<p>I've not used Windows Vista. If your not trying to create graphical apps, then I would opt for gnu c++ (gcc) http://gcc.gnu.org/</p> <p>There seems to be some issues using gcc with MinGW (a light weight GNU for windows) but i've not noticed any other problems.</p> <p>There is off course Visual Studio .NET. A little know secret is you can download a 3 month trial from MS which is fully working.</p> <p>Then there is Borland C/C++. Again version 5 (I think) is free, but is devoid of a nice UI, however its a great command line compiler thats very compliant. The windows stuff obviously won't have all the latest Vista options, but for general apps will work fine. Hope this help, please report back if you find something that works. Will</p>