free win95 c++ compiler

I think that your most productive bet is to go with cygwin's port of the gnu utilities. This is available at:

http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/download.html

Basically, you get a port of the majority of the unix command-line tools (bash, ls, mv, file, etc) along with a port of 2.95.x gcc integrated into the environment.

This set of tools is fantastic - if you add ActivePerl (http://www.activestate.com/) into the picture, you're set for an excellent prototyping/development environment for portable console-based C++ apps or for development that will make its way to a Unix machine.

You can certainly check out the links above, but if you're looking for a specific recommendation I would say cygwin is your best bet.

If you need to do GUI development and want to get into win32, you could still accomplish that with freeware/opensource solutions but I would recommend against it. You can grab an academic or learning edition of Visual C++ quite cheap (under a hundred bucks?) - definitely the way to go for a cheap win32 solution.

Steve

Depends on what you plan to do I think. With the Cygwin distibution you need a license if you are not going to distibute you applications under GPL (sort of public domain). The MinGw32 distribution is absolutly free. Cygwin appears to have a richer set of tools though. You can get the utilities from Cygwin off course, and make the builds with mingw32...
I don't know what restrictions are imposed on student editions of VC++.

Just found out, Borland has BC5.5for free! Need to investigate.

Sounds interesting.  Can you let me know if it's true and where it's available.  What I really need is a DOS compiler as I teach grade 11 C++ and my students want a simple free compiler they can use at home.  Of course if Borland is offering a version free that would make life easier.

Then you definitely should check out Jen's File Editor, a sort of IDE for GCC Win 32. Comes complete with GCC, libraries and an HTML 'help' system for C library functions. I think the guy wrote it for his students:
Link to the installation Exe:
http://cs-alb-pc3.massey.ac.nz/software/gcc.exe

which can be found on http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/ide-and-gui.html together with other possible ide candidates

I've had it running only briefly because it did not come with windows gui support and actually messed up my existing gcc installation (with win headers).

Thanks.  I'd appreciate it if you could keep me posted about the Borland situation as well.

Why not just check the web site out? Borland made this deal very visible:

http://www.inprise.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler/

Steve