Rating: 
Summary: 100% Useless!
Review: (Well I had to give it one star in order to post this review)This book is inadequate and inaccurate. Had the information printed in this book been accurate you could probably consider it to be a "Getting Started" type book that introduces you to the basics of Windows 2000 Professional. This book was obviously put together in a rush to meet a marketing deadline. In fact, I consider it dishonest to say the least, if not criminal, to even put a "book" like this on the market and claim it to have 100% coverage for the 70-210 exam (and how it is "Microsoft Approved" beats me!). The answers to the questions are wrong, there are even different answers in the book than on the CD for the same questions! Here are some mistake examples: the switches for WINNT.EXE and WINNT32.EXE are mixed up with each other, they talk about right clicking a file to share, the names of files, tabs and other titles are incorrect, the authors have confused kilobytes and bytes when talking about the size of disk sectors and file sizes, one exercise starts by changing a drive from NTFS to FAT but somehow the exercise changes to changing a drive from FAT to NTFS half way through, System File Checker's and Sigverif.exe's functions and results are confused with each other, bottleneck limits mentioned are incorrect, hardware minimum requirements are wrong, (you'll find different values on different pages for the same item), the content and quality of the "videos" are appalling - they've been added on as an advertisement gimmick - they have no value whatsoever in preparing for the exam ... and the list goes on. I read this book from cover to cover and was disgusted with the amount of mistakes, inaccuracies and inadequate information - I marked each mistake with a Post-it note until I ran out of notes (after about 50). I read the book for a second time from cover to cover and also checked for the correct information from Windows Help. As I haven't ever taken any MCP tests before I had no idea what the tests were like and relied on the book's CertTrainer and ExamSim questions to give me an idea. I recently took the exam and got the shock of my life when I saw the questions - this book does nothing to prepare you for the exam, the difference between the questions in this book and the actual test are like day and night. Many of the questions in the exam require networking expertise; this book does nothing to prepare you in that area. Needless to say, I failed the exam miserably and I don't really know what to do now. I knew everything in this book, after taking the exam I realized that the information in the book is even more inaccurate than I had thought and doesn't come close to being adequate. I would appreciate it if somebody could let me know where to find practice tests that actually resemble the real exam. Unfortunately I had already bought the 70-215 book before completing this book and before realizing what a total disaster it is. I shall throw the 70-215 book away unread - the money wasted buying these books is nothing compared to the time wasted reading them. One other thing, I will never buy anything by these authors again, that's for sure!
Rating: 
Summary: More than enough information to pass the exam.
Review: AS a free lance reviewer I get to read and review hundreds of books and often I find several great books on every subject. Also as a freelance reviewer I never do comparative reviews, my reviews are based solely on the content of each book. This book ranks as one of the best for passing the 70-210 exams and will be a nice addition to my technical library. The book starts from the beginning with installing, configuring and administration of 2000 professional, then you move to administration of the resources, file & print systems, troubleshooting, optimizing, networking, security and user accounts to make this one of the most complete books on the subject. Each chapter breaks down the topics in the smaller more understandable sections and gives you exercises to perform along the way to enhance the learning process. There are also questions, labs, a two-minute drill and self-test in each chapter. The book is also the perfect classroom book, as it seems to be tailored made for instructor lead classes. The book includes a cd-rom with CertTrainer, a lab simulator and ExamSim with adaptive practice exams. Finally there are over 30 minutes of audio material on the cd and also an electronic version of the book included. The authors have left no stone unturned and have given you a great opportunity to pass the exam the first tie around. The book is priced under $50.00 and on-line you can purchase for less. Whether new the MCSE game or an old hand, this book will have you moving into the new millennium of computing!
Rating:
Summary: I used this book to pass the exam!
Review: As one of the series editors of this book, I decided to "eat my own dogfood" when it came time to study for the Win2k Pro exam. I used this book as my study guide and I slam-dunked the exam! This book gets into explaining the topics, not just giving you a outline and a mass of bulleted lists for you to memorize (who memorizes bulleted lists anyhow?). There are hundreds of questions in the book, and lots more on the CD. Also on the CD are CertCam Movies, where you can watch the procedures in over 40 of the exercises actually being performed on a Win2k Pro computer. Put that together with the quick review mode and audio tracks on the CD, and you'll find yourself with a Powerhouse study system. If I can do it using this book, so can you!
