convert vb6 project to .net using VS2010 Express?

Question

I can't seem to convert my vb6 ActiveX dll project (.vbp) to .net using VS2010 Express.

Is there another way?

UPDATE

So now that Microsoft has stopped offering a VB6 migration tool (VS2010). Should I migrate to .NET 3.5 instead and use VS2008?

Get it to .Net and then migrate it up to 4.0 when ready...

Thoughts?

Solution 1

In answer to the updated question: I recommend reading Microsoft's advice page. It gives a good overview of your five basic options (migrate, extend, rewrite, replace, do nothing). You need to think about the pros and cons of each option and how important they are to you. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question.

Migrating to .Net using Visual Studio 2008 targets .Net 3.5 and gives you a dependency on Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility.dll (the VisualBasic.Compatibility namespace). That has been marked obsolete in .Net 4, so it may be dropped in a future version of .Net. That is an argument in favour of the commercial migration tools, or rewriting.

Solution 2

OK, I found via several links here on SO that VS2010 no longer comes with the converter. Apparently M$ is now advertising a 3rd party tool to do it.

Stack Overflow Link:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/395/how-do-you-migrate-a-large-app-from-visual-basic-6-0-to-vb-net/82200#82200

Microsoft Link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/ms788233

Solution 3

For VS2008 or Visual Studio 2008 Express a good choice will be to use the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion tool. This tool can be downloaded from the MSDN page: Visual Basic Upgrade Companion

This tool will help you migrate your VB6 code to Visual Studio 2010 to either VB.NET or C#. If you are interested in migrating to Silverlight or Azure see:

Migration from VB6 or Winforms to Silverlight or Convert from On Premises software to Cloud

and there is a lot of migration advise as well as code examples in http:\blogs.artinsoft.net\mrojas

Comments

[MarkJ]

Microsoft are publicising two third party tools, and have done for some years, even before they dropped their own conversion tool. Artinsoft Visual Basic Upgrade Companion and Code Architects' VB Migration Partner

[jmoreno]

I wouldn't necessarily call that an argument against using the Compatibilty library. 3.5 isn't going away anytime soon, and eliminating the dependency on Compatiblity can mostly be done as part of the post auto-migration touchup, without a lot of effort.

[Jimmie Clark]

Doing large migrations can be a bit hairy. I have done many conversions of software, some by hand, some by my own tools I wrote. I will tell you that this company greatmigrations.com has a great tool. It is fully customizable and can do very large projects in no time. Its all rule based migrations, unlike most other migration tools, takes you to 100% and above.