Here is the simplest Hello, World! program for Windows, in five lines instead of 600. From the preface of my book, Windows 98/NT Programming Unleashed.
#include <windows.h>
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE d1, HINSTANCE d2, LPSTR d3, int d4)
{
MessageBox(NULL, "Hello, World!", "", MB_OK);
} 