Microsoft has released a free book "Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers" that covers the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and .NET Framework 2.0.

If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, the book wil step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you’ll jump directly into what’s new, learning how to extend your existing skills.

From the innovations in rapid application development, debugging, and deployment, to new data access, desktop, and Web programming capabilities, you get the prerelease insights and code walkthroughs you need to get productive right away.

Who Should Read This Book:

This book is for Visual Basic developers. If you are a Visual Basic 6 developer, you should begin with Chapter 1, “Microsoft .NET Framework Primer for the Visual Basic Developer,” which will bring you up to speed on development for the .NET Framework. The remainder of the book covers the significant enhancements to Visual Basic that will make you more productive when developing applications.

If you are an existing .NET developer, you can skip Chapter 1 and jump right into Chapter 2, “Language Enhancements for Visual Basic 2005.”

To download the book visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/whidbey/introto2005/