Create your own programs for Windows

Platform : Windows XP, Windows Vista

Type: freeware

Manufacturer: Microsoft

Size: 400MB max

Rating: 5

Verdict: A very powerful tool that costs nothing to download and use

System Requirements:
.NET Framework

Microsoft Visual Basic is one of the most suitable programming languages for beginners to start with. The code is easier to read and understand than some languages and it will already be familiar if you have ever edited an Office macro.

Visual Basic Express Edition is a development environment that is used to write and then create programs.

It has plenty of tools to make this process as easy as possible. The Intellisense tool works a little like Autocomplete in Word, offering suggestions as you type. Even better than that it offers help on the information required by different commands. Many commonly required tasks are also read to use with a single line of code.

While the file this download links to is only 2.6MB the rest of the Visual Studio requires 66MB. Additionally the MSDN express library requires 297MB and the SQL Server is another 36MB