Visual Studio 6.0 installation tips and procedures

This article addresses some of the common causes for unsuccessful Microsoft Visual Studio installation attempts and the recommended steps to avoid these issues.

Although this document refers to Visual Studio, it should be noted that it also applies to the individual applications that come with Visual Studio (that is, Visual Basic, Visual C++, and so forth) Most problems that occur within a Visual Studio setup can be avoided by disabling all applications and processes running in the background prior to starting the Visual Studio setup.

Some of the steps outlined in this article lead to your being prompted by Windows to restart your computer. When you are prompted, always allow Windows to restart so that your computer can be updated successfully.

Check the version number of Vmhelper.dll you have on your computer. To do this, go to Start button, Find, and select Files or Folders and search for the file. When you find it, right-click on it and then click Properties and then select Version. The last four digits of the version will tell you the build of the Java Virtual Machine (VM) you have on your system. If you don't have this file, you don't have the VM on your computer. You can download the latest build from: You will be instructed to install the VM later in this article. If you are not familiar with the VM, you can read the Microsoft Virtual Machine Overview here: It is also recommend that you have the latest Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) on your computer. You can download the latest MDAC from: Visual Studio 6.0 requires that you have Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 4.01 with Service Pack 1 or above, installed on your computer in order to have access to the MSDN Library Help files. IE version 4.72 is on the Visual Studio installation CD 1 in a folder called IE4. To install IE from this location, go to the Start menu, select Run, then type in D:\IE4\ie4setup.exe in the text box (where "D" = the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive) and click OK. If you have IE 5 installed on your computer, you of course meet this criterion already.

Check the file size of the file Comcat.dll that can be found in your Windows\System directory for Windows 95/98 users or WinNT\System32 directory for Windows NT4 users. If the file size is not 22K, replace it with one of the Comcat.dll files from your Visual Studio installation CD 1. This does not apply to Windows 2000 users. To replace Comcat.dll follow these steps:

1. Go to the Start button, select Run, and type regsvr32 /u comcat.dll You should get a confirmation message that the file was successfully unregistered.
2. Open Windows Explorer, go to your Windows\System or WinNT\System32 directory and rename Comcat.dll to Comcat.old.
3. In Windows Explorer, go to D:\COMMON\IDE\IDE98\REDIST (where "D" = the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive) and copy Comcat.dll to your clipboard.
4. Go back to your Windows\System or WinNT\System32 directory and paste in Comcat.dll.
5. Go to the Start button, select Run, and type regsvr32 comcat.dll You should get a confirmation message that the file was successfully registered.

Microsoft has had some cases where multiple installation attempts were not successful while anti-virus products were installed. After a successful installation of Visual Studio components and re-install of the anti-virus application, the products co-existed without complications. You'll have to make that call on your own computer, but definitely close all anti-virus related applications prior to proceeding.

Delete all files in your Temp directory (typically, "C:\Windows\Temp"). You can do this from within Windows Explorer. If you have specified a different Temp directory, you will need to delete the files from this directory as well.

NOTE: To verify the location of your Temp directory go to the Start button, select Programs, and at the Command Prompt type in the word set and click Enter. This displays your system's environment settings. Note the path to the folder for [TEMP=] and [TMP=]. Type exit at the Command Prompt or close the Command Prompt window and return to Windows Explorer. Delete the files from the directories specified as TEMP and TMP. For Windows 2000 users, go to the Start button, select Programs and then select Accessories. At the command prompt and perform the same steps as described earlier.

Empty your recycle bin prior to starting an installation.

Windows 95/98 Users:

Some CD-ROM's have difficulty reading some CD's. If this seems to be an issue on your computer, you can try this change: Disable Direct Memory Access (DMA) on your CD-ROM drive by taking the following steps:

1. From the Start button select Settings.
2. Select the Control Panel and click on the System icon.
3. Click on the Device Manager tab and find the CD-ROM.
4. Click on the "+" sign next to the "CD-ROM" and it should expand the key to show what model CD-ROM you have on your system.
5. Select the CD-ROM model and click Properties, and then Settings.
6. Look for a box labeled [DMA]. This box should not be selected. If box is selected, remove it, and click OK.
7. From the System Properties elect the Performance tab, File System, and then CD-ROM.
8. Set the Supplemental Cache Size to one notch above the lowest setting (far left) and set the Access Pattern to [No Read Ahead] then click Apply and OK.
9. Close System Properties, and then Control Panel. Windows will prompt you to restart after you close Control Panel.

