Advantages of VB.NET

1. 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.
2. VB.NET is totally object oriented. This is a major addition that VB6 and other earlier releases didn't have.
3. 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.
4. VB.NET uses XML to transfer data between the various layers in the DNA Architecture i.e. data are passed as simple text strings.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.