Foxpro 6 App wont run on 64 bits systems 1

[k2a]

Hi everyone,

A very good friend of mine approached for help with his recent Foxpro application problem. His application was completed with Foxpro 6 around 2004/2005 and has been running on various windows platforms since then with no problems. The previous system the app ran smoothly with was Windows 10, obviously installed as a 32 bits system.

His problem started after the Windows 11 64 bits installation in early 2023. At first everything seemed OK as before, but soon deteriorated and now can no longer work with it.

On my Windows 10/64 bits I was able to install the app, but it showed that when opening the menu some functions were grayed out.

Does anyone know of any problems with Foxpro 6 apps used on 64 bit systems?

If this is the case, what can be done to continue using the app on 64 bits system?

Any useful advice would be appreciated.

Best regards
Klaus

 

[Tore Bleken]

I haven't heard of any problems, so I suspect that the problem is something else.

Anyway, VFP9 works without any problems on a 64-bit Windows machine. An upgrade from VFP6 to VFP9 is a relatively easy job. Feel free to contact me if you want me to do it for you.

 

[k2a]

Hi Tore,
Thanks for your quick response and offer of help.
Frist of all I'll try the app on a Windows 10 32-bits system. My friend uses the app for his business and needs a quick solution.

On my 64-bit Windows system there is already VFP9 installed. But adapting it for 64-bit Windows systems will certainly takes some time on my end. Since I have not used Foxpro for a very long time, so my knowledge tends to zero at the moment.

When opening the app on my system, fox.bmp and then a libs file could not be found.

If you would give me a hint here would be great.

 

[Tore Bleken]

Files could not be found" sounds like either missing files (obviously), or that they are in a different folder. Also check that the paths to these files are not hard coded.

 

[Chris Miller]

I second Tore.

And, well, k2, you're a bit fast in generalizing the experience with your own EXE as a general problem of VFP6 not working in modern Windows versions.
That you get an error from running your EXE already shows it runs. If it would not be able to run at all you wouldn't even get as far as getting an error, even.

As Tore points out this only means finding out what's missing, hardcoded or having dependencies you didn't think about. So, in short, you just need to debug your problems, you already have proven that the EXE doesn't fail on starting or missing runtimes.

Let me give you one hint about what code could fail even if you have a setup that registers the VFP6 runtimes you need to run your EXE.

Compile a project with the main.prg doing nothing else but MESSAGEBOX(Home()) and see what path is shown on the target system. I'm not sure there is a path returned as HOME() is bound to a VFP installations directory and an installer putting up VFP6 runtimes does only do that and does not install VFP6, so there is no HOME() path. I don't even know if you use HOME() in your code, but it's just one of several things that come to mind.

I guess you'll tell me that your EXE runs on systems without VFP6 installation, too, so such a dependency doesn't exist, but a dependency on fox.bmp points in such a direction. As Tore also says, it might not be HOME() but any hardcoded path that you cared for to exist on old clients and forgot to have as a dependency of our EXE to work.

To address the problem of fox.bmp not beig found, well, go back into your source code project and find places you use fox.bmp at all. I guess you'll find where the code expects it to be and then know where to add it in new clients.

Chriss

 

[Mike Lewis]

I agree with Tore and Chris, and would add that the fact that some menu items are greyed out has got nothing to do with the Windows version or the fact that it is running under 64 bits. If that was not the case, you wouldn't have got as far as even seeing the menus.

I can't tell you why the program isn't behaving the way you expect. I can only advise you not to get distracted by the fact that your friend have moved it to Windows 11 64-bit. Just approach the problem as you would any other bug.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[k2a]

Hi Tore, Chris and Mike,
thanks for your quick response and your contributions to solving the problem.

However, the matter is very urgent, because their business depends on it. In the meantime I came to the conclusion that I cannot do it anymore, because my knowledge of foxpro is no longer sufficient.
The fact is that I developed the application more than 20 years ago and it has run flawlessly since the last change was made in 2006.

In this case the best thing would be to find a freelancer here in the forum who would be willing to analyze bugs and hopefully fix it. So I will create a new thread about a freelancer and tell what I can provide.

Maybe you can give me some advice on this idea.

Best regards
Klaus 

 

[Mike Lewis]

In this case the best thing would be to find a freelancer here in the forum who would be willing to analyze bugs and hopefully fix it. So I will create a new thread about a freelancer and tell what I can provide.

Klaus, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but what you suggested is almost certain to contravene forum policy. Any such thread is likely to be deleted by the forum management.

I wish I could suggest something to help you. I can only suggest that you find some alternative avenues for recruiting a freelance programmer.

