windows game programming

This is my suggestion to you. I learned this way, and I''m sure many other people have too. I suggest that you just go for it and build a 3d engine. Now I know you''re saying, "That''s way beyond me!!", but really it isn''t. There is SO much information out there on the net, right here for instance!! Honestly, 90% of what you get on the net is better, or at least as good as as what you''ll get in books, no offense to Andre!! Here''s what I would do, get yourself hooked up with DirectX 8, and start with the tutorials. Windows really isn''t as hairy as it seems, trust me! I know how it is, I freaked when I saw all those constants and all that message processing nonsense for the first time! The most important thing to do, and the best way to learn it if you ask me, is to just look at the code supplied in the DirectX 8 tutorials. When you see a function or constant you don''t understand, look it up on MSDN and it will all make sense. Just believe that it isn''t as bad as it looks and you''ll be fine!
Good luck.

i am programming in c++. i think i will continue to finish my book on dos programming. then i think from what ive read i should use the direct x sdk and just read throught that. thanks for everyones help. so far i havent seen really many good books for newbies on programming in windows.

Personally I would suggest C++ Builder. It lets you write Windows programs with a bare understanding of the Windows API and in the process you learn not just the API, but some good programming practices as well. It is an abstraction of the Windows API, but usually most of the actions you take are single Windows API calls or a sequence that must be executed together.

where can i find c++ builder and tutorials on it, etc...thanks

where can i find c++ builder and tutorials on it, etc...thanks