Windows 10: Old Stuff in New Stuff; VB5 must survive.

While using really old software; like Visual Basic Pro 5.0,may not fit in the millennial mindset or the Microsoft marketing strategy; as aretired old fashion engineer and sometime software guy, Windows 10 does offersome stability and neat features I like; but, I cannot afford to buy and learn something to replace VB5. During the upgrade from Win-7 to 10 it began working okay andwhile I rarely use the ‘help’ in the VB5 editor, now in Win-10 the Help willnot work. The same problem came up when I went from a Win-XP machine to a Win-7 PC, but it was fairly east to fix. Now no matter what I do the VB5 ‘help’ willnot work – it takes me to some dumb MS page with Win-10 fixes or suggestions. Yeah, maybe a temp job at Wal-Mart will earn me some extra cash for MS to spend, but I refuse to bend to the farleft methods to drive us old guys out of the programming world.

There must be a way to overcome the Microsoft migrating to Apple marketing strategy; that is to hook people into their software then bleed them completely dry of their green. There must be a fix so I can use the VB5 help files.

:)

 

Windows 10 Store closes immediately after opening.

After trying all the other stuff this one worked for me. The store stuff must get rebuilt when a new account is created.

 

My (free windows 10 )Windows folder has an old version of windows and is being updated. How to resolve this to one Windows folder

When ever there is an update the old stuff you had in Windows is moved into Windows.old and is replaced with the new stuff.

 

I tried the 'trick' to get .hlp files readable in Win10 and it failed. I think it's because the Win10 computers I tried it on are 64-bit while the WinXP application was only 32-bit, quite a common issue with old programs on new technology. WinXP Pro was also available as 64-bit but I've never worked with it, didn't catch on as there weren't many 64-bit programs back then. Regardless of how poor some folks thought about Vista it did start the 'changing of the guard' to 64-bit computing along with 32-bit. A solution would be to keep a WinXP computer not connected to the Internet, I have one with 3.5", 5.25" floppy drives and a ZIP drive for the occasions I need to transfer folks' old documents to something newer.

 

You may be right. I have an old eMachines T3104 desktop that I and setup and use just for Visual Basic, but it will be pain to find space for it *Smile VB5 works like it should in all aspects except for the help. Ordinarily help is only used when my old brain freezes up, so maybe I can get out an old fashioned VB book for help whenever I forget some simile task. Maybe someone with time on their hands and the knowhow will come up with a fix. Yeah, being cheap comes with age *Smile

Also, my daughter got a new laptop and gave her old one, with VISTA, to her mom, so I can use that. Just disable the Wi-Fi and get around all the bells and whistles I'm all set to go. Maybe put on an old Win-7 upgrade.

 

Thanks to whoever posted a fix for the helpfiles. I replaced the existing Win-10 WinHlp32.exe with the XP version and myVisual Basic Pro 5.0 help works!!!! Thanks loads (Solved Can't read older *.hlp files on Windows-10 - Windows 10 Forums).

 

This M$ changing stuff is getting really old. My PCs updated to a newer Windows 10 now I have to tweak it back to my desires, then fiddle around replacing the help files in C:\ Windows again -- what a pain! Just leave us alone!!!!!!!!

 

While I'm not familiar with VB5, it's a fairly safe bet that the help files are in the deprecated .hlp format. It's fairly easy to convert .hlp files to the current .chm format. I have done so for my old PaintShopPro 7, so you should be able to do so for your VB5 help files. See my post here...
Can't read older *.hlp files on Windows-10