for windows application.... .net is cool. About C as the starting language...umm...I am not quite sure of that. I started with C myself in highschool...where we didn't have to take any exam in computer science but were just taught for fun....but technically i will say I started with C++ as I learned nothing in C(bunkin in high school). C++ is more used these days because of its object oriented nature(~ C is still cool...don't worry C lovers.) You can start with Java...which some of my friends did if you are not really serious into programming and just want to do some stuff....cause Java has many stuff already written so u can always import stuff you like. If you are however, seriously considering programming, Java will not be a good choice to start with because transition from C++ to Java is really easy( in my personal experience) than transition from java to C++(according to many of my friend's experience).