Funny, when I was a beginner most people hacking on a computer at home had two choices, either some dialect of BASIC or, assembler. Today you can probably choose from literally hundreds of languages.

Here's what I'd recommend: start off with an interpreted language, maybe Python, and work through a couple of tutorials. If you want to be a little different maybe look at Lua. Then try to build something. Tutorials are good but not as motivating as your own project. I would avoid IDEs like Visual Studio at first, they have a lot of power but for a beginner they might be distracting and keep too much under the covers that you really need to understand.

Then start exploring other stuff. At some point you should try a functional language. Work through a book like the Little LISPer until you "get" recursion, currying, how the Y-combinator works (no not this site). Definitely take the time to learn C and pointers. Even assembly. Learn about object-oriented programming. Exposure to all these perspectives will make you a better programmer, no matter which language ultimately becomes your favorite.