The application starts with an Imports statement for the OleDb namespace.

'Imports OleDb namespace
Imports System.Data.OleDb

Then, before any subroutine code, a series of DIM statements are added to make the scope of the variables global over the subroutines. This has nothing to do with ADO .NET but it makes my program work.

Dim I As Integer = 0
Dim dteAboutVBDate(10000) As Date
Dim strAboutVBDesc(10000) As String
Dim blnAboutVB6(10000) As Boolean
Dim blnAboutVBNet(10000) As Boolean
Dim urlAboutVBURL(10000) As String

The program reads the database and initializes the ListBox in the Form Load subroutine. The first statement in that subroutine is the declaration of the Connection String. This is a set of parameters that allows ADO .NET to match the unique characteristics of your database. For the Access database in this example, the Connection String is pretty simple. (Note that {path} must be replaced by the actual path on the computer.)

Dim strAboutVBConn As String = _
        "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" _
        & "User ID=Admin;" _
        & "Data Source={path}\"AboutVB.mdb"

The next statements declare objects necessary for using OleDb: the Command object and the DataReader object.

Dim ocmdAboutVBCommand As OleDbCommand
Dim odtrAboutVBDataReader As OleDbDataReader

The Imports statement coded earlier makes it possible to avoid qualifying these names in the DIM statement. Without the Imports statement,

OleDbCommand

would be coded as

System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand.

The next tasks are to instantiate the Command and Connection objects, Open the Connection and execute the DataReader. But before we do that, another refinement will be added.