QBasic, while also very simple, does not provide many of the features you'll find in modern languages. For that reason, I highly recommend QBasic over GW-BASIC. This page documents the differences between the two languages, clarifying the advantages of using QBasic.

Summary       Features

Unsupported Keywords Behavior

You may also want to read these articles from the Microsoft Knowledge Base on feature and behavior, differences between QBasic and GW-BASIC.

Summary of Differences
Here's a comprehensive listing of the differences between QBasic and GW-BASIC. These are all features available in QBasic but not in GW-BASIC.

IDE Changes

• Window GUI Interface with Drop Down Menus
  
• Mouse Support
  
• Split Screen (View Window and Immediate Window)
  
• Help File with Cut/Paste Transfer to View Window
  
• IEEE Floating Point Math
  
• P-Code (Near Compilation Execution Speed)
  
• Advanced Debugging (single/procedure step, trace animation, breakpoints, edit/continue)
  
• On entry syntax checking
  
• Search/find/replace
  
• Online Help
  

Syntax Changes

• Line Numbers Optional
  
• Labels
  

Flow Control

• Select Case
  
• ElseIf Added to If Statement
  
• Do While|Until ... Loop
  
• Do ... Loop While|Until
  

Declarations

• Constants
  
• Dynamic Array Sizing (REDIM)
  
• User Defined Types
  
• Fixed Length Strings
  
• Long Integers
  
• Array $STATIC/$DYNAMIC Metacommands
  

File/Directories

• Binary File Open Mode
  
• Byte level positioning (SEEK)
  

Miscellaneous

• Increased number of screen modes (VGA)
  
• Timed Suspension of Program (SLEEP)
  
• Recursion
  
• Increased Code/Data capacity (to 160K)
  

Arithmetic Operators

• MOD Operator
  

Sub/Functions

• Named Sub/Functions
  
• Argument Passing (with Any/As)
  
• Global and Local Variables
  
• Maintain Sub/Function variable values between calls
  
• On Error RESUME NEXT option
  
• Procedure access to module-level variables (SHARED)