Rating: 
Summary: The XP Bible
Review: A great reference for Widows XP. Covers just about everything in a well written, easy to read style. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Press is making XP a welcome addition.
Review: After installing Windows XP I began to ask several question about the configuration and administration of the operating system. I found this book to have the answers and much, much more information for me. I also found that this 1250 page reference manual is very useful in studying for the Windows XP Professional Exam, 70-270.Published by the company that produced the software, this book is broken down into 9 parts, with part 1 being the XP Overview of installing, configuring, deploying, moving files and components. Also covered here is accounts, permissions, policies, passwords and troubleshooting hardware. Part 2 is the customization of XP with task scheduling, power management which includes hibernation. Part 3 is the explorer which has areas like managing and finding files, encryption and offline work covered. Part 4 is the digital media section which includes the media player, scanner and imaging. Part 5 is the advanced IE area including internet security, customizing Outlook express, web hosting and communications. Part 6 the goes into system maintenance and recovery, which tackles topics like routing and disk management, troubleshooting errors messages and regedit. Part 7 is the networking part talking about small to large networks, sharing resources and remote access. Part 8 teaches about system administration with topics like profiles and policies and the even viewer. Finally part 9 is the Appendices which include the command prompt. MMC, services and system information. The cd-rom included has a number of utilities and tools and you need to have XP installed in order to run the cd. Also include the e-book of the book and overall an excellent manual to have on hand.
Rating: 
Summary: an ad for microsoft: superficial, key elements absent
Review: All advertisings are free and short, except this one, called 'Windows XP inside out'. An the price is expensive...! Unfortunately, this book is more out than in: it is SUPERFICIAL and MISSES a lot of CRUCIAL POINTS! So the title is simply fallacious and false! Like the pretentious 'Conquer Windows XP. These catchy phrases are here only to attract buyers, like all flashy and impressive slogans! The main and inexcusable drawbacks are: 1) It misses important and crucial points: it doesn't 'dig into XP and really put your PC at work', like it want us to believe!!! This is clearly the main negative point since the principal reason for buying this book is precisely to master XP. For example, it doesn't explain how to improve a DSL connection ..., what are all the useful tools that come with XP Professional (included in the Support folder of the XP CD-ROM), booting with Linux and the list goes on. 2) It barely scratches the surface for non-obvious, important issues and topics. For example, it has only a few pages about Windows Script Host and invites the reader to go elsewhere!!! Other topics, like internet, networking are only superficially touched in many important aspects. 3) The book is not coherent since from one side it explains the obvious, although it labels itself as destined for intermediate to advanced users and doesn't explain the uncommon elements. 4) Many 'tricks, tips' and elements are obvious. For example, the book wastes time and space to indicate what the desktop, an icon, the taskbar and the start button are!!! It also 'tells' you to 'click on an icon to perform the related action'! So one may pretend that this book is destined for everyone. But, first, the book clearly indicates (in the first paragraph of the cover page): "hey you know your way around your desktop-so know dig into windows xp'. Second, the level is clearly stated as 'intermediate/advanced'. Third, even if we consider the book as being for everyone, then why it doesn't explain what is less obvious. It's the major drawback explained below. 5) Many non-obvious elements are not explained! For example, the author talks about %systemroot%, but explains nothing. Although it explains what an icon is!!! Unfortunately, the index has nothing for this word. It's only by reading other chapters that apparently have nothing to do that the reader can know what this means. An the list continues. 6) It pretends to provide useful software but gives in reality useless elements.
The CD-ROM is a commercial for Microsoft and third-party products. It gives you for example Partition Magic demo and some other trial versions but a) they are known (they can be found in virtually every magazine CD) and 2) they are not really useful (they're only demos!).
However, it exist a lot of software that is really useful and free for cleaning the registry, increasing download speed, increasing DSL connection speed and so on. But the CD(ROM doesn't provide them or even indicates where to find them. 7) The books deals with the Home and Professional edition but it doesn't clearly distinguish what is specific to the Professional edition.
So the reader tries what the book ways, but find that it doesn't work or appear as expected. There is only a small indication at the beginning of the specific part to tell it's only for the Professional version!!! But in the middle, there are elements for both versions! And then for only one. So it's really confusing and time-consuming. 8) Lack of critical view. The ad-in-disguise also shows in the objectivity and the comments. One of the main points may be the privacy. The author completely misses crucial issues, like information transmitted to Microsoft or third-party companies without the user's knowledge or acceptance and so on.
The author has an overly optimistic view of the software, not only XP, but Internet Explorer and other Microsoft products. For example, it considers that you can select your search engine with Explorer while actually you can only select one source among a very limited list!!! (It however exists a tip to select the search engine you want, and not the one Microsoft proposes.)
For finding help, it always refers to Microsoft or the like. No comment. 9) There is an electronic version of the book in the Cd-ROM. And then? If the book is itself of very limited usefulness... So if you really want to know Windows XP, tweaking, optimization, and the liken don't buy this ad looking like a 'book'.
Rating: 
Summary: Power Users Rejoice!
