Rating:  - Very good for starting out
A lot of VB.NET books on the market jump straight into the deep end and assume you have a VB6 programming background. This one does not - it covers stuff that is essential to do most things as well as some other cool features.
Rating:  - Only for extreme beginners ...
O yes, absolutely, I have always liked hands-on practice. I think it is one of the best ways to learn. In that perspective is 'Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Deluxe Learning Edition by Michael Halvorson' not a bad book, it is actually a pretty good book if you only judge on that area. . BUT ! (yes, there it is): This book is only effective for those who have NO (Too bad there can be no fontsize assigned, that's why I am just going to say it again) NONONONONO VB experience whatsoever, or rather, no programming experience at all for that matter.
To be blunt: This book borred the living heck out of me ! If you had something or rather ANYTHING to do with VB 6.0 then skip this one. Unless you have no idea what a Timer, Class, Module or Collection is, in which case it turns out to be a pretty nice book for your person.
Another thing: Because thing book is from the good people of the Microsoft Corporation, it loses (or has already lost long ago) any chance of having ANY objectivity whatsoever. So don't expect to read anywhere: "Indeed it is a bit strange that an Array declared like this in VB.NET holds 8 positions instead of the usual 7: Dim MyArray(7) As String", or "Maybe VB.NET would be better of NOT storing a Boolean as 0 and -1 under the hood" ... NOOOOOOO, not in this book you won't ...
If you programmed in VB 6.0. I (humble opinion) strongly recommend reading "VB.NET and the .NET Platform" by Andrew Troelsen or "Moving to VB.NET" by Dan Appleman. Books that made a lot of things clear for me. (And no, I do not have any shares in Apress whatsoever).
Overall a big disappointment.
Rating:  - Good value for money
This package contains the step-by step book and the VB.NET Standard software. ..Why anyone would buy that and not this package is beyond me!
...For me, the only real downside is that you cannot create your own class libraries. However, I have heard (and read) rumors on the web that there's a 'workaround' for this omission.
Other than that, this package will get you started with VB.NET just fine, and at least for the first few months, you will not miss the functionality that is available in the full version.
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