Windows 95 Users:

It will be necessary to employ patience in performing these steps, as the computer restarts if you press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] more than one time per sequence. This forces you to repeat this same procedure from the beginning after the system restarts.

1. Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] keys to bring up the "Close Program" box.
2. Select (one at a time) each application listed in the box except for explorer and systray, and click End Task. After you click End Task the Close Program box disappears. It is then necessary to repeat the [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] procedure again to bring it back. It is sometimes necessary to perform an End Task more than once on certain applications. If a box appears that prompts you to Wait or End Task, choose End Task. Repeat the procedure until only explorer and systray remain in the window. The reason you are doing this is to unload all other processes from memory. Any running applications, especially anti-virus software, can cause problems with setup.

Windows 98 Users:

1. From the Start menu select Run and then type msconfig and click Enter.
2. From the System Configuration Utility select the General tab and choose Selective Startup. Make sure that all six options are not selected.
3. Click OK. You will be asked to prompted to restart your computer. Click OK.
4. Your computer restarts. When you return to Windows, the screen may look different than it did before because your computer will be in VGA mode. At the end of these instructions you will go to msconfig again and select Normal Startup.

Windows NT4 Users:

1. Restart your computer into VGA mode.
2. Log on to the local computer as Administrator (not a user name with administrator privileges).
3. Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del], click on Task Manager and End Task on all Applications and all Processes except explorer and taskmgr.
   
   This is particularly important in regards to anti-virus software and/or utilities packages (such as Norton Utilities) that run any system monitoring applications. When the processes give you a warning, click Yes. If you receive a message that states that you are not authorized to shut down that process, just go on to the next one.
4. From the Start button select Settings, Control Panel, Services and select any Server or other Service that could interfere with the installation and click Stop for each of services.

Windows 2000 Users:

1. Restart your computer, press F8 at the text screen and choose Safe Mode.
2. Bring up the Task Manager by pressing [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del].
3. Click the Processes tab and End Process on everything except explorer and taskmgr.
   
   This is particularly important in regards to anti-virus software and/or utilities packages (such as Norton Utilities) that run any system monitoring applications. When the processes give you a warning, click Yes. If you receive a message that states that you are not authorized to shut down that process, just go on to the next one.
   
4. From the Start button select Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and then Services. Select any Server or other Service that could interfere with the installation and then click Action and/or Stop (or click the Stop Service button) for each of the services.

All Users:

At this point, you should have all applications closed and be at the Windows Desktop. If there are any other applications open, please close them now.

You can now update the Java Virtual Machine, which was mentioned previously in this article, if you want.

Next, you may proceed with the installation of Visual Studio applications. Insert the Visual Studio CD into your CD-ROM drive. If Autorun is enabled on your system, the Setup program will start automatically. If not, from the Start button select Run then type in D:\setup.exe in the text box (where "D"=the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive) and click OK. If you have had previous failed installation attempts and you are trying to install more than one Visual Studio application, try to install one application at a time. For instance after a successful Visual Basic installation, you could try a Visual InterDev installation, and so forth.

Once you have completed the Visual Studio application installations, your computer restarts and you will return to the Setup process where you can install MSDN, Install Shield and/or any server components that are needed. Please refer to Install.htm or the appropriate Readme files located on your Visual Studio installation CD1 for more information about installing each application. For more detailed Visual InterDev installation tips, you can view:

Install the Visual Studio Service Pack 3 after successfully completing the Visual Studio installations. If you do not have the Visual Studio Service Pack 3, you can download it from:
If you have Windows 98:

1. After a successful completion of the previous steps, from the Start button select Run and then type msconfig and click Enter.
2. Under the System Configuration Utility, General tab choose Normal Startup and click OK.
3. A window displays asking you if you want to restart your computer. Click OK.