The reason Visual Basic is one of the most popular languages in the world is because it allows creating applications quickly and easily.

Visual Basic is based on the BASIC language. The main goal when creating the BASIC language was to simplify the programming process and make programming more common in the world. Although it was simpler than many languages, it could not compete with faster programming languages such as C or C++.

Therefore, programmers using BASIC generally preferred to write less important programs in this language. Performance-demanding programs continued to be written in other languages.

In the early 1990s, Windows and graphical user interfaces (GUI) were still in their infancy. Many computers still used a text-based operating system (OS). As users realized that their transactions were done faster, graphical operating systems began to become more popular. Chief among these was Microsoft Windows. Unfortunately, creating Windows-based programs was extremely difficult. Creating events for interface and user operations required extensive code writing.

To make it easier to write windows-based programs, Microsoft introduced Visual Basic 1.0 in 1991, taking the simplicity of the BASIC language and partially correcting its shortcomings.

This development has provided an easy way to create Windows applications..

Over time, Microsoft developed Visual Basic, releasing Visual Basic MS-DOS versions 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0. After Visual Basic 6.0, Microsoft ported Visual Basic to the .NET Framework. Some sources refer to the first version running on .Net Framework as Visual Basic 7.0. Visual Basic.Net was designed to create .Net applications, Windows or Web applications, and Web Services. This version is not backwards compatible with 6.0.

Visual Basic.Net 2003 (VB 7.1) was released in April 2003, with the success of porting Visual Basic to the .Net Framework.

Microsoft has fundamentally redesigned Visual Basic, including full object-oriented programming possibilities and full integration with the .Net Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR). This release was the first in Visual Basic history to provide programming tools for mobile devices. In 2005 Microsoft released Visual Basic 2005 (8.0). With this release, Microsoft has removed the .Net expression at the end.

Many new features have been added with the Visual Basic 2005 release. Some of these are dynamically generated classes, data source binding for easier database client and server development. These enhancements strengthen Visual Basic as a rapid application development platform.

Also in 2005, Microsoft released Visual Basic 2005 Express for Visual Studio Express. Express editions are free development tools that have an edited version of the user interface and lack the more advanced features of the standard editions. Microsoft has created these for students and programming beginners. This is the first release of Visual Basic available for free.

In 2008 Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2008, which also includes Visual Basic 2008 (9.0) and .Net Framework 3.5. Visual Basic 2008 includes features such as LINQ support and XML literals. Also released this year is the free Visual Basic 2008 Express, an updated version of Visual Basic 2005 Express.