Rating:
Summary: I wailed the Test
Review: Before I got the book, I took the 4 core Micrsoft Classes, 2151, 2152, 2153, 2154, and I used their materials and the transcenders to study for my test and I failed it, by getting a score of 540. After I got the book, and studied it, I took the test again and got a 700. I probably could have done better, but I only read half of the book. I remember specific points brought up in the "On the Exam" portions of the book that were also brought up in questions on my exam. Excellent book, the CD makes it even better.
Rating:
Summary: Do not Buy. Bad info in book. Author has not seen product.
Review: Beware of this book. It has heaps of incorrect info in it. It states how to do things that cannot be done in real-life, and does not explain many concepts like SYSPrep or RISPrep properly. It makes incorrect statements about the user accounts created at installation, as an example. I got the impression that the content was copied verbatim from early marketing material released by Microsoft when Windows 2000 was still in Beta. I really doubt if the Authors had even seen the product when this book was written. Another example. The book states that you use the /b switch to run winnt32. We all know that this switch no longer exists in Windows 2000, and any student can learn it by typing the command /?. So the authors have obviously never run the command. In short, if you learn from this book, you will need to unlearn the facts, and then learn again from a better source. The book should be banned, and the authors forced to do the exercises themselves.
Rating:
Summary: WASTE OF MONEY
Review: I bought this useless pice of cra*, wich comes with the syngress core set for windows 2000. This Pro 2000 study guide is VERY confusing, contains BAD writing and MANY mistakes Just a waste of money. Just read my review on this wastelex core set from syngress. The book that really counts is the Network administration study - 70-216 - This guide also comes with syngress core set. This one, fortunally, will prepare you for the 70-216 exam Forget the rest. I will NEVER buy again a book from Syngress. For my MCSE 2000 i am using: for 70-217, from Sybex, AD administration from Anil Desai, this is one is great, concise, get's to the point, clear writing For the PRO EXAM 70-210, i think i will end up using the "good old" exam cram For the Server exam 70-215: any suggestions ?? Think i'll be using Alan Carters Study System for this one, read some chapters of the New Riders server training guide and pray For the Network exam 70-216: Ok, the syngress study guide. This one has got a lot of info. and that is strange, because this exam is the hardest one of the core 4. Looks to me that the authors started out with writing this book, and they did not care about the rest of series. DO NOT BUY THE SYNGRESS CORE SET = SAVE MONEY. You will have to use study guides from various Editors, in other words: you must use a mixed bag of books to obtain your MCSE 2000, and of course, use the TRANSCENDER EXAMS Bye...
Rating: 
Summary: A nice read, but...
Review: I found this book easy to read, but lacking in depth, and full of glaring technical errors. It's quite apparent that it was compiled on the strength of an early Beta, because SIMPLE things such as command-line switches to programs (e.g. Update.exe /SLIP, WinNT32.exe /I) are incorrect, while in other areas the authors are simply wrong in the statements they make (e.g. need to be a domain admin to add a machine to the domain - yes, this is the default, but even in NT4 this could be delegated, OR confusion sometimes between recommended and required minimum hardware specs). The book furthermore is missing or skims over important areas, and does not pay enough attention to troubleshooting more complex scenarios. It was nice to have the full text on CD, but the demo movies on it were pitched at 5 year olds and therefore quite useless. So in short, I did not have much confidence in this book. However I thankfully had the sense to do a lot of reading from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit documentation and Technet CD otherwise I certainly would not have passed the exam.
Rating:
Summary: Read review by : cts@cts.pp.fi
Review: I fully agree that this book is a disgrace. I've read it, and still aren't sure what the "minimum hardware requirements" are for W2K Professional. Going to the Microsoft site doesn't help either. On one screen they talk about "minimum requirement" and on another the "minimum recommended requirement". This book is just as confusing. I wish I had seen the review by cti before I bought this useless, poorly edited mis-reference guide. I urge you not to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Useless
Review: I had to give this "thing" a star to post this review, otherwise I wouldn't have given one at all. Confusing, inaccurate, deceptive (especially the tests which ask questions on stuff they do not cover or questions that reference an obsecure line in the chapter). Pitch this (...) and get something else - anything has to be better than this piece of (...). Same goes for the rest of Syngress stuff. Save your $.
Rating:
Summary: Great Study guide!!
Review: I have to say this book covers the 70-210 exam better than the Sybex version. I used both to pass my exam with flying colours but i found this book easier to read and covered the material more indepth. I fully recommend it to anyone who wants to pass the Windows 2000 Pro exam. Good luck to your journey to MCSE land.
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