Coming from the world of Java--Sublime and the Linux command line, IDE's, write-and-go on the fly behavior--, C++ and Visual Studio are the two scariest things I've ever encountered in my life.
You have to deal with menus upon menus upon menus and lots of Studio crashing that can actually break Windows.
Is there any simple way to just write a couple C++ files with a text editor and compile them, using Windows or Linux?
You might want to try a command-line compiler like gcc, clang or Microsofts C/C++ compiler from the command-line nmake. That can be easier to understand than a complicated gui.
If you want to learn C++ then I recommend the book C++ Primer by Stanley Lippman.