I am considering writing a BHO (Browser helper object) as part of a
collection of tools to be made publicly avaliable. The BHO will need
to collect information on the websites visited in IE6/7 such as the
page title and record the collected data into a database. The database
will be server-side. Both c++ and VB.NET can achive this as I have
seen it done.

My first question is; Which should I use for the BHO? VB.NET or C++
I am looking for the advantages and dissadvantages. I am familiar with
VB.NET but will need to learn C++ if it is faverable. Is C++ faster /
more cpu efficiant? Will less people be able to use my script if I use
.net becoase they will need the .net framework? What kinda percentage
of people do not have the .net framework? C++.com vs c++.NET?  lol
help!

Thanks for your time

This is more of a question of what are your preferences. I will give
the facts and then give my personal opinion:

First if you are planning on doing some complicated operations that
would slow the computer down, you should check out a benchmark of the
languages:

http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5602&page=3

C++ is going to be the fastest language for doing this, because VC++
does not require as many runtimes as VB.NET.

Opinion: My personal opinion is to just stick with VB.NET in your
case, because VB.NET is not all too much slower than VC++.


The .NET framework will be required if you are planning on using
VB.NET, but if you make a setup file, you can have it include a
redistributable version of the .NET framework. VC++ will only require
the C++ runtime, which is included in almost all versions of Windows
OS. .NET framework can be installed on Windows 98+ operating systems.

Opinion: Again, I would just stick with VB.NET

The biggest disadvantage to VC++ is that it is much much harder to
debug and takes many more lines of code to make an equivalent
application. The biggest advantage to VB.NET is that it is super easy
to debug and less time to work on it, however a big disadvantage is
that it is almost twice as slow as VC++, but most users will not be
able to tell the difference between the two speeds.

Opinion: Overall, I would stick with VB.NET, because it can probably
do everything you will ever need it to do, and super easy to work
with.

Hope that helps,
-thegreatall

stat regarding .Net(
http://blogs.msdn.com/scottwil/archive/2005/03/09/391199.aspx)
More than 85% of new consumer PCs sold in 2004 had the .NET Framework installed 
More than 58% of business PCs have the .NET Framework preinstalled or preloaded
So, don't stick to .Net if you are targeting the majority of PC users.