I have a licensed version of VS 6, which works great. Besides, even though I don't have a great load of experience, I would still recommend "Visual C++ 6 For Dummies". It really takes the users from nowhere up to a decent level of programming, and it's always something to fall back on if things go badly.

"Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica and is widely regarded as the most important innovator in scientific and technical computing today." - Stephen Wolfram