That is because all ( or the majorty of the ) code happens as the result of something else happening....which is an event. Even when the FORM_LOADS , that is an event that "happens" or takes place. Whenever you click on something, that is an event. If you do NOTHING when a Vb.Net program runs, it just sits waiting for you, waiting for something to happen, it waits for an event then code will act on it if there is code to deal with that event. There are of course background Windows processes running waiting for you to move your mouse, left-click or right-click or whatever. So you could also say that a fair bit of WINDOWS is written that suddenly responds to events too. :-) Under the hood or under the "surface" a lot of this is handled with interrupts. Do a search on computer interrupts. Every time you type a letter on the keyboard, that is also handled via an interrupt.