Advantages of VB.NET

First of all, VB.NET provides managed code execution that runs under
the Common Language Runtime (CLR), resulting in robust, stable and
secure applications. All features of the .NET framework are readily
available in VB.NET.
VB.NET is totally object oriented. This is a major addition that VB6
and other earlier releases didn’t have.
The .NET framework comes with ADO.NET, which follows the
disconnected paradigm, i.e. once the required records are fetched
the connection no longer exists. It also retrieves the records that
are expected to be accessed in the immediate future. This enhances
Scalability of the application to a great extent.
VB.NET uses XML to transfer data between the various layers in the
DNA Architecture i.e. data are passed as simple text strings.
Error handling has changed in VB.NET. A new Try-Catch-Finally block
has been introduced to handle errors and exceptions as a unit,
allowing appropriate action to be taken at the place the error
occurred thus discouraging the use of ON ERROR GOTO statement. This
again credits to the maintainability of the code.
Another great feature added to VB.NET is free threading against the
VB single-threaded apartment feature. In many situations developers
need spawning of a new thread to run as a background process and
increase the usability of the application. VB.NET allows developers
to spawn threads wherever they feel like, hence giving freedom and
better control on the application.
Security has become more robust in VB.NET. In addition to the role-
based security in VB6, VB.NET comes with a new security model, Code
Access security. This security controls on what the code can access.
For example you can set the security to a component such that the
component cannot access the database. This type of security is
important because it allows building components that can be trusted
to various degrees.
The CLR takes care of garbage collection i.e. the CLR releases
resources as soon as an object is no more in use. This relieves the
developer from thinking of ways to manage memory. CLR does this for
them.