Micro Focus Visual COBOL 3.0 for Visual Studio 2017 > Welcome > New Customers: Where do I start? > Upgrading from Net Express

Upgrading from Net Express

Visual COBOL enables you to develop applications that were created using Net Express. You can move your existing applications to Visual COBOL and continue to develop them in the new environment.

Where to start?

If you've never used Microsoft's Visual Studio before, see New to Visual Studio.
See Developing Applications for more information about creating applications.

Ready to import your existing applications?

Once you are familiar with the IDE, you can import your existing code into Visual COBOL.

Visual COBOL provides an import wizard to help you convert your existing Net Express projects to Visual Studio projects. For an overview of the process of importing Net Express projects into Visual Studio see Converting Net Express projects to Visual Studio projects.
See the Upgrading to Enterprise Developer guide for full details on upgrading your applications from Net Express to Visual COBOL, the changes between the two products and what technologies are not supported or have been superseded.
Also, see Backward Compatibility with Earlier Micro Focus Products.

What next?

You can continue to maintain your applications in Visual COBOL as before. You can employ new technologies such as .NET, Web Applications and WCF Services to modernize the applications over time. See the following resources for help on getting started with .NET COBOL programming: