Will Microsoft stop supporting Visual Basic 6 and earlier versions?

This depends on what you mean by "support" but many programmers would say they already have. The next version of the Windows operating system, Windows Vista, will still run Visual Basic 6 programs and future versions of Windows might run them too. On the other hand, Microsoft now charges big fees for any help for VB 6 software problems and soon they won't provide it at all. Microsoft doesn't sell VB 6 anymore so it's difficult to find. It's clear that Microsoft is doing everything they can to discourage the continued use of Visual Basic 6 and encourage the adoption of Visual Basic .NET. Many programmers believe that Microsoft was wrong to abandon Visual Basic 6 because their customers have put so much investment into it over more than ten years. As a result, Microsoft has earned a lot of ill will from some VB 6 programmers and some have moved to other languages rather than move to VB.NET. This might be a mistake.