Authors: Robert Cowart and Brian Knittel
Publisher: Que Publishing (www.informit.com/que)
Published: April 2008
ISBN-10: 0-7897-3781-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-3781-6
Format: Soft cover, 1536 pages plus companion CD-ROM
Price: $49.99
Coming to terms with Windows Vista
The book, "Special Edition: Using Microsoft Windows Vista", presents a comprehensive look at the newest release of Windows, and it is a handy book to keep close by whenever you're working with Vista. A second edition of the book has recently been published that covers Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Because of the enormous amount and variety of subject matter that is discussed within the book – its length is just over 1500 pages – its contents can be used equally effectively by those readers just starting out with Vista as well as by more experienced users wanting to maximize their use of Vista's advanced features.
The content of the book has been organized in such a way that you can quickly go to those sections of the book that will meet your immediate needs. For instance, if you are totally unfamiliar with Vista, the opening two sections of the book are the ideal place to start reading.
The first of these sections offers an overview of Windows Vista along with a short history of Windows itself. Once you've read through this section of the book, you will know what's new in Windows Vista; the differences between the various versions of Vista; and how it compares to UNIX and Linux. It is here too that you will find all the information that you need to perform a brand new installation of Windows Vista, or alternatively, to upgrade to it from a previous version of Windows. A particularly useful chapter in this section of the book is titled "The First Hour" and it goes through, step by step, the sorts of activities that you should get involved in immediately after you've started Windows Vista for the first time. Some examples of those activities are setting up user accounts; establishing Internet access, and then downloading any critical updates; transferring information from your old computer; and completing a successful log off or a complete shutdown.
The second of the two opening sections of the book has been written to help readers to get a quick feel for using Vista. The different components of the Windows Vista interface are introduced and readers are encouraged to actively experiment as they progress through the chapter. If you have used Windows before, you may be thinking that you could probably safely skip over this section of the book. But Robert Cowart and Brian Knittel, the authors of "Special Edition: Using Microsoft Windows Vista", advise against that. Their reasoning is that "many users of Windows Vista will be upgrading from Windows 9x, NT, 2000, and even XP. For those users, savvy as they might be with Windows concepts, the Windows Vista interface is different enough that they'll need a roadmap to get started." In fact, Cowart and Knittel go on to say that once you've spent some time familiarizing yourself with the new Vista interface, "you'll wonder how you ever got around in those old clunky environments." Three other chapters complete this section of the book and they are respectively devoted to the issues of managing files and searching; printing; and using the Vista Sidebar and the host of gadgets that can be put into it. Examples of some of the more popular gadgets are the calendar, clock, contacts, currency, feed headlines, and weather. If you're a fan of gadgets, the good news is that you can download new ones as they become available from Microsoft or other venders.
The remaining half a dozen sections that make up the rest of the book can be read in the order of your choosing. The subjects covered in those sections, plus examples of some of the specific sorts of information that you can expect to find in those sections, are as follows:
1. Multimedia and imaging: getting music and video onto your computer; image manipulation in Windows Vista; scanning and faxing; using Windows Movie Maker to produce videos; and an indepth look at the Windows Media Center.
2. Windows Vista and the Internet: safer alternatives to Internet Explorer; security features in Windows Mail; troubleshooting Internet problems with Windows TCP/IP utilities; and an overview of Internet Information Services 7.0.
3. Networking: Windows Vista network services; instructions for creating a Windows network; insights into how to network with other operating systems; connecting your network to the Internet; and advice and tips for troubleshooting your network.
4. Maintaining Windows Vista: tweaking the Vista GUI; managing hard disks; keeping Windows and other software on your system up to date; upgrading your hardware; editing the Registry; and an overview of command-line and automation tools.
5. Security: strategies for dealing effectively with viruses and spyware; data protection; antispam tactics; and protecting your system from hackers and fraudsters.
6. Windows Vista and its relevance to mobile and remote users: examples of topics tackled in this section of the book include wireless networks and related wireless security issues; online meetings and collaboration; and connecting other computers with Remote Desktop.
For a full listing of the Table of Contents for "Special Edition: Using Microsoft Windows Vista", go to the site of the book's publisher, Que Publishing (www.informit.com/que). While visiting the site, take the opportunity too to read the sample chapter that is published there – it is the eighth chapter from the book, in which Cowart and Knittel, the book's authors, lead readers through how to get the most out of Windows Media Player in Vista.
One feature of the book that has the potential to save you considerable time and effort has been the inclusion of tips from what the authors of the book refer to as the "Windows Pros." For instance, in the "Windows Vista and the Internet" section of the book there are tips that show you how to stay connected whenever you're traveling overseas; how to find and use PDF documents on the Web; how to take full advantage of what newsgroups have to offer; how to create formatted email; and the use of scripting for interactive sites.
The very last part of the book has been reserved for a couple of appendixes. The first of those provides the details of Windows programs – executable programs, MS-DOS applications, Control Panel applets, Microsoft Management Console plug-ins, and screen savers – along with the details of Windows Services (this is useful information to know about because firstly, not all versions of Windows Vista include all of the services listed in the appendix, and secondly, not all the services will necessarily be enabled on a particular Vista installation). The second appendix takes readers through what's new in Service Pack 1 (SP-1).
Personally, regardless of what version of Windows I'm using at the time, I like to have a few different books about that version readily available for reference purposes. Doing so commonly provides different perspectives for getting out of a tight spot, and invariably, you often stumble across better ways of completing tasks simply because you have a larger pool of author experience from which to draw upon. But if your book buying budget is limited, or maybe you find that having too many books on the same topic only results in confusion, then it could be that "Special Edition: Using Microsoft Windows Vista" is the only book you'll ever need.
One final point. The wide variety of content that has been included in the book means that the book serves a two-fold purpose: not only will you be able to make use of the book at work for professional reasons, you will also be able to use it at home as well. For example, from a home user perspective, one of the tips in the multimedia and imaging section of the book explains how to play audio from your portable device through your car stereo.
Another one of the appealing features of the book is its companion CD-ROM that contains a series of video lessons complementing the subject material presented in different parts of the book. If you prefer to watch how a particular task can be completed, instead of just reading about how to do it, you can tune into these CD-ROM based lessons to see, for example, how to personalize Windows Vista (lesson running time is 23 minutes), or how to use the new Windows Explorer (22 minutes), or how to take advantage of speech recognition (10 minutes), and so on. In total, the CD-ROM contains more than 80 minutes of video tutorials. In addition, a couple of Web links have been included on the CD-ROM that point to additional lessons (some of these lessons are free while you will have to purchase the others). It's worth pointing out too that you don't have to have Windows Vista already installed before you can watch the video tutorials because the minimum requirements for doing so are Windows Media Player 9 and Windows XP.