Try it with the oldest PC you can get your hands on.
Advoid newer PCs and laptops.
If you can get it to work it may be OK if you only want to prorgram existing hex files. If you want to do your own programming I suggest you get a PICkit2 or Bill's Junebug. They have an in circuit debugger which allows you to debug code on the microcontroller. The Junebug contains a target with switches, LEDs etc that can be used while learning.
Both use firmware written and maintained by microchip.
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