Well, after having looked more at it, I am still at the same point. I am looking for a way to adjust my design so any class in a .vb file will be able to see the variables and methods of Framework.App. Here is an example. Presently, I have something like this:

App.vb

Namespace Framework

    Public Class App
        Public aConnection(10) As String
        Public lInitialize As Boolean = False
        Public cStartupDrive As String = ""

        Public Function Initialize() As Boolean
        End Function

    End Class

End Namespace

Encrypt.vb

Namespace Framework

    Public Class Encrypt

        Public Shared cEncrypt As String = ""
        Public Shared cDecrypt As String = ""

        ' The function used to encrypt the text
        Public Shared Function Encrypt(ByVal tcString As String, ByVal tcKey As String) As Boolean
        End Function

    End Class

End Namespace

The application will create an instance of Framework.App at startup. It does it like this:

    Dim LXFramework As Framework.Framework.App = New Framework.Framework.App

The application can change a variable value in that instance such as:

    LXFramework.cStartupDrive="d:\"

I need Framework.Encrypt to be able to recognize LXFramework.cStartupDrive. However, presently, it cannot because there is no relation between the two classes. Basically, in Framework.Encrypt, I need to be able to have access to LXFramework.cStartupDrive. Is my only hope is to have Framework.Encrypt as defined as a nested partial class in Framework.App? By using a partial class, I will be able to preserve Framework.Encrypt as a separate file and only have the Framework.Encrypt declaration in Framework.App.