Suggestions for C++ development libraries?

I'v been looking for quite a while now, and have found many different types of SDK's (software development kits). The trouble is, that their is to many to pick from and related resorces such as tutorials and instalation guides are difficult to find. Can anyone suggest a SDK that allow C++ programs to be executed without using the .NET framework and an abundent sorce of tutorials ect.... I'm using MS Visual C++ 2005 at the mom, if thats any help. thanxs

You can always write C++ programs that don't use the .NET framework. In Visual Studio, select "Win32 application" or "Win32 Console Application" rather than some flavor of managed code to write a traditional compiled program.

SDKs exist to allow you to do a particular task easily. For instance, if I'm writing a game for, say, a mobile computing device there are some great SDKs that make that job a LOT easier. Most SDKs have tutorials associated with them. But you are never REQUIRED to use an SDK; you could, in principle, do everything in vanilla C if you want. No tutorials for that but there are plenty of programming books for C and C++.