He says to learn C by using console-mode applications. Then, once you are sufficiently comfortable with the C language, you can move on to learning Windows programming using C.

I think he's saying that if you don't know any C, it's best to learn it through making console apps instead of actual windows apps. The code to get a console app going is only a few lines... to create even a basic window takes a few pages it seems.

[EDIT] You can still use MS Visual Studio (if that's what you're using...) or something similar, just create a "console" app instead of a windows app... He doesn't mean you have to program in DOS, just make a DOS program.[/EDIT]

Additionally, a console-mode program built on modern compilers will still probably be quite capable of getting access to the Windows API, and will thus still be capable of create windows and doing all the Windows programming stuff. The primary difference between a console-mode program and a play Windows program is that the Windows program does very little for you. You start with just a few parameters (such as the command line parameters). You are then responsible for creating and displaying any windows. The console-mode program on the other hand automatically creates a console window for you (if you didn't already run the program from a console window), and sets I/O so that functions like printf() and scanf() (or C++'s objects cin and cout) interact with the console. It basically sets up a simplified environment for you to work in, so that you don't have the burden of setting it all up yourself.