Good luck in your search.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Chris Miller]

Klaus,

the expected bugfix is to put fox.bmp and whatever other files the EXE fails to find into the installation folder, where they will be picked up. I don't think there's much to do and you can do that yourself, too. We'll see, what Tore needs to do, I think he'll just reocmpile it with VFP9, but that alone won't change the problem of a file not found.



Chriss

 

[capri1966]

Hi, I have some applications with VFP 6 running under Windows 64 and it's works very fine.

 

[JackTheC]

I can think of only one related discrepancy between 32 and 64 bit. And that is if you install some things manually: System32 folder on 32 bit is now Syswow64 folder on 64 bit Windows. If they put stuff in the system32 folder it probably can't be found.
As Capri already said VFP6 works just fine on 64 bit. Windows 7,8,10 or 11.

Edit: There may also be differences in the registry or cscript or wscript behaviour if they are called from within VFP.
And IE11 functions don't work anymore since a couple of months, but that has nothing to do with 32/64 bits. IE is deprecated.
And IE API's like UrlDownloadToFile may not work anymore on some servers.

 

[k2a]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your note, as I have allready posted a new thread "Freelancer wanted" with my mail address.

How can I find out if that has been blocked by the forum management.

What alternative ways would you recommend or suggest me? The matter is quite urgent.

Regards
Klaus

 

[Mike Lewis]

Klaus,

I'm sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but not only is recruitment forbidden by the forum policy, but so is posting email addresses. (And, in my opinion, that's for a good reason.)

You ask how you will find out that your message has been blocked by the forum management. The thread will simply disappear.

There is nothing stopping you from contacting possible freelancers directly, assuming you can find their contact details.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Tore Bleken]

I consider far more changes than just a recompile. There are several important changes to consider, for instance you have the far more strict syntax checking in VFP9, which most likely will require some code changes. And I would make sure that all the SQL Select statements runs perfectly with both Set Enginebehavior 90, and all the reports look nice with Set Reportbehavior 90. Then I would check that CPDBF() and CPCurrent() match for each and every table. All in all I have a long list to go through.

 

[StefanFoerner]

Hi Klaus,

I have here on my PC a very heavy / large VFP-App developed with Visual FoxPro 6

this App runs on all Windows Versions from Windows 95 (!!!) to Windows 10 and Windows 11, 32 Bit and 64 Bit without any problems


- but:

You must not install Your App in the Program-Folder or the Program (X86)-Folder !!!

in this folders Your App has no Write-Access !!!

the best way is to install Your App in an own separate folder like: C:\Myapp


if Your App runs fine on Windows 10 32 Bit, it also should run fine on Windows 10 64 Bit

in my opinion Your problem isn't caused by Your App, rather than the environment of Your App

Regards, Stefan

 

[Dan Olsson]

You must not install Your App in the Program-Folder or the Program (X86)-Folder !!!
in this folders Your App has no Write-Access !!!
the best way is to install Your App in an own separate folder like: C:\Myapp

Couldn't agree more, with the addition that it's even better if you can install it in another drive than C:

 

[k2a]

After installing the application on a Windows 10 32-bits system, the program works as before without any problems.

 

[Chris Miller]

I can imagine a reason, but that would be about the setup, not the software itself. As others pointed out there is no reasona VFP app won't run on a 64bit windows, because there always is a 32bit subsystem.

And there is the reaoson a setup can fail. If you do a setup capable to install into the system directories of the 64bit system, then those files are not found by the 32bit VFP application when it runs. A 64bit setup executable could write into the system32 folder which VFP won't access when it runs.

But alas, glad for you the problem is solved that way.

Chriss

 

[Chris Miller]

I doubt it's necessary, Cole,

first by the problem being solved usually meaning there will be no more effort to upgrade further. Secondly, because I know there is no issue with any VFP6+ version about Windows Vista or higher, the only issue only solved in VFP9 is with Aero style Winforms, and the solution to that is that Vista is outdated and users are mostly on Windows 10 and 11, even users still on Win7 or 8 would not use Aero style, this was only a brief phase in Vista. There are no issues with VFP itself in these Windows versions.

The only error k2a reported was a file not found error, well, you fix it by adding the file, that's no 32bit/64bit issue at all. And menu items greyed ot, that's purely decidedd byy SKIP .t. or .f., so it's code internal, has nothing to do with Windows. There is also no big learning curve in how to add a file to a setup or add it manually for this one installation.

And there is no Windows that's only 64-bit by now. There is even no hardware, i.e. no CPU only working in 64bit mode.

Chriss

 

[Mike Lewis]

Chris, Cole's post has been flagged as spam (as has another of his posts in the Access forum). I trust nobody here will click on the link that he posted.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads