this kind of development. Is there any similar solutions these days? Something very very similar and if it's for Mac and somehow can make the "app" into a web app as well, that would be great. Otherwise just desktops for Windows is also fine.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Figured this would be pretty cool to share here. I've been working on something called Frontier Actor, which is basically a re-implementation of the Visual Basic 3.0 and 4.0 Utopia Custom Control set (UCC.VBX) used in Microsoft Bob and other Microsoft Actor powered programs.

In this demo, I'm comparing the original controls in a Windows NT 3.51 VM running VB3 with my modern VB.NET version running in Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 11. The main goal of mine is to preserve the old drag-and-drop custom control workflow while making similar controls usable from modern VB.NET projects.

So far, I have reimplemented a large chunk of the more unique controls, including the Actor Control, Podium Control, Rgnwnd Control/word balloon, and others. Some controls, such as the Scale control, I did not directly re-implement since modern panel/container controls can already achieve similar functionality.

I have also extended the original Actor Control a bit by implementing a Speak method that automatically spawns a word balloon with text, along with convenient ShowActor and HideActor methods for calling the built-in show and hide animations.

I have been asked to post the location of VB6 Pro and Service Pack 6.

VB 5&6 Pro

https://archive.org/details/vb60-pro

Service Pack 6 all versions

https://archive.org/details/vs-6sp-6-b_202511

I am a beginner learning things related to data (analytics) many said vba is not what companies are looking for but in my opinion it gives a introduction for a coding learner using variable defining things like string,integer feels like python or any other language

I was going through a folder of some of my old code, and I saw this. Thought I'd share here. I grew up on QB and VB6, and although I don't use it much anymore (in favor of C), I feel nostalgic now and then and like to see what kind of weird things I can do with the language.

This is a full 8086 PC emulator written in VB6 code. It's not without a few bugs in the CPU (and other parts), but it essentially works. I might go back and fix them in the near future, but I'm sharing as-is for now.

Features/limitations:

-CPU: All 8086 opcodes, some bugs.

-Sound: PC speaker, really poorly implemented.

-Timing: Intel 8253 PIT implemented with "good-enough" degree of accuracy.

-Interrupts: Intel 8259 controller implemented.

-Video: CGA text and graphics modes, and 320x200 256-color MCGA mode.

-Disks: BIOS-level emulation of floppy and hard disks, uses raw image files.

It's actually fairly fast when compiled.

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/OYtT6y8

Download: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=62066454325546064620

Download includes source code, compiled binary, necessary ROM images and a sample hard disk image with nothing but a bare DOS install. You can open the image in WinImage or similar to add other software.

Before I wrote C# for a living, I learned to program by building AIM “progs” in VB6: clone loaders, chat bots, punters. Most of them drove the AIM client with FindWindow/SendMessage or talked OSCAR directly over Winsock.

I put the screenshots and some of the source up here: https://sevlegend.com/?page=programs

Curious if anyone else here came up through the AOL/AIM scene. What did you build?

I was surprised to see that VB.NET gets some updates in 2026!

Hey everyone!

Like many who grew up loving the simplicity and instant joy of Visual Basic 6 (dragging buttons, writing readable code, and getting an instant `.exe`), I felt that modern programming has become overwhelmingly complicated.

So, as a project I built late at night after school, I created **VBX (Visual Basic X)**.

### What is VBX?

It's not an interpreter or a Python toy. It’s a native compiler written in Go that transpiles clean, human-readable Basic syntax directly into standard C99, compiling with `-O2` optimizations via GCC/Clang.

### Key Features (v0.1.0-alpha):

- 🚀 **Zero runtime dependencies:** Outputs single, standalone native executables.

- 🪟 **Native Dialogs:** Built-in cross-platform `MsgBox` and `InputBox` using native OS APIs.

- 🧘 **Classic Syntax + Modern Inference:** `Dim`, `Sub`, `Function`, `While...Wend`, `Do...Loop`, `Select Case`, `Exit For/While/Do`, and 1D Arrays with automatic type inference.

- 🔤 **Built-in Essentials:** Native `&` string concatenation, string functions (`InStr`, `Trim`, `Replace`, `Mid`, `Len`), Math functions, and `File.Write`/`File.Read`.

- 🛡️ **Memory-Safe:** Uses an internal ring-buffer pool for intermediate string routines.

- 📜 **License:** GPL v3 with a Runtime Library Exception (your compiled software is 100% yours).

We also created editor support for VS Code (VSIX available), JetBrains, Sublime Text, Notepad++, Vim, Neovim, Emacs, and Micro.

Repository: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx

Editors Repo: https://github.com/M5Devs/vbx-editors

As Linus once said: *Just a hobby, won't be big and professional...* but I'd genuinely love to hear your feedback, thoughts, or what features you'd like to see next!