Hello all. I have two main questions

first I made a little program in qbasic a long time ago before I knew c/c++ that was very usefull for me and I have been trying to convert it to c/c++ many times and I never succeeded. The main problem is that my qbasic code was using a many times the qbasic command COLOR and LPRINT "" and I don't know how to do something similar on visual C++.

What I need exactly is first to send stuff to the printer (just text) I need a command like printf("Hello, world !!!\n"); but sending the hello world to the printer instead of the screen. I would like first to have something like a dos command because I'm using a old matrix printer which I don't have the driver. But I'm also thinking about replacing this old printer and if I do that I would need a command which send the stuff to the printer using Windows XP and the printer drivers.

If it's possible I would also like to be able to change the font color in the dos promt. Something to change the color of the output in a command like printf("Hello world");

Finally my last question, I'm looking for a reference if possible available online for free, but I might also buy a book about how to do windows programming. All the programming I did up to now was done in dos and I have no idea where to start for windows programming. One friend told me that the best way to do that is JAVA, I tried and I really don't like java, so I would appreciate if someone can tell me where I should start for doing basic windows programming in c/c++ and a good reference it would be very appreciate. (If someone have one or two basic example of windows programming it would also be very appreciate)