To overcome this problem, Microsoft revived BASIC in 1991 by introducing Visual Basic 1.0.

Extensive code had to be written to define precisely what the interface would look like as well as how a user would interact with it. Unfortunately, creating Windows-based programs was exceedingly difficult. As people began to realize the benefits of graphical operating systems, Microsoft Windows gained popularity. Most PCs were still using text-based operating systems. In the late 1980s, Microsoft Windows and other graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were still in their infancy.

Thus, BASIC was commonly used for trivial or educational purposes, whereas 'real' applications were usually developed in other languages. Despite its wide distribution and relative simplicity, BASIC was not able to compete with faster, compiled languages such as C or C++. Using that philosophy, Microsoft integrated a BASIC interpreter into its operating system MS-DOS. BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was originally an interpreted language that was designed to simplify the programming process and make programming more accessible to the world at large. The origins of Visual Basic are found in a programming language created in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. The major reason for its popularity is that it allows programmers to create Windows applications quickly and easily. Visual Basic is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world.

Visual basic programming languages