I cant Install VB6 on my compuer.. why?

Hello,

Mysteriously I keep on having problems installing VB6 on my computer.

My upstairs computer is now running Win XP professional.
When I click on the setup file the following message appears
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose "˜Close" to terminate the application.

The header of the message is "16 bit Windows Subsystemâ€

When I click "ignore" button there is the following error

Could not find Acme setup. With the heading "Installation Wizard for VB" and then the installation shuts down.

This message did not appear to me when I installed the program on my lover computer… what is the matter… the only noticeable difference between the 2 computers is the one upstairs (the one that would not let me install the program) is in NTFS and the other one is in FAT32

Could somebody point me into the right direction?

Thank you very much

 

I would be very willing to bet that that is the problem. ( NTFS that is )

If it is then a will forget going to NTFS. I may have way too much DOS & 16 bit stuff.

BillyBob

 

Don't bet much old friend because you'd lose.

 

Thanks Newt

In this case losing may actually be Winning. ( learning )

BillyBob

 

There is some nice information Here on running 16bit apps on XP. You may have to read it over a time or five (I did) but it's only a half page so not too bad.

Basically, when you launch a 16bit app (DOS and some older windows stuff), XP will create a section of memory that exactly mimics an older PC, wall it off from the rest of your system to prevent problems, and start the app within that memory space. The app thinks it is running on a small but normal PC.

Your XP file system has no direct interaction with the app at that point so FAT32 or NTFS doesn't matter since the NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS machine) created in that memory space uses FAT16.

The one pager in the above link gives some precautions and lists some conditions that can cause the DOS app to fail or to run strangely.

The original problem in this thread is caused by a glitch that Microsoft can tell you how to fix (get new & uncorrupted copies of autoexec.nt and config.nt) but no mention of what caused the problem. It was happening lots more often than it should and hopefully they have found the cause and will hotfix a patch at some point.

Note that your NTVDM uses autoexec.nt and config.nt to run the 16bit apps although they are fooled into thinking they are using autoexec.bat and config.sys.

 

Newt,
Suspect John Roberts might rule that BillyBob wins his bet.

An aside: Just built an athlon64 for a colleague who found that. although the old programs ran somewhat in XP, they appeared very different, e.g., a full screen window on the old computer was about 1/3 full on the new, using the same old LCD monitor via a new KVM switch. And he cried because the printer wouldn't work satisfactorily with the old programs and he couldn't print with the old computer because we didn't buy a switch for the printer. He's happy now because I showed him how to print to a file and move it to his new box on a floppy and print it in DOS in XP like we did in the old days: copy name.prn prn.

Who says DOS is dead?

 

Well, command line stuff for sure is alive and well. Still things that are easier to do from there than from a GUI.

As to the other, I'm betting that some specifics that the DOS apps usually put into config.sys or autoexec.bat would cure the problem if put into his config.nt or autoexec.nt files.

I've only found major problems with some DOS games where a clever programmer made hardware calls to allow the game to do things that DOS never heard of. NT systems won't allow that and there are some tricks the HAL either doesn't understand or won't allow so those games work poorly or not at all. Rarely, a non-game application will run into the same issues.

But really no difference I've ever found if the main OS is running NTFS or FAT32.

 

Agreed. Should have mentioned that the new computer runs XP from FAT32 and the problem seems to be how XP handles the 16 bit programs; didn't think it was the file system. I will still use FAT for 'personal' computers until MS makes ntfs visible in something equivalent to DOS for ordinary people like us.

Will look further into putting a driver into the *.nt files. The printer has all its drivers installed in 32 bit XP and would have thought that should work; it does in the DOS window.

 

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsDos.html
or
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsDosProfessional.html

It isn't DOS. The cmd.exe window in XP is a 32bit (or 64bit on a 64bit system) app that looks like the old DOS windows did.

 

If I remember correctly, this generally means that your Autoexec.nt is corrupted.
Try replacing it with the copy in C:\WINDOWS\repair

 

Yup. That is pretty much the advice he should have gotten from the Microsoft KB article linked in post #2. It is the suggested fix for about 95% of the occurances of this particular error.

 

Newt

Thanks for the references, but I've seen them before.

But, REALLY!!
Administrator's Pak User License - $ 1199.00 usd
Annual Product Assurance contract - $ 240.00 usd*

You gotta be kidding. I said ordinary people!

Don't care about win98; much easier and more sensible to just use FAT32 to dual boot, as you know MS recommends.

Some folks seem to think that XP runs in NTFS, but WE know that's just a file storage system.

As we agreed, there's no practical difference between the file storage systems so far as the OS is concerned, since it runs the same with either file storage system (and even tho MS has provided ntfs with a few goodies useful to corporate users), and as indicated by the fact that when you install the XP 0S (including the 64 bit XP) the installation program gives you the choice of either file system. They know we know.

Forgot: 32 bit DOS! Point taken. But the name! If it looks like a duck, talks like a duck......

 

oshwyn5

If and when that computer becomes available for examination, will look at that prospect. However doubt that corruption immediately after new installation is likely, even tho it's possible. And 'workaround' is the name of the game, so if it's not broke, why fix it?

 

Newt

Is the command.com window in XP not DOS? Sure looks like it and acts like it and is 16 bit.

 

Thanks PeteC, at least there are these two windows that indicate MS by its actions agrees that DOS isn't dead, although many folks believe that it has said that and believe that poor DOS is a corpse.