Have you ever wanted to learn to program, but just never had the time or money to invest in programming applications? Well Microsoft released a version of their programming apps for free.

In this tutorial, we are going to walkthrough installing VB 2005 Express Edition from Microsoft so that you can try to learn VB to help your create some applications. After that you can continue on to the next tutorial to familiarize yourself with the interface.

Many people feel that VB is dumb language to learn because it is slow. Well while VB is slow, I feel that VB can give you a good understanding of how programming works, which will help you learn more advanced languages, such as C++ or Java.

Now then, let’s get started:

Go to the following link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/ to download click on the download button at the top of the page, that is shown below:

Next, a window displaying the programming languages will be displayed. Pick English within the Visual Basic 2005 Window as shown below:



Next, the download box comes up (if you are using IE you may have to tell it to allow the file to be downloaded, by clicking on the bar at the top and clicking on “Allow File”), click on run to download the file to a temp folder. The file we are downloading is not actually the application; it is a tool that will download the application for us. Once done downloading you will most likely see this:



Click on run to begin the installation and downloading of VB. Once the file is done unpacking, it will launch the following screen:



This window just welcomes us to the setup. If you would like to send anonymous information about your setup to MS, go ahead and check that box. It will send info such as, hardware specs, time taken to install, options selected, and ect. Click on next when we are ready to continue.



This is the EULA window. Scroll through it or print it out to read through later. Check the box that says you accept and then click on next.



This allows us to check what addition optional components we would like installed. The top one will download the entire MSDN Library(help files) to your computer. I think this is unnecessary b/c the entire MSDN files are available through the web help. It integrates web help into the help within the application, so you really don’t benefit from it. The bottom will download files to operate an SQL server to try out programs that use a database. If you don’t feel that you will ever want to do that, then don’t download it. Once you are ready to continue, click on next.



This window allows us to tell the installer where to put the system files. Also it reminds you to be connected to the internet before continuing. Once ready, click on next to continue.



This window is the downloading window. This will download all needed components and then continue with the installation. Once there are all check marks underneath the left column you can disconnect from the internet. Once the downloads complete, it will begin installing the application(s). It may need to reboot several times during installation. It will automatically resume installation once a reboot has been completed.



Upon restarting, you might see this window before it starts installing again : This is normal. Once the install is completed you will see the following:



This window gives you the chance to register now. Registration is free and MUST be done within 30 days or the software will de-activate. They just require your name, e-mail, and address. Once you are done, click on finish, and then you are ready to begin using the app. Thank-you for viewing this tutorial.