#CA50 : VC++ is one the most powerful high level languages. VC++ .NET is its .NET version - means, you will be coding with .NET platform. syntax is slightly different, but you will feel more powerful with that. Its mainly used to create system level programs(doesn't mean that you cant use it for anything else).
Management software can be done as a Desktop Application (EXEs for 1 PC or for LAN) and a Web Application (mostly used by companies, because they have offices in different states/countries/continents and they need to access it from wherever they are)
If you are going to build a small application, do it as a Desktop Application : do not use VB.NET, as there are no other languages except old VB6 that uses a similar syntax.(most of the programmers don't even consider VB as a programming language
. even small kids can do vb ) If you want to do project in .NET platform, use C# .NET. Its very easy for a C# programmer to switch to java etc as the syntax looks almost the same. (All .NET languages are object oriented anyways)
You may also use java to do the project as a desktop application, Swing in java is the primary Java GUI widget toolkit, you can use it to design forms etc. Netbeans IDE has drag and drop feature, so you can design UI and forms like you do in Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET
If you want to do this project in a higher level, you can do it in ASP.NET or J2EE : When you use ASP.NET, you have to program the functionality using C#.NET or VB.NET as ASP.NET(active server pages.NET) is only a web application framework. As i mentioned earlier, if you are using .NET, always go for C#.NET.
When you use J2EE, you will do coding using java. There are few options. you may use servlets in java, or you may use JSP(java server pages) and there is something else called EJB. Now a days they all use java frameworks like struts, ant etc to do the job. This is enterprise level. its free, its good.
I suggest J2EE, as its open source, most of the frameworks are free, industry prefers Java in enterprise level, and now its powered by Oracle
. There is no harm in doing ASP.NET projects, except that everything is proprietary. windows/vs.net/sql server etc are costly
(not for student editions)