It's obvious that the Internet and intranet technologies now constitute an extremely important part of Microsoft's vision and long-term goals. To jump-start this very important and significant use of Visual Basic for Internet and intranet applications, a special Control Creation Edition of Visual Basic became available as a free download from Microsoft's World Wide Web site before Microsoft released the full-blown version of Visual Basic 5. This limited edition of Visual Basic provides the capability to create ActiveX controls designed to work hand in hand with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Visual Basic 6 includes all the features of the special Control Creation Edition and much more. Visual Basic's Internet capabilities let you create powerful applications hosted by standard browsers, going far beyond the limitations of standard, relatively flat-looking HTML documents.
Visual Basic lets you build your own ActiveX documents. ActiveX documents are created in much the same way as any other Visual Basic form, but they are designed to be hosted by ActiveX document containers such as Internet Explorer. These documents support hyperlink navigation, menu negotiation with the hosting browser, help menu merging, and other powerful features. Perhaps the most significant feature is simply the capability to create complete, fully developed applications that run over the Internet or your intranet.