@
lalugu
I should say that my comment above was a bit of a joke.
I'm quite experienced with programming, so I really do use Terminal, g++, and vi.
And I would label these tools as "expert-friendly." You want "beginner-friendly" tools.
For you, as a beginner, I would recommend getting Visual Studio as soon as possible.
The lecture videos show you step-by-step how to do stuff using Visual Studio.
So save yourself unnecessary frustration and let the maximum number of people help you.
Besides, I felt there were more operating-system-specific details in Levels 1 & 2 than the other levels I have worked through so far.
I highly recommend
Virtualbox.
Super easy to use, free, and has spread like wildfire (lots of people use it now).
Regardless which virtual machine software you choose (virtualbox, parallels, etc), you will need a Windows installation CD and the Visual Studio installer (which I think you can get from Dreamspark if you are currently a student).