do you know the notion of relative paths?
"./" is the current directory
"../" is the parent directory
if you have an absolute path of: C:\mygame\bin\my.exe
then "../media/my.png" will denote a file in: C:\mygame\media\my.png
oh and you can use \ or /, it doesnt matter anymore under windows.
with / you only need one. and it is compatible with unix & linux.
when running your program from your IDE, the current directory will be the project file directory (not the debug or release folder in it, where the exe is compiled).
So you best just move the exe to the project folder if you want to test it outside of the IDE.
To let your cpp files find their includes, you can add the folders where your headers are located to your project settings.
another way would be to use the relative notion when declaring the include file: #include "../myheader.h"
furthermore there is a slight difference between using #include "some.h" and #include <some.h>
the difference is that with "" it will search in the project and cpp file folder, and the project include folders, while with <> it will search in any default include folder on the system, and your projects. But I am never too sure about this so I might be incorrect