Developing for Windows 98 and up? \ VOGONS

Developing for Windows 98 and up?

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by pmc_

Posted on 2024-01-11, 20:10

pmc_ Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2024-01-11, 20:04
Location: Texas

Hi y'all!

I'm looking to tinker around with developing some software that works on Windows 98, all the way to Windows 11. From what I can tell, my best bet would be using either the plain Win32 API or MFC. What are the best resources out there for learning Win32 and/or MFC? The only desktop development I've done in the past is WinForms.

Books, websites, etc. are all fair game. Hell, if there's a good currently-in-print book I might order it.

Reply 1 of 4, by Jo22

Posted on 2024-01-12, 00:44

Jo22 Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9636
Joined: 2009-12-13, 07:06
Location: Europe

Hi. I'm not sure if it's helpful, but the msvbvm60.dll is part of every Windows since Windows 98.. 😁

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 2 of 4, by pmc_

Posted on 2024-01-12, 01:46

pmc_ Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2024-01-11, 20:04
Location: Texas

True, VB6 would work! I might give that a shot

Reply 3 of 4, by gerry

Posted on 2024-01-12, 13:29

gerry Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1481
Joined: 2020-08-12, 04:06

Microsoft have resources - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win … ram-for-windows

not win98 focused of course but in books "programming windows" 5th edition by Petzold is considered good by many and its from 1998

one thing 64 bit windows is good at is coping with old windows 32 bit software - provided the programming adhered to the win32 api

sure some old software has trouble due to complexity, third party libraries and some unofficial win32 methods but if you develop anew with VB6 or visual studio 6 or other tools of the late 90's that target win32 (delphi, borland builder etc) you like be able to run the resultant exe straight in windows 10/11

Reply 4 of 4, by doshea

Posted on 2024-01-13, 07:08

doshea Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 425
Joined: 2009-05-22, 09:37
Location: Australia

My recollection is that Windows 8.1 broke the ability to run Visual C++ 6, which would be annoying if you wanted to do some build/debug cycles on a newer OS. Perhaps that got fixed or someone found a workaround.

I've heard good things about Borland C++ Builder. I haven't used it much myself but it seems to be more truly "visual" than Visual C++, it's just like a C++ version of Delphi, which is itself a better, Pascal-based version of Visual Basic. I wish they'd released a 16-bit version of Borland C++ Builder!

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Software

Main menu

Common searches