Enable or Disable Desktop Composition in Windows 10

Question

_{Tuesday, May 3, 2016 8:50 AM}

Hello,

I'm using SmartMenuXP OCX in my VB 6.0 project. The VB 6 application (EXE) is running perfectly on Windows 7 after checked the "Enable Desktop Composition" option.

But this application is hanging on Windows 10.

Can anyone guide how to enable or disable Desktop Composition to running my application smoothly?

Thanks

All replies (8)

_{Thursday, May 5, 2016 7:27 AM ✅Answered}

Hi AjitKhodke,

Since it's a VB 6.0 project.  It was developed in old version of VS on windows 7. I think it's a very old project. It is not compatible with Windows 10.

I suggest you'd better use high version of Visual Studio like VS2013 or VS2015 to re-create this project then you can run this new project on windows 10 successfully.

Best Regards,

Lake Xiao

_{Thursday, May 5, 2016 11:08 AM ✅Answered}

Since VB6 is long obsolete now, I think it's no huge surprise to find that such apps can be incompatible with win 10.

I suppose you could run the app in a virtual machine.

Short of that though, it seems you probably have to re-write.

VB6 is different but similar enough to vb.net to be somewhat confusing for the developer new to it.

I suggest you consider c# rather than vb if you do this.

Since the languages are rather different you are less likely to get confused between the two.

There are also much more c# resources available as most devs work in c# now.

Using c# will save you time on every problem you encounter and search for a solution. Every time you want to learn something, you will find much more of the samples available are in c# than vb.

Good luck!

Hope that helps.

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_{Wednesday, May 4, 2016 2:33 AM}

Hi AjitKhodke,

Thanks for your post.

>>Can anyone guide how to enable or disable Desktop Composition to running my application smoothly?

As far as I know, There is no option to disable or enable Desktop Composition in Windows 10. It is default to set as the enabled. And it seems there is no option to disable this in Windows 10.

But you could try to run this .exe in Windows 7 Compatiblity module. Right click .exe icon on the desktop. Rigth click the property,select the compatibility tab. Change

Best Regards,

Lake Xiao

_{Wednesday, May 4, 2016 2:37 AM | 1 vote}

The ability to turn off "Enable Desktop Composition" was removed as of Windows 8.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848042.aspx

_{Thursday, May 5, 2016 6:44 AM}

Thanks for your reply Lake.

I have already tried the solution which is given by you. But it doesn't work.

Is there any other way to resolve it?

_{Thursday, May 5, 2016 6:54 AM}

Thanks for you reply Chuck.

Yes. I know that "Enable Desktop Composition" was removed from Windows 8. I have tried the many kinds of stuff on that on the google. But I'm unable to go near the proper solution.

Hope I will get a exact answer here.

_{Friday, May 6, 2016 11:01 AM}

Yes Lake. It's a very old project. I developed this project almost 5-6 years ago.

I need to develop this VB project from scratch. I think also, I should switch.

Thanks for guide.

_{Friday, May 6, 2016 11:05 AM}

Thanks Andy for the better suggestion. I have enough theoretical knowledge about VS 2005. But don't have any practical experience. I would like to prefer VB instead of C#.