Para quem ainda utiliza o VB6

Apesar de me dedicar principalmente ao desenvolvimento de software para dispositivos móveis, por vezes também desenvolvo para desktop, tendo ainda de 'manter' aplicações que fiz há anos em VB6 e que ainda se mantêm em funcionamento. Muitas vezes é motivo de conversa a constatação do número de pessoas que ainda usa VB6, seja porque as aplicações são tão vastas que seria enorme o esforço de as refazer em vb.net, seja porque há pessoas que sendo excelentes programadores em VB6, não investiram ainda tempo (e dinheiro) a sério em VB.net, e como tal não são produtivas nesta linguagem.

A Microsoft começou por tentar 'empurrar' os programadores de VB6 para VB.net, mas as tentativas revelaram-se em muitos casos infrutíferas e é interessante ver a nova abordagem, em que já convencida da presença que o VB6 ainda terá por alguns anos, a Microsoft publica na MSDN uma série de artigos sobre como utilizando o VB6 se pode tirar partido do muito que a .NET framework oferece, o típico, se não os consegues vencê-los, junta-te a eles!

Call Into The .NET Framework From Existing Visual Basic 6.0 AppsCall Into The .NET Framework From Existing Visual Basic 6.0 Apps
Upgrading all your Visual Basic 6 code to Visual Basic 2005 takes time and effort. Get the best of both worlds today by accessing the .NET Framework 2.0 from your existing Visual Basic 6 applications.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/05/WrapItUp/default.aspx

Using Background Threads with Visual Basic 6
Learn how to use the .NET Framework 2.0 BackgroundWorker component from Visual Basic 6 applications to perform long running operations on background threads. This article shows you how to inform the user of progress, how to allow the user to cancel the background task, and how to debug multi-threaded applications.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VBFusionBT.asp

Can I Interest You in 5000 Classes?
Quickly add powerful functionality to existing Visual Basic 6 applications by creating simple wrapper classes without the need to rewrite those applications in .NET.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VB5000Cl.asp

Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET Application Configuration Made Easy
It's common to have applications that need to load and store configuration information. Applications may expose options to the users, track recently opened files, remember previous form sizes, or more. By writing some simple Visual Basic .NET code, you can easily add this kind of configuration capability to your existing Visual Basic 6 or Visual Basic .NET applications.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VBConSta.asp

Using the .NET Framework Class Library from Visual Basic 6
In early January of 2002 Microsoft released Microsoft .NET 1.0, which included a massive class library with functionality that wasn't available in Visual Basic 6. This article will show you how you can use this free resource when enhancing your existing Visual Basic 6 or ASP applications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VBUFCL.asp

Implementing File Compression and Encryption in Visual Basic 6 Using the Microsoft .NET Framework, Part I: Cryptography
In this two-part article series, you'll see how you can easily add encryption and data compression (ZIP) capabilities to existing Visual Basic 6 applications using the .NET Framework. While encryption and compression may not seem like related technologies, if you think about it, each one takes a set of data and performs a transformation on it. In the case of encryption, the data is made unreadable, and with compression, the data is made smaller. You'll also see that both utilize many of the same underlying technologies.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/VBCompPI.asp

Access the File System with .NET Framework Classes from Visual Basic 6
Accessing the file system is a common application requirement, and in the spirit of Microsoft Visual Basic Fusion, this article shows how to access some of the best Microsoft .NET Framework file system functionality from existing Visual Basic 6 applications. Learn how to get the extension for a file, the directory portion or a path, or the file name portion of a path. Learn how to fire events every time the contents of a directory change.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/VBFusionIO.asp