Maybe some of you know PellesC
http://smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/index.htma beautiful small but powerful Win32 C-compiler with IDE & Debugger.
Pelle (author of PellesC) has solved this point elegant.
if one wants to compile a source file without prior defining a project, then the IDE prompts,
if one wants to create a default project with the actual source file.
This default settings are good for a typical Hello-world console program,
which is practically good enough for all of that first-time hobby-programmers,
which are learning how to use a compiler, linker, debugger, IDE's and so on, and
still not know the difference of the mentioned tools nor are able to resolve linker errors
nor are able to set up a meaningful project setup with different source and header files.
This keeps the Pelles-C forum
http://smorgasbordet.com/phpBB2/index.php *nearly* free of the typical "cannot compile" spam.