I haven't tried running VB5 on Vista, but based
on the discussions in the VB newsgroups, they
will both run fine. You just have to make sure
to run as admin. If you have any trouble you
can check in at...
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion
.... where VB is not yet a "dead language".


Getting VB5 is another matter. You can't buy VB 5/6
anymore unless you buy it used, find an obscure
dealer with left-over stock, or find a copy of the
limited versions that did used to come in books
on CD many years ago.

VB6 was the last VB. It compiles and requires no
support files that are not on Vista, but there's no longer
any official support for it. The VB5 runtime, by
contrast, must be installed on Vista.

Everything after VB6 is VB.Net, which is an entirely
different thing. VB basically creates compiled "desktop
software". VB.Net creates JIT-compiled "assemblies"
that use an object-oriented runtime of some 70-100 MB,
depending on the version. It's essentially Microsoft's
answer to Java - not particularly well-suited to desktop
software but used quite a bit for server-side components
on Windows servers.

MS is trying to nudge people away from doing any
Windows programming outside of a sandbox. So .Net is
all the rage now and even C++ programmers, last I
heard, were being encouraged to change over to a .Net
version called C++/CLI.

So, in a nutshell, yes, you can use VB if you can
find it.


> Thank you for your detailed reply.
> And now, I have a related question.
>
> Several years ago, I purchased Visual C++ 5.0 and Viusal Basic 5.0.
> IThey wer running under Windows 95 at the time.
> Do you know if there is a current "full-blown" edition of VC++ or VBasic
that
> runs under WIndopws Vista Home Premium Edition or if these older versions
> will. I do not know hopw complete the "express" version are relative to
the
> version you buy (or bought at that time). Any ideas ?
>