Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition By vwpsoftware on Sep 13, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language is widely used by amateur programmers. Microsoft has developed the new version of Visual Basic .NET 2008, which makes programming a lot simpler.

The installation of just Visual Basic from the Visual Studio suite was disappointing. If you wanted to install Visual Basic on more than one computer, you would have to either download the 100MB file on the internet install multiple times, or download the 900MB file of the whole Visual Basic suite.

The overall user interface was easy to navigate and the keyboard shortcuts were easy to remember and use. The design view is easy to use, but the properties could be more organised. The code is also simple, with snippets that can help with code.

Microsoft should have added templates for beginners and more help topics. Compatibility with Visual Basic 6 is appalling - all the VB6 projects I tried to upgrade all failed.

If you enjoy programming or want to learn basic programming techniques, this is the program for you. But if you are a professional, C# and C++ are recommended.