Running Visual C++ 6.0 under Windows XP - Updates and Requirements?

Question

Okay, so I have a legacy Codebase and an old Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Installation CD. I want to install that on my Windows XP SP3 System.

Is there anything I would need to avoid or to download besides SP6?

Are executables created with VC6 compatible on Vista and Windows 7? (I know that there is no 64-Bit compiler, and that's fine)

(I know that vc6 is old, unsupported and somewhat crappy, but my C++ skills are barely good enough to compile, make 2 or 3 small changes and re-compile, but not good enough to make sure it compiles in VS2008)

Answer 1

AFAIK it should run fine provided you install VC++ runtime. I think you should install VC6 runtime to be sure, not the recent versions.

Answer 2

It's fine. Install SP6 and that should be it. You might need other dependencies; the platform SDK, if you need it, will require hunting for an older version than what's currently available.

Answer 3

For latecomers who don't know where to get this "SP6" we're talking about, it's at:

• "Visual Studio 6.0 service packs, what, where, why"
• "Product Updates for Visual C++ 6.0"
• "Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0 with Visual Source Safe 6.0d"