Introduction to Visual Basic .NET for Visual Basic Veterans

This page is specific to

Microsoft Visual Studio 2003/.NET Framework 1.1

Other versions are also available for the following:

Visual Basic Concepts

As a veteran Visual Basic developer, you have undoubtedly invested a lot of time and effort in learning the intricacies of Visual Basic. At first glance, it may appear to you that Visual Basic .NET is so radically different from what you know that you will have to learn it all over again. In reality, while many things have changed, the overall experience of developing in Visual Basic remains essentially the same. Your knowledge of Visual Basic will help you immediately become productive in Visual Basic .NET.

There are, however, a number of changes to Visual Basic that will require you to adjust your mindset and set aside some old habits. Some of the rules for the language, tasks such as debugging and deployment, and even some terminology have changed — often in subtle ways. Ultimately, the changes make Visual Basic easier and more powerful than ever before.

The following topics will help you identify the changes in Visual Basic .NET from the perspective of a Visual Basic 6.0 veteran.

In This Section

Integrated Development Environment Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to the development environment.
Project Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to the project system.
Web Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to Web-related development.
WebClass Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to WebClass projects (also known as IIS Application projects).
Data Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to data access and data tools.
Component Authoring Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to component authoring.
UserControl Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to UserControl projects (also known as ActiveX Control projects) and provides a link to information about the PropertyBag object.
Forms Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to forms.
Debugging Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to debugging.
Setup and Deployment Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to Setup and deployment.
International Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to localization.
Windows API Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes differences in accessing the Windows API.
Registry Access Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes in setting and retrieving registry settings.
Constant Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Provides a list of constants that have changed in Visual Basic .NET.
Namespace Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes differences and similarities between Visual Basic 6.0 object libraries and Visual Basic .NET namespaces.
Run-Time Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Discusses differences between Visual Basic 6.0 run-time files and the .NET Framework common language runtime.

Related Sections

Language Changes in Visual Basic: Describes changes to the Visual Basic language.
Control Changes in Visual Basic .NET: Describes changes to controls.
Upgrading from Visual Basic 6.0: Covers how to convert applications to Visual Basic .NET.
What's New in Visual Basic and Visual C#: Covers new features for different areas, including Web development, data access, component creation, and the Visual Basic and Visual C# languages.