Im not really sure, I'd have to say codeblocks even still, because you can use a cross platform wxWidgets toolkit for GUI stuff which does allot more than .NET framework controls. It can do MDI and allow docking floating panels, it also has a Scintilla wrapper, which is like a code editor with the line numbers and stuff and it can be customized and parses pretty much all of the known languages, being XML HTML C# C++ Java Basic you name it. But if you really just want an easy to use game programming IDE and language for only Windows development, use XNA & Visual C#.

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

When somebody is starting out, learning things for the first time, ambitions of being cross-platform should be the last thing on their minds, the bottom of any concievable priority list.

They have enough to be doing as it is. There's a huge body of knowledge that they need to build up on just one platform; multiply that out by the number of possible platforms they may wish to hit and you've a recipe for failure. No, libraries and toolkits aren't good enough - there are still enough platform-specific quirks that they fail to abstract out fully. Learning new stuff, making it work, dealing with mistakes and misunderstandings, and having to do it all over again for each aditional platform - that's just not gonna fly.

There's nothing wrong with aiming to go cross-platform, but just not for the first project. Recommendations to (paraphrasing here) "use OpenGL because it will help you get on the iStore" are neither helpful nor constructive here, nor are they even remotely on-topic with respect to the question actually being asked.

As previously said, I also suggest Visual Studio, it is great on Windows OS, well it is the best I know...

If you ever go to other platforms ( for example Linux ), then I suggest to use QtCreator, it has a really good debugger and the usability is awesome, but it really feels a bit strange to use it for "normal" C++ code. But there is a good alternate too, like Code::Blocks.

However, if you consider making something big and multi-platform ,it is better to use cmake or other build tools instead the internal project management of Visual Studio or qmake( it's not bad, but not useful for non-qt development ).

Did you not read my last sentence? That is why I suggested XNA and Visual C# if he really want's something basic to start out with. But if he really wants to learn 3D programming the real technical way (DirectX/OpenGL) I would suggest he learn OGL it is much better I think to learn with than DirectX, plus it saves him from wasting his time learning DirectX. I would start with OGL and then learn DirectX, allot of DX code is pretty archaic and it is nowhere as safe as OGL programming.

Personally I would suggest he use something like Unity3D or Game Maker, or more specifically the open source free Game Maker that I am a developer for.

Strikes me that it's a LONG time since you've last had experience of D3D code (and the arguments you're making can be quite easily destroyed, but save them for another topic, which - I more than half suspect - the mods will shut down in pretty short order).

The core point remains - the question was relating to an IDE, not an API or framework.

IMO in order of best.

VS2012 // best for windows

QtCreator // best for cross platform

Eclipse CDT // good cross platform but kinda slow, can be difficult to setup.

code::blocks // light on resources but aged, new version in the works

Here is a pretty good list of IDE's by language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_integrated_development_environments

While I'm using Eclipse for my Java projects, I generally use CodeLite + mingw to code in C++. Codelite is the closest thing to professional MSVS that I've found and it's lightweight.