File access is handled through the System.IO.File namespace. Using the Open method will allow you to read the contents of the file:
System.IO.File.Open(String, FileMode) {there are also 2 other overloads for this method}
Once the file has been opened, you can then read / process / output the contents of the file by calling the Read method, as follows:
fs = File.Open(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
Dim b(1024) As Byte
Dim temp As UTF8Encoding = New UTF8Encoding(True)
Do While fs.Read(b, 0, b.Length) > 0
Console.WriteLine(temp.GetString(b))
Loop
The Microsoft knowledgebase has more information and code samples available online:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.file.open(v=vs.71).aspx
Hope this helps
