Installing VB6 - error unable to create a DCOM user account

Question

When I try to Install Visual Basic 6 (aka Visual Studio 6) on Windows 10 it has this error:

Setup Error

Setup was unable to create a DCOM user account in order to register ” ..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\Tools\VS-Ent98\Vanalyzr\valec.exe”

Is there a workaround for this?

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Note: I did try running as admin; e.g., running the install from an elevated command window or right-click on installer and select "run as admin". We had tried that in this instance but it had no effect.

Answer 1

This problem was described in a Microsoft article which now appears to be defunct: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q257413

The contents of that page were:

Re-install Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition without Visual Studio Analyzer:

1. Use the Custom setup, on the Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise - Custom page, click Enterprise Tools, and then click Change Option.

2. On the Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise - Enterprise Tools page, under Options, make sure the Visual Studio Analyzer check box is not selected.

3. Click to select all the other Visual Studio components that you want to install, and then click OK.
4. Click Continue, and then follow the instructions that appear.

To install Visual Studio Analyzer:

1. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, and then click Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition.
2. Click Change/Remove.
3. In Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Setup, click Add/Remove.
4. On the Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise - Maintenance page, click Enterprise Tools, and then click Change Option.
5. On the Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise - Enterprise Tools page, under Options, click Visual Studio Analyzer, and then click OK.
6. On the Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise - Maintenance page, click Continue, and then follow the instructions that appear.

When you receive the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section, continue with the Visual Studio Setup Wizard. Setup reports a failure.

To create a local account, which Visual Studio Analyzer will run as:

1. On the computer that is running Visual Studio Enterprise Edition 6.0, create a local user. For information about how to create a local user, see Windows 2000 Help.
2. Run Distributed COM Configuration (dcomcnfg.exe).
3. On the Applications tab, click MSVSA Local Event Concentrator Class, and then click Properties.
4. On the Identity tab, set This User to match the user and password you created in step 1 of this procedure.

Similar material was also available here:

• https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/f84a9ef0-bee3-4dcf-8045-3b8c56f22180/setup-was-unable-to-create-a-dcom-user?forum=vclanguage
• http://vbcity.com/forums/t/72710.aspx

but all important details are reproduced in this answer.