C++ and you book

I know your book is focused on learning C++ in conjunction with Visual Studio, but I'd like to know a couple things regarding it.

1. Is it a beginners book or more of a book that teaches how to apply and use C++ within Microsoft's Visual Studio environment with the assumption that the reader already has a grasp of the basics?

2. I read from the description that it covers creating Windows apps, does this also apply to CLI apps?

3. I read one of the comments posted on Amazon, that there is no coverage of pointers. Why is this? I was under the impression that pointers were fundamental in C++. Despite .NET being a mangaged environment, if you are programming in C++, you'd likely or may want at some point to write unmanaged code and need to access pointers or am I incorrect here?

Thanks.

I am just quoting Campbell the bartender from another post :-

C++ 2008 is a .NET language, which adds automatic garbage collection (and a keyword, gcnew and an operator ^ to go with it). It works on a VM, and therefore appears not to have memory locations or pointers. As you suggest, there is a rich built-in library of graphics and windowing classes. It si usual to program C++2008 with Visual Studio, rather than the text editors you can use for C++.

The book is specifically about the .NET version.