Visual Basic 6 Microsoft ended mainstream support in 2008. Extended support ended in 2015. If your business is still running a VB6 application — and many are — you are one Windows update away from a crisis.

The VB6 problem

VB6 was enormously popular. From the mid-1990s through to the early 2000s, it was the fastest way to build Windows desktop applications. Developers built thousands of business-critical systems — order management, job tracking, invoicing, customer databases, custom reporting.

The developers who built these applications are now retired, or they moved on years ago. The source code may not have been handed over. Even if it was, the tooling to compile VB6 is no longer part of mainstream Windows — and the developers who know how to work with it are increasingly hard to find.

The application works — for now. But:

• It breaks on newer versions of Windows
• 32-bit support is narrowing
• Nobody can add features or fix bugs
• Nobody knows what it actually does or why

What I do

I analyse your VB6 application and produce documentation that makes the system understandable — and makes modernization achievable.

• Document the application's architecture — screens, modules, data flows
• Extract business rules, calculations, and validation logic in plain language
• Map the database schema and identify dependencies
• Identify which parts of the application are actually used versus dead code
• Produce a modernization options report — rewrite, re-platform, or wrap
• Deliver a risk-ranked migration plan with realistic effort estimates

Common situations I work with

The retired developer scenario. The developer who built the system retired or left years ago. The application runs, but nobody in the business can explain what it does. A Windows upgrade broke something and there’s nobody to call.

The undocumented feature scenario. The application has accumulated years of workarounds, edge case handling, and business-specific logic that exists nowhere except in the code. Before you can replace it, you need to know what “it” actually does.

The migration roadblock. Management wants to modernize. The decision has been made. But the migration project stalled because nobody could document the requirements — because the requirements are all inside the application.

What I need

• Access to the running application (preferred) or the executable files
• Any source code that’s available — even partial
• Any documentation that exists, even if incomplete
• A conversation with someone who uses the system daily

I can work with executables alone if source code is unavailable.

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