This is an excellent book to get started programming in Microsoft's COM and ATL technologies. The author appears to have written this book as if you, the reader, are a student in his seminar.
There are labs included with each chapter to practice the material covered. There are serveral handy Visual Studio tips discussed. The book is up-to-date and covers everything you need to get going. As a prerequisite, prior C programming is needed and familiarity with C++ programming is recommended. As an aside, the author reviews C++ in the first chapter.
I found that author's lab approach similar to being in a seminar. That is, where the instructor is telling you what to do in general steps. With guided help and where you need to need thing about what is being coded. That is, all the necessary code is covered in the labs, but the _exact_ order can, at first, be confusing. I prefer Wrox Pub. "try this", style to the lab approach. This is a minor issue though. The solutions are included on CDROM.