Review: Are you an experienced Windows user who is tired of all the operating system instruction manuals rehashing on how to create folders, use the recycle bin, and create desktop icons? Do you want to dig deep and unlock the real power of XP? If so, this meaty 1245 page manual is for you. This book covers both XP home and professional editions and it is written with the assumption that you have already mastered the basics. A great deal of XP education is presented from making the most of virtual memory, to editing the registry, to hosting a Web or FTP site. Actually, so much territory is covered that it is impossible to list all here but if you need your intermediate to advanced questions answered you'll find it in Windows XP Inside Out. This guide is logically sequenced and pleasing to the eye. Throughout you will find dialogue boxes that contain special tips, notes, figures, and useful tables. Eye-popping visuals bring your attention to new features exclusive to XP. Why not crack open this book and give your Windows knowledge the tune-up it needs to operate accurately, efficiently, and adeptly.
Rating:
Summary: Useful and complete
Review: As promised there is no elementary information in this book (like "how do I resize a window?"). It is intended for people who have used previous versions of Windows and want to know all of the settings/features/facilities that are in XP. It contains some very useful technical information (e.g. do NOT enable Plug and Play in the Bios), but is written in a way that non-technical people (ordinary users) can understand.
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Summary: make's life easier
Review: Being a linux user i cannot escape using windows xp when working at my office. Have lost the develoment process since windows 95, this book did get me started. It is well written, has a nice lay out, touches all the usuall and important topics. I goes further then the introduction and online help from microsoft. The online help from microsoft is useless, compared to linux with all it's mailinglists it is a crying shame, considering the price you pay for their software.
Widows xp is difficult when using it with non-microsoft hardware and software, this book will help you out, but computer knowledge is needed, and not all hardware trouble could be tackled easily with this book, some hardware was not confugurable at all even with this excellent book.
Cocluding: excellent book, covers all topics needed to know for optimal use of windows xp, with some computer knowledge even usefull with big problems.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good XP Resource
Review: First I must take issue with some people who say that XP is completley new and different from 2000(from memory some reviews here say this). I'm a network administrator and we recently upgraded our network to Windows 2000. What does this have to do with XP? Well, in preparing for the upgrade I came accross Mark Minasi's book, Mastering Windows 2000 Server. Eventually we started getting outside clients who were buying new systems with Windows XP preloaed on them so I cracked open my msdn windows xp evaluation and went through the XP Inside and Out book. From reading this book and Mark's it became very clear that Windows XP really is Windows 2000 with a Win 9x/ME influenced GUI. In other words is a refined version of 2000 with lots of new shiny toys that the barebones 2000 was missing (yes, things like msconfig are back). You see, 90% of Windows XP Inside and Out is already gone over in good Windows 2000 books such as Mark Minasi's. The only new information here was learning about the new interface, and seeing what new features have been added into Media Player and the Support and help tools (these make me happy). The reason why I'm bothering to talk about this is because if you're already a Windows 2000 expert like me, then you probably are better off with buying a thinner book that doesn't go into detail on the NTFS file system or other NT/2000 subjects that would be new for a Win 9x user. Just go get something that quickly goes over the new interface and the support tools. However, if your coming straight from a Windows 9x environment or don't have much experience with 2000 (NT experience doesn't count) then I highly recommend this book. It goes over a lot of the NT/2000/XP basics that are very different from a Win 9x environment. Heck, even if you are an experienced 2000 expert I would still recommend this book because its very well written and has lots of nice details; you're just not going to be reading much new content.
Rating:
Summary: in a class by itself
Review: for every version of windows that has come out, i have bought the 1000+ page reference work. this book is so far superior to the others, it is in a class by itself. it explains things in a clear manner (not so short that you don't get the principles involved, yet not so long that you get lost in the wordiness). it does not refer you to the system administator for slightly complex issues, but rather gives an explanation an intermediate user can use to resolve the problem (eg., it will explain how to edit the boot file to change the designation of the system(s) for multiboot). it lets you decide if you can do this yourself. many times all that an intermediate user needs is this sort of information. we do not have the extensive reference library and years of training, but we can do some advanced tasks, if the underlying principles are explained and how to accomplish the task is deliniated.
i have only read the first couple of chapters, but i already have a couple of pages of notes on installing and configuring my system when i install XP in 2-3 days. almost all of the questions i had about the differences in XP and its new features have been answered (eg., multiboot, bios, activation codes, access control, moving settings from old system onto clean install -- with references to other issues that i will want to know more about soon: dynamic drive, etc.)
by this book and forget the others. trust me. have i ever lied to you before?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book and Coverage
Review: For those that buy technical books to learn about and understand a technical topic in depth, it is rare that you can find such a book. However, "Microsoft Windows Xp Inside and Out," fills the bill. This text is well written and is very thorough (I have not finished yet, but am sure the rest of the book will be as excellent as what I have read so far.) Experienced Windows OS users will find this a real jewel, as attested to by other reviewers. Inexperienced viewers, however, are likely to find this book rather dense and may want to start out with other books.
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Summary: Not just an overview of the XP operating system
Review: Highly recommended for those who like to know the details presented in an interesting manner. This book not only explains all of the settings and lesser known ways (beyond the sometimes limited GUI) of changing the XP configuration, but lets you know potential drawbacks of some configuration choices. If a book is interesting and has valuable information, I read it slowly, highlight text and look forward to coming back after putting it down. This book will take a looong time to read.
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