Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your VBW file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert VBW to another file type
To convert VBW workspaces to another format, you need Microsoft Visual Basic or other Settings software.
Convert a file to VBW
To convert other file formats to the "IDE Workspace File" file type, you need software like Microsoft Visual Basic or a similar tool.
About VBW files
The .VBW file is a legacy workspace state file generated by old versions of Microsoft Visual Basic, primarily VB 5.0 and 6.0. It stores the exact screen coordinates, sizes, and open/closed states of forms and code windows within a developer's environment. These files are automatically read by the Microsoft Visual Basic IDE when you load an associated .VBP (Visual Basic Project) file. You can also read them using standard text editors like Notepad++. The main disadvantage of the .VBW format is that it is entirely obsolete and functionally useless without its parent project files. It does not contain any actual source code, which often confuses users who try to open it expecting to find application logic. Modern IDEs like Visual Studio ignore these files completely. Because it is simply a proprietary text configuration format, reading it outside of an old Windows environment can be annoying. For documentation or text analysis, convert it to .TXT. If you need to parse the window coordinates for a legacy migration script, convert it to .XML or .JSON. Just drag and drop your file here to analyze and convert it - free, online, and without installing software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VBW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted VBP, VWB, CTL, SOB and _VBXSLN80 files.
FAQ
If you want to convert VBW file to JS, TS, PY, JAVA, CPP, C, CS, PHP, RB, GO, RS or SWIFT, you can use Microsoft Visual Basic or similar software from the "Project Window Layout Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SH, PY, KT, PS1, SWIFT, LUA, PL, JAVA, SCALA, JS, VBS or TS files to VBW, try Microsoft Visual Basic or another comparable tool in the "Project Window Layout Storage" category.
The VBW Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VBW converter.