How to install VS6, SP5, and Proc Pack on Windows 7?

Question

Need to get Visual Studio 6 Processor Pack installed on Windows 7 (32 bit).

First i installed VS6 + SP6, which prevents the PP from installing. I uninstalled VS6 and re-installed VS6 and am trying to install SP5.

It is now complaining that MDAC 2.5 or 2.6 needs to be installed first. I've tried 2.5, 2.6, and 2.8. All run through the little extract progress dialog and appear to finish. But SP5 still fails with this:

Any ideas on getting VS6 + SP5 + PP installed correctly?

EDIT: Alternatively, any way to get VS6 (or just VC6) + SP6 + PP installed correctly? Processor Pack refuses to install on SP6, insisting on SP5.

EDIT: I found a KB article suggesting a registry change, and that got SP6 + PP installed, but i'm getting this error, which is apparently indicates that PP isn't installed:

--------------------Configuration: test - Win32 Debug--------------------
Compiling...
test.cpp
c:\svn\test\test.cpp(127) : error C2520: conversion from unsigned __int64
  to double not implemented, use signed __int64
Error executing cl.exe.

test.dll - 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)

EDIT: Fixed title.

Answer 1

Though this isn't supported and you get the normal warnings about maybe not working on Windows 7, but i now have it installed and compiling.

Found a solution to this that actually works well. Essentially you have to hand edit the STF file for VS6 Service Pack 5 to skip the MDAC check.

1. Install VS6. Do a custom install and deselect Visual Studio Analyzer, along with anything else you don't need. I ended up installing InterDev and VC++ with some misc. tools. (OLE Viewer caused problems.)

2. Extract (or copy from CD) Service Pack 5 files to a folder.

3. Modify SP598ENT.STF to remove 36 (the MDAC check) from the list in step 13

   13  Group 28 36 38 29 30 32 26 27 14 25 16 17 20 18 19 15 39 21 22 24 23 43

   and save the file. For completeness, you can possibly remove step 36 (and 37) entirely, but this has worked for me once but not the second time i tried this. Those lines are as follows:

   36  Depend "27 ? : 37"
   37  IsWin95 CustomAction "sp598ent.dll,CheckForMDAC"

4. Run SETUPSP5.EXE and let Service Pack 5 finish installing.

5. Install Processor Pack normally.

Answer 2

MDAC is supposedly part of the OS in Windows 7 - see input from Microsoft moderator here. You may be out of luck, since Visual Studio v6 is no longer a supported product - it expired before Win7 shipped iirc.

You cannot install MDAC 2.8 on Windows 7. It is an operating system component and is shipped with Windows 7. Because it is already installed as part of the core OS, it is not "downgradable".