Things I never learned in school

I'm trying to make a transition to real world programing and I need some guidance.

I have studied computer science for years at a University and I
consider myself a strong C++ programmer.

However I've lived in an Ivory tower. I program compression algorithms, neural networks, and databases. I've use an OS that is kind and idealistic.

So far, all I've really needed is curiosity, fstream.h, and occasionally glui.h for fancy windows and buttons.

These are my questions:

What is MFC?
What dose the Windows Registry do?
How do I associate a thread with an interrupt?
What is the general logic behind the win32 api?

This Is what I've figured out so far:

MFC: A program that supports MFC gets a "resources" tab in Microsoft Visual C++. (I just started using that compiler a month ago) These programs have lists of enumerated types, they are probably using them to control the resources.

The Registry: It seems to be a place for parameters and other data between the times your program is running. It serves as a way for all the programmes on the computer to communicate.

Interrupts: When you aren't programming in machine code you can only interact with devices through the operating system. The OS translates the programmers wishes into complex instructions that take full advantage of a particular device.

win32: This is a way of interacting with devices. Its fundamental unit is the COM object which provides data streams to devices like cin and cout. If I want to send some data to a particular port at a particular IP address I'll need to construct win32 COM object and use its << operator.