Visual Basic is the programming language and development environment that Microsoft created in 1991 to augment its original BASIC programming language for the Windows operating system. The launch of Visual Basic was an extraordinary step for computer programming. Within Visual Basic is a graphical user interface GUI. This innovation launched a new wave of drag and drop programming, which immensely helped developers to create software products, instead of only writing code manually.

Its entrance into the software scene helped to lead developers into designing software applications more efficiently and simply for PC-based software and internet applications. As of 2020, Microsoft was still supporting some of the application types to help developers migrate code, but it's no longer evolving Visual Basic as a language.‎

It's important to learn Visual Basic because learning how to write code using it can help you think logically to solve problems. Plus, its basic precepts are still used today in some Microsoft and PC-based software applications, even though it's a legacy programming language.

Programs created with Visual Basic can be configured to run on Windows, within Microsoft's Office applications, on web apps, and on mobile devices. More importantly, Visual Basic is usually available online to help beginning developers to use as a starter software application.‎

Typical careers that use Visual Basic include software engineers, application developers, and systems developers who work for organizations that use legacy software like healthcare organizations and hospitals. Visual Basic is still used by developers as it's easy to learn and put into place for small and medium-sized businesses. You can put your understanding of Visual basic fundamentals to work right away as a software developer. However, as software development continues to evolve with the advent of cloud applications and machine learning, Visual Basic is less popular today with most programmers, who have moved onto languages like Python, SQL, and Java.‎