VisualBasic is about as much programming as MadLibs is writing a novel. Besides the fact that a great many minds in the field of computer science have a great disdain for anything Basic because it teaches bad habits for learning other languages later. Not to mention it's not exactly free.
If you're just starting out with programming you might consider Ruby ( http://www.rubycentral.com ). It's a fairly simple, yet quite powerful, scripting language. It will give you a good foundation a lot of programming concepts without overloading you. You can download a copy of the Windows interpreter from that website, which also comes bundled with a lot of support libraries, a simple text editor for coding, and a free copy of a tutorial book in Windows Help format (the text of the book is also avaliable on that website and as a print book, and it's all completely legal).
Later on if you want to learn Java/C# (honestly, C# is just different enough from Java for MS to avoid another lawsuit from Sun) or some other language you'll have a good foundation of skills to build on. Even learning Visual Basic as a second or third language isn't such a bad thing. It's just anything Basic as a first language that screws the pooch for most would-be programmers.
Just be wary of any of Microsoft's Visual line of products. They are designed to lock you into the Windows platform, and that can hurt employment prospects if you decide you want to get into programming as a career. Learn C++ before learning Visual C++, and learn Java before Visual J#, etc. It will make your life easier in the long run. And there's nothing wrong with learning an older language. SmallTalk is about 20 years old, and you'd still be hard pressed to find a more elegant language. Just learn Pascal before learning Delphi.