Can Visual Basic .NET create COM components that are accessible from legacy applications?
Yes. Classes that are created with Visual Basic.NET can be exposed as COM objects and are therefore accessible via any technology that supports COM. MSDN provides a walkthrough of this process: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcn7/html/vaconIntroductionToCOMInteroperability.