Auto FE Updater

Long term future of the Auto FE Updater utility and Visual Basic 6

This utility is written in Visual Basic 6 which was released in 1998.   As I started working on this utility in 2000 this decision made a lot of sense then.  So in one sense it is getting quite long in the tooth.  However it still works and works well in VB6.  There are two major concerns in dealing with the future of Visual Basic 6.

Visual Basic 6 runtime

The Visual Basic 6 runtime is included with Windows 7.  However Microsoft has not yet announced any plans to include it in the next version of Windows.   Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7  

However if you include the runtime in the same folder that your VB 6.0 exe is located in then it works just fine.  The VB 6.0 runtime can be downloaded here but not all of it needs to be redistributed with your app.   The required file is a 1.4 Mb file so that's easy to download and use  by putting it on the server in the same folder as the Auto FE Updater program.

64 bit operating systems

The Auto FE Updater works fine in 64 bit operating systems and should continue to do so for many years to come in the Windows on Windows 32 bit environment.  Of course the key word there is should.  I will continue to be testing on the betas of new operating systems as they become available.

Alternative compilers

Alternative compilers for Visual Basic which have been mentioned by VB 6 experts and others are PowerBasic, PureBasic, KBasic and FreeBasic (FBedit code editor)  Both Powerbasic and PureBasic have 32 bit and 64 bit versions.  I haven't yet done any research on how easy it is to port a VB 6 app to either one but will do so sometime in the future. 

Interestingly enough some of those have Mac and Linux editions.  So if I could figure out a requirement for the Auto FE Updater on those systems .... 

Delphi. is another option but it's is a lot less likely for me to use as it would mean a total rewrite of the utility.   At about 8K or 10K lines of code that is not a task I'm looking forward to.

VB.Net or C#

The problem with VB.Net, C# or any other current Microsoft solution is that they require the MS Framework, massive (by comparison) runtimes and so on.    I was told by experience C# folks, including fellow MVPs, that you pretty much have to ship your VB.Net or C# solution complete with an install set of files.  As this would require IT staff to install this becomes exceedingly undesirable.