You lost the source code of a VB6 application. Here is what can be recovered.
Dead disk, developer gone, backup of a version too old: only the compiled program is left. A VB6 decompiler gets much more out of it than people expect, and less than everything. This page says which, before you install anything.
What you need
The compiled file: an .exe, .dll, .ocx or .scr produced by Visual Basic 5 or 6. Nothing else. You do not need to know whether it was compiled to P-Code or native code: VBReFormer detects it and handles both. A binary protected by a packer must be unpacked first.
What comes back
- Forms and controls, with all their properties, pictures included: in full, in every case.
- Resources, strings, references to libraries and third-party controls, the project structure: a .vbp that reopens in the IDE.
- The code of the procedures: conditions, loops, calls, assignments, control access, rebuilt as readable Visual Basic, P-Code and native alike. The coverage page measures what that amounts to, program by program.
What never comes back, with us or with anyone: local variable names and comments, which the compiler did not keep. The recovered code reads and recompiles; it does not match the original word for word.
How to proceed, free first
- 1Open the binary in the free edition, or drop it in the online studio with nothing to install. You see the project structure, the complete forms and a preview of the decompiled code.
- 2Judge on evidence: the preview shows what the engine rebuilds from your binary, not from a sample. If what you see is worth the licence, take it; if not, you have spent nothing.
- 3With the licence, export the full project and reopen it in Visual Basic 6. Versions 7.0.5 and 7.0.6 worked precisely on what the IDE agrees to reload: declarations, event types, arrays, references.
The detailed article: telling P-Code from native, and where to start
Would you rather we did it for you?
We recover the project from your binary, reopen it in the IDE and deliver it ready to maintain, with a report of what was found. Free evaluation of the binary before any quote.
Ask for a free evaluation