[wglb]

Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dd299405.aspx. Gobs of stuff, compilers, linkers, headers free for the download. So the statement They still do, only in Linux/BSD land they do not. might not be true.

Visual studio full version is not free, but you can easily build (compile, link, run) everything for zero dollars. (Not even a picodollar.)

[pjmlp]

Try to get the free MFC framework, with the free 64 bit C++ compiler and the free static code analysis tools.

[wglb]

According to the release notes there, you get compilers that produce 32 and 64 bit executables.