Don't worry, I also switched to visual studio 2005 just a few days back...If you have Visual studio 2005, (u can download it for free from microsoft's site) here's a link which explains how you can compile and debug c programs in VC++,
http://cplus.about.com/od/learningc/qt/compilingc.htm
And about the forum...I am also not at all experienced in programming, but I found this forum so helpful, with newbies it will be like 2 ignorant adding to each other's ignorance, try to gain something from senior people's experience...hope you'll continue with the forum..