I have a little link that may make you happy, it is for visual basic studio 2005 free download for a year, you will never have to pay anything, its just that the download will be on the site for a year:
here is the straight download for visual basic studio express edition: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/4/3/A43EFABE-4899-4D8E-92F0-BACD3BB34533/VB.img