Serial ports c++ in visual studio code

Question

I recently wanted to try using the serial port using c++ to comunicate with my arduino but all the tutorials i find are outdated or dont work. pls help. I found this code yesterday but i cant understand it and as previously stated i cant find a tutorial to help me.

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
// Define the five bytes to send ("hello")
char bytes_to_send[1];
bytes_to_send[0] = 1;


// Declare variables and structures
HANDLE hSerial;
DCB dcbSerialParams = {0};
COMMTIMEOUTS timeouts = {0};

// Open the highest available serial port number
fprintf(stderr, "Opening serial port...");
hSerial = CreateFile(
            "\\\\.\\COM5", GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL,
            OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL );
if (hSerial == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
        fprintf(stderr, "Error\n");
        return 1;
}
else fprintf(stderr, "OK\n");

// Set device parameters (38400 baud, 1 start bit,
// 1 stop bit, no parity)
dcbSerialParams.DCBlength = sizeof(dcbSerialParams);
if (GetCommState(hSerial, &dcbSerialParams) == 0)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error getting device state\n");
    CloseHandle(hSerial);
    return 1;
}

dcbSerialParams.BaudRate = CBR_38400;
dcbSerialParams.ByteSize = 8;
dcbSerialParams.StopBits = ONESTOPBIT;
dcbSerialParams.Parity = NOPARITY;
if(SetCommState(hSerial, &dcbSerialParams) == 0)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error setting device parameters\n");
    CloseHandle(hSerial);
    return 1;
}

// Set COM port timeout settings
timeouts.ReadIntervalTimeout = 50;
timeouts.ReadTotalTimeoutConstant = 50;
timeouts.ReadTotalTimeoutMultiplier = 10;
timeouts.WriteTotalTimeoutConstant = 50;
timeouts.WriteTotalTimeoutMultiplier = 10;
if(SetCommTimeouts(hSerial, &timeouts) == 0)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error setting timeouts\n");
    CloseHandle(hSerial);
    return 1;
}

// Send specified text (remaining command line arguments)
DWORD bytes_written, total_bytes_written = 0;
fprintf(stderr, "Sending bytes...");
if(!WriteFile(hSerial, bytes_to_send, 1, &bytes_written, NULL))
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Error\n");
    CloseHandle(hSerial);
    return 1;
}   
fprintf(stderr, "%d bytes written\n", bytes_written);

// Close serial port

}

I dont have much experience when it comes to using visual studio and i have less experience with c++ itself but i really want this to work. Thanks in advance,