Looking for a replacement C++ IDE other than Microsoft Visual C++ \ Express.

My history of IDE's for programming in C++ are:

Borland C++ 4.02
(VC6) MS Visual C++ 6.0
BloodShed Dev 5.0

I tried out Netbeans C++ IDE on a healthy Windows 7 64-bit system and when compiling good code it fails and the debug output is just about worthless. Going into Debug it gives options to configure the debugger as if the IDE is not ready after installation to just code something up and be able to compile and debug it right away as I guess I was spoiled with in all prior IDEs I have ever used to have a functional and very valuable debugger right at the get go and netbeans lacks that or isnt user friendly... https://netbeans.org/features/cpp/index.html

I liked BloodShed Dev C++ 5.0, BUT it has so many bugs and some bugs are causing grammatically and syntax correct code to compile successfully but completely malfunction such as within a while loop of recent code each iteration of the loop flips a value between 0 and 1 and back to 0 again in a flipflop, and the value starts at 0 as the integer is initialized before the loop and then the variable++; increments by 1 to value of 1, it runs an IF STATEMENT that if the variable is = 1 run a process different than if the variable was 0 and before exiting the IF logic to set the value back to 0 so the next iteration of the loop the value is now 0 and so it does the other logic for if the value is not equal to 1. The value gets stuck at 1 so it runs as 0111111111 instead of 0101010101. I dug out of storage my old Borland 4.02 and opened my CPP project and compiled it without any issues, ran the program and it runs correctly with 0101010101 so there is an issue with Bloodshed Dev C++ 5.0 in that the compile result from the source code is flawed and so it must be a bug that I ran into with it. I dont want to go back to using Borland 4.02 on my old Windows XP system because it is so out of date. So looking for a modern IDE that will work the same as Borland 4.02, VC6, and Bloodshed Dev C++ 5.

Reason for avoiding Microsoft Visual C++ Express is 2 reasons...

#1 - I want to use one that is FREE that is completely FREE and so I have all Dev Features as well as no restrictions of HOME vs Corporate Use
#2 - Might be nonsense, but I dont want to program based around MS VC++ because I want my source code to be less dependent on Microsoft and more flexible cross platform into Linux etc. I guess I am saying that I dont want to have a SITUATION where I paint myself into a corner with programming for Windows if MS VC++ uses Windows ONLY libraries etc. *Sure I could always run it through Linux in a WINE environment, but I just want to avoid the potential to paint myself into a corner by creating more universal non OS platform specific code. (** I also have never programmed in C++ before for Linux but would like to and so you might see something in this part that I am wrong about and maybe I dont have to worry about MS VC++ created code migrating to Linux OS use. )

** I feel the issue with #2 is because back in the day with Borland C++ 4.02 my code was proper for Borland and compiled and ran with no issues, and yet with VC6 I would get compile errors until I tweaked the code to be to VC6 syntax such as i had to be specific with VC6 to specify #INCLUDE on one of them and the other wanted it as #INCLUDE without the .h . Quick search online shows that .h use is depreciated. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2976477/difference-between-iostream-and-iostream-h so I guess as standards came to be and Borland 4.02 is before many standards of today that would be why that is that issue between them however I have a feeling that that latest Visual C++ IDE has features that are not cross platform friendly for OS and so i am trying to avoid getting snagged if there is a snag into programming only for around MS Windows and trying to remain universal if at all possible.

Visual Studio Express is 4 years old. They re-branded the Express editions to Community Editions. #1 is now irrelevant because the Community Edition is free for both personal and corporate use and furthermore is identical to the Professional Edition. It's only limitation is that it cannot be used in ENTERPRISE environments. (Well it can, but it would break the license).

Most Open Source C++ software uses Microsoft Visual C++ for building their Windows Binaries. Avoiding MS-specific extensions is fairly easy. You can change compiler options to use g++ to avoid language extensions (or, know how to recognize them), and bind to GTK or TCL/TK or some other cross-platform toolkit if you make any User-Interface software.

Thanks BC ... gonna give the Community Edition a try. Surprised the ISO is 7.1GB

https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/