Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Visual Basic .NET

Seamless Deployment
Visual Basic .NET solves the most pressing issues around Windows-based application deployment and makes "DLL Hell" and component versioning issues a thing of the past. New XCOPY deployment enables developers to install a Windows-based application simply by copying files to a directory. With Visual Basic .NET and new auto-download deployment, Windows-based applications can be installed and executed simply by pointing a Web browser to a URL.

More Robust Code
Visual Basic .NET delivers the feature most requested by existing Visual Basic developers梖ewer bugs in the code they write. Features in the new Visual Studio .NET IDE, such as the real-time background compiler and the task list, keep Visual Basic developers up-to-date on any coding errors as they occur, enabling quick and effective error resolution. Enhancements to the Visual Basic language, such as strict type checking and structured exception handling, enable developers to write code that is more robust, maintainable, and less prone to run-time errors.

Powerful Windows-based Applications
Visual Basic .NET is the most productive tool for constructing powerful Microsoft Windows?based applications. The new Windows Forms Designer enables developers to get their desktop applications to market in less time. New features include control anchoring and docking to eliminate the need for complex resize code, the in-place menu editor to deliver WYSIWYG menu creation, and the tab order editor to provide rapid application development (RAD) organization of controls.

Powerful, Flexible Data Access
Visual Basic .NET provides developers with both the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) data access programming model that they know and love, plus the new XML-based Microsoft ADO.NET. With ADO.NET, developers gain access to more powerful components, such as the DataSet control and a new, strongly typed programming model that provides Microsoft IntelliSense?statement completion within data access code.

Simplified Component Creation
Visual Basic .NET brings RAD to component development. Developers can use non-visual toolbox and server explorer components to easily incorporate resources such as message queues, event logs, and performance counters into their applications without writing a single line of code.

Enhanced Control Creation
Visual Basic .NET provides unprecedented flexibility in building customized user controls. Developers can easily extend preexisting user controls and Windows Forms controls as well as design their own controls that generate custom user interfaces.

Complete, Direct Access to the Platform
Visual Basic .NET provides complete, direct access to the Microsoft .NET Framework, enabling Visual Basic developers to quickly access the registry, event log, performance counters, and file system. Visual Basic .NET also eliminates the need for declares statements for access to the operating system. In addition, the new Windows service project template enables rapid application development of real Microsoft Windows NT?Services.

Integrated Reporting with Crystal Reports
Upgrading to Visual Studio .NET Professional Edition (or later) provides Visual Basic developers with the power of Crystal Reports directly within the IDE. Crystal Reports delivers the most productive, integrated, and RAD experience for creating highly graphical and interactive relational data reports. These reports can be generated for the entire array of Visual Basic .NET application types, including Windows, Web and mobile applications.

Easy Web-based Application Development
Visual Basic .NET delivers "Visual Basic for the Web." Using new Web Forms, you can easily build true thin-client Web-based applications that intelligently render on any browser and on any platform. Web Forms deliver the RAD programming experience of Microsoft Visual Basic?6.0 forms with the full power of Visual Basic .NET rather than limited scripting capacity. The new HTML designer delivers IntelliSense statement completion for HTML tags and the separation of user interface (UI) and code enable more efficient team-based development.

Existing Investments Carry Forward
Visual Basic .NET enables developers to leverage their existing investments in code and skills. Windows Forms provides a robust container for Microsoft ActiveX?controls. Component Object Model (COM) Interoperability provides bi-directional communication between existing Visual Basic applications and those written with Visual Basic .NET. The upgrade wizard enables developers to seamlessly migrate up to 95 percent of existing code to Visual Basic .NET.