Getting Started with Visual Basic Express

Whether you are a Visual Basic 6.0 veteran who wants to upgrade, an experienced programmer interested in learning Visual Basic for the first time, or even someone new to computer programming, Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition has been designed for you. More than just a scaled-down version of Visual Basic, Visual Basic Express was built expressly to make programming easier than ever. It also makes programming more fun.

The Visual Basic Guided Tour includes a series of lessons that will help you quickly learn both the Visual Basic language and the Visual Basic Express tools. Before you start, you might want to review some of the topics in this section to learn about the capabilities of Visual Basic Express. If you are new to programming, you can start learning with Creating Your First Visual Basic Program, and then come back to these topics later.

In This Section

• What's New in Visual Basic Express
  Describes the new features that are available in Visual Basic Express. This includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), and WCF Services consumption.

• Introduction to Visual Basic Express
  More than just a learning tool, Visual Basic Express provides a full-fledged development environment for first-time programmers and hobbyists who are interested in building Windows Forms applications, console applications, and class libraries.

• How Do I in Visual Basic Express
  Provides links to topics that describe the most common programming tasks in Visual Basic Express.

• Overview of Developing Applications with Visual Basic Express
  Provides an overview of Visual Basic Express; a program for creating applications by using the Visual Basic language. 

• Using LINQ in Visual Basic Express
  Gives an overview of Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) and provides links to topics that describe LINQ in more detail.

• How to: Work with an Existing Application
  If you are already familiar with Visual Basic and have an application that you want to work with, opening an existing application is easy.

• Samples and Resources: Getting Started Quickly
  Visual Basic Express provides sample applications and other resources to help you start writing programs immediately. 

• Project Types in Visual Basic Express
  Visual Basic Express enables you to create several types of applications. This includes Windows Forms applications, console applications, and class libraries.

• Troubleshooting Visual Basic Express
  Although Visual Basic Express makes programming easy, you might have to resolve problems that occur as you create your applications.

Related Sections

• Visual Basic Guided Tour
  The Visual Basic Guided Tour is a series of sequential lessons that will introduce you to the basics of programming in Visual Basic.

• Creating Your First Visual Basic Program
  The best way to learn programming with Visual Basic is to actually create a program.

• Moving Forward: Where Do I Go from Here?
  Now that you have completed the lessons in the Visual Basic Guided Tour, it's time to move on.

• Help for Visual Basic 6.0 Users
  Your knowledge of Visual Basic 6.0 will quickly help you become productive using Visual Basic 2008.

• What's New for Visual Basic 6.0 Users
  If you are an experienced user of Visual Basic 6.0, you will find a multitude of features in Visual Basic 2008 that are new or significantly improved. This makes development with Visual Basic easier and more powerful than with any earlier version.