Special Edition Using Microsoft (R) Windows XP, Professional (Professional)

This book has been at my right hand for a month while I have been switching from Windows 98SE to XP. I could not have installed XP without it. I've used Windows 95, 98 and 98SE, but XP is enough different that a book like this is absolutely needed. The book has checklists for before and after installation and extensive explanations for "Using Windows" once you are up and running. The technical level is about right for me now; later, I will want more depth. The accompanying CD and the Tour that comes with Windows will help the rank beginner. I am not on a network so cannot critique the network chapter. And a remarkable plus: I had a question about getting out of my multibooting configuration, and the authors answered me on-line with carefully thought out advice. Yes, the book has some gaps: it answered about 80% of my questions, so I give it 4 stars. Don't install XP without a book like this.

A+++ a CD!Well written and resourced with good humor mixed in to break up any monotonous verbiage. As most of you know Que publishes some of the best material out there aside from some Microsoft Press books as well(I like em).Like others that have noted in previous reviews this book starts you out with the assumption that that you have used Windows before. This is a good thing for experienced users of Windows products however they should have written the book true to the level as it was given (Beginning Level) on the back cover.I enjoy this book as both a reference and a study. Most of us who use WinXP Pro on a daily basis will also. All in all you just can't go wrong with Que books. I also purchased a 13th Edition of Repairing PC's authored by Scott Muller also. Great books! Well worth the money.

A clearly written and thoroughly illustrated book that really covers ALL major aspects of WinXPP. It assumes some prior experience with Windows, so spares you from descriptions of how a mouse works and how windows are opened, concentrating instead on the things you really need to customize WinXPP and be truly productive. The authors don't hesitate to express their opinions, show their personal preferences, and suggest auxiliary software whenever appropriate. A fat book -- one with much meat on the skeleton. And it's fun, too....

I can't compare this to the other XP books on the market, but _Using XP_ is better written and better organized than the many other computer tomes I've bought in years past. It also has much less of the useless padding I've come to associate with computer books ... which is to say, marginally relevant information included only to make the book nice and thick, so the consumer will object less to shedding 40 plus bucks for it. My experience with the index has been consistently frustrating, and I wish the authors had included more hardcore nuts and bolts information in sections V and VI. Still, if ten plus years of experience with computer books is significant, I was quite lucky to find this book, and Windows users are lucky to be able to buy something by these writers. The last operating system book I bought was one of the 'Unleashed' titles, and boy, was that wretched.