I started with good 'ol DOS Advanced BASIC.

I personally suggest you find yourself a copy of qbasic (it came with all MS-DOS versions 5.0 and above) and start with that. The language is simple, and you don't have to learn about Windows at the same time; just a nice, friendly console with 80 columns, 25 lines, and 16 colors.

C is hardly a good language for a beginner. Besides the fact that the syntax is very cryptic, it exposes the user to more details of implentation and more (relatively) dangerous constructs than the beginner needs to deal with.