I found MFC a lot easier to use and works every well for all of my projects. The latest ATL may be a little better, but we do not have the luxury of upgrading to the latest version of VC++. We are still using VC++ 5.0. ATL in VC++ 5.0 is a pain in the butt for simple things such as adding an event to your com object. A lot of people here will probably tell you different things, though.