title: AES Encrypt String in VB.NET
body: <p>I have a program based in Visual Basic 2010.</p>
  
  <p>I want to use a custom keyword and AES encryption to generate registration keys on our company website, that will unlock the software regardless of whether or not the software is connected to the internet.</p>
  
  <p>To do this, I want to encrypt certain user information (and a validation code) into an AES encrypted string using a utility I'll build on my website. Then, I want my program to decrypt the string into the user information and validation code, then use that information to validate the registration key.</p>
  
  <p>Which brings me to the question - how do I encrypt and decrypt a string in AES programatically? Is there a code template I can use somewhere, or a built in method?</p>