Well I finally know. However, while installing the installer said I need to download the XP Service Pack 2, and it means I'll have to turn the computer off. I'll be back in a couple of minutes to hopefully report results.

you still didn't have SP2???? holy cow!

i guess you haven't run a windows update for what....8 months???

ROFLmongers, more than that. It's been out for well over a year.

oooh...lemme fire up some buffer overflow attacks, take over his comp, and check when he last went to windows update

hell, at the rate of what, 3 patches a week, theres got to be at LEAST 1092831 KNOWN security holes in his OS

WTF! The thing told me I had an invalid product key, or the absence of a product key. What is a product key? Now that I think of it, everytime I start the comp it does some sort of automatic update, but then returns some sort of error, and I've been ignoring it because I really didn't think it was that important. Well now I know. Anyways my problem now is that product key.

someone's been stealing windows!

just go to http://update.microsoft.com

I have since found out. Looks like Visual C++ Express is out of he question.

?! You stole Windows?? You evil person!

What? I didn't steal anything. I bought it. They must've pirated Windows and sold it. I bet I'm not the only one with this problem.

Probably not. Do you have a desktop or a laptop? See if you have one of those "Genuine Windows" certificates on it somewhere.

who'd you buy it from?

it might not actually be stollen, your install might have just gotten screwed up. Also, M$ has a deal where if you bought a pirated copy, you can "upgrade" to a real copy for less. Also, did your copy come in a box w/ a shiny/silvery winXP CD?

Well I'm just realizing so many things, it's very surprising. I'll get around to looking for that certificate eventually.

did you ever go to update.microsoft.com ????

Don't worry dude I'll visit that site.

I'd just use Dev C++. It's free, it has an IDE (So no messing around with dos compiling and batch files, linking, etc), and it comes with the MinGW library, so you don't have to download it seperately. All in a 9Mb download. You can develop all of the same stuff as you can using MSVC, except you don't have MFC or ATL. But, you can also use the built-in package manager in Dev C++ to download extra libraries from the internet (devpaks.org). It's a VERY nice setup, and (in my opinion), works just as good or even better than MSVC.

Short summary:
-100% FREE!!!
-Small Download: fairly fast on dialup (I have dialup->30 min. download)
-Comes with all necessary headers/libraries
-Easy installation
-One-click compiling->no command line/batch files needed
-CAN import MSVC project files (.dsw), but doesn't have MFC
-100% compatible with Windows
-Easy access to extra libraries

Dev C++ Homepage:
http://bloodshed.net/dev/index.html

If you do download it, download "Dev-C++ 5.0 beta 9.2 (4.9.9.2) with Mingw/GCC 3.4.2". That's the one I use, and it works great!

If you don't like it, I could also recommend Code::Blocks. It's made by the same guy that made Dev C++, but it's newer and can be used in Linux. I don't know exactly what's different about it, but many people prefer it over Dev C++. Search Sourceforge for it.

Others:
Borland Turbo C++
MSVC
Digital Mars
*can't think of others right now*

Thanks for link. I am currently downloading it with an estimated download time at 2 hours and 7 minutes... But you know how my computer is with time...

EDIT: Yes! It works! WOOT! You are awesome for providing me the link JincS. I can finally begin applying the knowledge I've acquired by reading that book. Thank you very much for the link and thank everyone for your help.

The MSVC compiler is better than MingW, producing smaller EXE's that are faster (often much, much smaller exe's at that)

I used Dev C++ to get started with tho, and it is very easy to use/compile, but MSVC's RAD is just so dang sexy.....gah, if only it worked for a cross-platform GUI like wxWidgets or GTK+...sigh...so much lost potential

Meh, I take the larger exe size over the bulky MSVC install and usage. Takes waaaayyyy too much crap to get MSVC to work (the free version anyway, idk about the bought version).

Out of curiosity, can that Express crippleware thing make standalone apps?

yup

@Jincs: i've had no probs w/ either the express or full, both installed on first go, just like any other windows proggy - course, i had an up to date legally purchased copy of windows