After installing Vista 5308, I was unable to install the Service Pack 6 for VisualStudio6. This was a requirement for testing the compatibility of an application at work with Vista.

The installer kept displaying the following error.

"Setup Error 530"

I found the following page describe how to install VisualStudio6 manually:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;250343&spid=3042&sid=10

To install VS6 on Vista, you simply need to do the following:
- Only install C++/SourceSafe product.
- Uncheck the OLE Viewer in the Tools category.

Then to install the service pack 5, you need to edit a file to remove the check on MDAC.

how to make service pack 5 install on vista beta 2 without another pc! (This is copied from the MSDN forum post.)

Tutorial:
Step 1) Open C:\ServicePack5Dir\sp598ent.stf with 'Notepad.exe'
Step 2) Replace the following line

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

-with-

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

Step 3) Delete the following lines leaving only a carriage return where it was

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

Step 4) Save and close C:\ServicePack5Dir\sp598ent.stf
Step 5) Run setupsp5.exe

I would offer a download link to the fixed file, but I believe that may be a copyright violation.

guideX

PS> Please take note that I am the first living human to ever run visual studio 6 service pack 5 successfully from vista

Pascal