Many engineering and computer science labs tend to have Turbo C++ IDE as the basic IDE. That is not appropriate for new standards of C\C++ and an alternative must be sought for it.
An IDE such as Dev-C++ would work great for school labs, because it needs no configuration and is easy to use. It can compile single .c\.cpp files (most other IDEs need you to create project files for every program you want to run) However, Dev-C++ is not an active project which means you do not get updates and you may end up like Turbo C++ in a few years.
Another option for Windows Based computers is to consider Relo + Borland Free Compiler. Find details here. This is probably the best for old Turbo C++ users because it supports traditional code too.
Also, you might consider Code::Blocks as an IDE which is full fledged IDE for C\C++ but it might be difficult at the beginning. If you create many small programs rather than a large project, then you will feel this one difficult to use. Also, it is slow and may not perform well on old computers. Code::Blocks is available for both Windows and Linux.
Geany is the best IDE of choice if you want a small lightweight IDE for Windows, Linux and Mac.
In Linux, it should be available at your software repository. Use the software management tool for your distro to install it. If it is not, you may download the source package from the official geany website http://www.geany.org and build from source.
If you want it for Windows, you can get it at the download page. Also look at Running On Windows.
Happy Coding.
