Where to start - A program that just draws a square on the screen

[jimmorrison]

Hi,

I have done a search of the forum to no avail. I have also googled but cannot find clean code regarding.

I am starting a project to draw a simple gauge. I want some advice on how to go about starting it; i.e. which library to use to create/draw the gague. I just want to KISS.

My constraints are:
Visual C++ 6.
Needs to work on Win2000+ with no extra's needed; i.e. no .NET. and no DirectX(?)
I presume it cannot be in a dialog.
Ultimately there could be 40 of these gagues shown at once.

First step:
So I want to execute my square.exe.
And a small square will appear on the desktop - White background

Second step (that I don't need answered but FYI)
Add one more square overlapping first square, but change the width to show it measuring a value - Black.

Third step (FYI)
Make the gague draggable so you can choose where it sits on screen.

Fourth step (FYI)
Turn step 1, 2 and 3 into an object/class so I can reuse and make multiple gagues.