Programming Windows 5th ed.

Hello, I'm trying to get into Windows programming and I've been told by a friend that this book (The one by Charles Petzold) is the best place to start. I know C++ pretty well, so that isn't a problem, but I'm worried about how old the book is. I doubt most of the code has changed between Win98 and today, but if I study this 1600 page tome will I get stuck with a modern compiler on some archaic term that isn't used anymore? I guess what I'm most worried about is wasting my whole summer reading this and learning a lot of stuff that is completely useless today.

Also, I know that everything is going to 64-bit these days with Windows 7 and all, and I'm worried that I'd be even further behind because of that with this book, should I not waste my time with it and look for something a little more modern?

Thanks, hopefully you guys can stop trolling for one min and help with a real question.

>>3

I'd like to fiddle with game programming at some point, but right now I just want to have fun with Windows itself.

But can you tell me if I'd be wasting my time reading the book I'm looking at?