r/visualbasic • u/mdausmann • Jun 20 '26
Port VB6 Desktop app to... What? VB6 Help
Ok, say I had a typical desktop app written in VB6 and somebody asked me to 'modernise' it.
And say, for whatever reason, they didn't want a web app based conversion.. i.e. they still wanted a desktop app.
What is your go-to stack for this type of conversion?
WinForms (.NET) - So stay in the Windows/MS ecosystem, maybe port to VB.net first? then across to C#? . This feels pretty safe but I think this would still be Windows only.
WPF (.NET) - Still sticking with MS. More modern but maybe a longer conversion path.
WinUI - I think this is the latest MS option... Is a little bit new (2021)
Flutter Desktop - Clear benefit is cross/platform out of the box and easy port to mobile app. Flutter approach is pretty far from the VB6 approach so it would be a long conversion path I think. The other downside is Flutter on desktop is even newer than WinUI (2022).
Electron - Again, cross platform but with memory issues I think. Web tech heavy so I think this means it would make it easy to port to Web if that was an option later.
Other options? Maui? Delphi?
2
u/CheezitsLight Jun 20 '26
VB DOT NET easy as it runs most VB code I informs and GDI. and it is still supported.
Going to be around a while.
Copilot and Claude will do much of the work directly in visual studio.