C compiler and environment

Hey there,
I am going to university next year and I will have to learn to program in C and I want to work in advance. I started learning it a month ago but had other stuff to do so I stopped doing it.
I had a working C-Free 5.0 and I liked it, but it got lost and now every time I try to run something in the newly installed C-Free it says 'Run program error' and I'm getting very pissed off.
Could you either help with this or recommend another good and free C compiler-environment?
Thanks.

They will be more difficult to set up.
Not really. You can download Emacs and KDE Windows binaries straight from their sites.

Also, Windows implies institutionalized rape from anyone who can write spyware (which includes various governmental agencies all around the world). The source code is not available and thus cannot be audited.
I'm not a paranoid pedophile or terrorist. Thus I do not give a shit.

Lastly, the freedom to tinker is severely curtailed by both technical and legal means.
Yet your freedom to tinker with Linux's code is curtailed by not knowing how to do it (let alone being familiar with its internals). Let's be honest, have you even downloaded the code?