I finally loaded ArcGIS 9.4 beta2 and I must say it works much better. The install had a glitch with the new licensing format – something to do with the part that downloads the license directly to PC (different than before where you get a license file emailed to you and then you include it). ESRI tech support worked through and solved the install, so it is running. This is on my XP test laptop, so it wasn’t a Vista/Win7 issue.
Anyway, the issue I had before where VBA wouldn’t work at all with previously created scripts, now works as it should. How it will work is VBA will be treated as an extension with an installable license. This will be free and those that have to have VBA apps run on their PCs, will have to have the license and VBA extension installed. Pretty much similar to Maplex extension with ArcGIS concurrent installations. So I am happy with what I see now. Interface still needs time getting used to – you do something for years the same way (since 8.2) with ArcMap, and then the icons and menus are moved around – it just is a little slowdown. Of course custom menus can be set up to mimick the way the old layout was – I may mess with that for goofs.
The bottom line for me is I don’t have to port my VBA code over to .Net as quickly. The working VBA extension with 9.4 allows for more time to do the transition.