# VBForums UtilityBank > UtilityBank - Utilities >  Free alternative for Crystal Reports in vb6

## Davor Geci

Hello guys,
I have been thinking for a long time how to help people in this crisis and give back to this vb6 community, so I decided to create a free alternative to Crystal Reports for vb6 developers.
It is part of my Virtual Forms project, but this reporting is totally free.
Create professional reports for VB6 with free Microsoft Report Builder & show them with free Virtual Forms report viewer control.
Download the project and read the ReadMeFirst.txt file to get started.
Hope that this will help you in your work and vb6 projects.
What do you think about this?
Davor
Here you can download the vb6 project:
https://www.virtual-forms.com/sharin...%20Example.zip

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## Soundarahari

thanks for the alternative.
can u explain how to connect to database and how to call the report in vb6

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## Soundarahari

thanks for the alternative.
can u explain how to connect to database and how to call the report in vb6

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## Davor Geci

Here are quick start youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...ypIoaH-qS6lv6I

They are for Excel VBA but it is the same for the vb6.
Also in first post there is an example link with a simple project in vb6.

Hope this helps.
Davor

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## jedifuk

nice reports, but the designer only 14 days trial, ...thanks

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## Davor Geci

> nice reports, but the designer only 14 days trial, ...thanks


Thanks jedifuk for your reply,
you don't need the Virtual Forms Designer for reporting. This VF Designer if for creating userforms for MS Excel.
For reporting (showing created .rdl reports) you need the Report Viewer that is part of the VF control that is free. And you create reports with Microsoft Report Builder application from Microsoft that is also free.

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## wqweto

Is this an .rdl viewer control? Does it have any .Net dependency? Does it have MS Excel dependency? Will this report viewer work on WinXP SP3 without .Net or MS Office installed?

cheers,
</wqw>

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## Davor Geci

> Is this an .rdl viewer control? Does it have any .Net dependency? Does it have MS Excel dependency? Will this report viewer work on WinXP SP3 without .Net or MS Office installed?
> 
> cheers,
> </wqw>


Yes it is an .rdl viewer control and it needs .NET Framework 4.7.2 installed. But the installer (when we install the virtual forms) searches for it and if it doesn't find it, it goes and download and install it.
No, you don't need Excel or Office installed.
Not sure if it will work on WinXP SP3, didn't test it on that os. But you could try and let us know if you have this os to test it?
Thanks,
Davor

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## wqweto

10x for the info.

Dont' think .NET Framework 4.7.2 is supported on XP (probably Vista and Win7 too).

cheers,
</wqw>

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## Davor Geci

> 10x for the info.
> 
> Dont' think .NET Framework 4.7.2 is supported on XP (probably Vista and Win7 too).
> 
> cheers,
> </wqw>


Hm, maybe if lots of people needs WinXP version I could do someting in that direction. Comment here if you need version for winxp

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## Bobbles

> Hm, maybe if lots of people needs WinXP version I could do someting in that direction. Comment here if you need version for winxp


I do all my VB6 on XP Pro Sp3
Thanks,
Rob
PS I use 32bit XP  95% of the time, mainly because my PCs are old, and when they die I can transfer my whole 12 years of running OS, into another PC. In fact just did that this week. The trick is to do a Repair Install into the replacement PC

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## jedifuk

this project still going on ? any update ?

Just asking before I implemented this into my app. Can the preview report on screen still able to be navigated.
Like FastReport (Delphi), during preview report, item/field still clickable or adjust the column size, etc

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## Bobbles

> Hm, maybe if lots of people needs WinXP version I could do someting in that direction. Comment here if you need version for winxp


I would give this a try - if it worked in XP

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