Can Visual Studio 6 and 2010 coexist on same machine?

Question

I need to have Visual Studio 6 installed on a machine that already has Visual Studio 2010 Professional installed.

Can this be done without overwriting libraries, registry settings, etc., or should I go the longer route and set up a VM with Visual Studio 6 installed there?

Can Visual Studio 2010 co-exist with Visual Studio 6?

Answer 1

Here's a question asked by someone using a similar setup, explaining a known issue and a workaround. i.e. it doesn't seem to be without its dificulties, but is not an impossibility.

Answer 2

There's no problem installing different versions of Visual Studio side by side.

Answer 3

I know from experience that you can do the reverse - install VS6.0 and then 2003, 2008, and 2010, and have them all function. In this case, if 2010 is already installed, the likely worst case scenario is having to reinstall 2010. More than likely though, it will work out of the box. Unless you already have a VM set up, it will almost certainly be easier just to install VS 6.0.

Of course, if this is a matter of making a change to a specific legacy app, then you may want to set up the VM anyway for the ease of handing the project off to the next developer who has to work on that app.