Upgraded to Windows 8.1, CRXI RDC crashes VB6

Question

Hello,
We have a number of Visual Basic 6 projects that utilize Crystal Reports XI.  We maintain these reports within Visual Basic 6 itself using the Report Designer Component (RDC).  This has always worked for us and allows us to continue with further enhancements and updates of these programs.
Upon upgrading to Windows 8.1 (32-bit), I've found that I can no longer maintain reports built with CRXI via the RDC within Visual Basic 6.  The VB6 IDE opens fine and displays all components within the Project Explorer as expected.  I can even open a CRXI report within the RDC in VB6 and it displays on-screen.  However, shortly after it opens I get a hard crash of the program, displaying the following error:
Visual Basic has stopped working.
Windows then attempts to find a solution to the problem and can't.
Some additional information:
1.  Everything was working fine when the system was running Windows 8.0.  It was only after the upgrade to Windows 8.1 that this issue started occurring.  Likewise, other workstations running Windows 8.0 (even those that are 64-bit) do not exhibit the problem described above.
2.  I have uninstalled and re-installed/re-registered/re-patched Crystal Reports XI on the problematic workstation and the issue still persists.
3.  To rule out permission / read-only access issues, I have disconnected the project from our internal source control system and made it stand-alone, giving myself "Full Control" to all associated files.  Problem still occurs.
4.  I have UAC disabled, local admin rights on the workstation, and have attempted to run Visual Basic 6 "as administrator" (i.e.; elevated mode) and the issue continues to persist.
Are there any known issues / incompatibilities with Crystal Reports XI and Windows 8.1?  Any ideas or suggestions to get things working again?  Any and all help will be appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Thanks for the information Ludek.  That's good to know.
After a bit more research, I was able to find a resolution and get things working as they did before Windows 8.1 was installed.
The VB6.EXE application crash produced an Application event in the Event Viewer.  The content of this message tipped me off to the problem.  In this case, it was of the "windows cannot access the file" variety.  Unfortunately, the actual file that is having the problem appears blank in the event.
From there, I did a little bit of homework regarding Visual Basic 6 and Windows 7/8 in general and found that most issues can be resolved by running the VB6.EXE in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.  I then completed the following:
1.  Found the VB6.EXE in my file system.
2.  Right clicked, went to Properties, clicked the Compatibility tab.
3.  Located the section labeled Compatibility mode, clicked the checkbox to run in compatibility mode and selected Windows XP SP2 from the dropdown.
I then re-loaded the project and open the CRXI report in the RDC.  No app crash... problem solved :-)
As mentioned, unfortunately I don't know exactly what CRXI related file Windows 8.1 is having an issue with.  I originally thought it was something related to a mapped network drive, but all associated files seem to be pointing to the local C drive.  I know that Windows Security has certain issues with read/write access to the C drive as well, so it could be a more "local" issue after all.  Moving the project to a local drive other than C: might've resolved the issue as well.
In any case, this gets us back up and running under Windows 8.1.  Hope this helps somebody else running into a similar issue.  We have *many* programs that began life as VB6 projects quite a number of years ago.  We are migrating these over to VB.NET successfully and at a consistent pace... it just takes time to do it right.  This workaround effectively grants us some more time.