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Rating: 
Summary: Wow, what a NEAT little book!
Review: I had never read any of Mr. Stanek's books previously, and had grabbed this at a local store because (1) it was on sale and (2) I wanted to see if there was any additional command line info I could glean from it, especially since a quick browse showed that I would learn a few things like command-line task scheduling. [I've done basic batch scripts since MS-DOS 5]By the end of Chapter 3, I was thinking that this was an excellantly written book. The other reviewers have it properly nailed down that this author's style is concise. There's no better way to describe it. I never feel like I'm wasting time reading what the author presents. The other plus to the organization of the book is that the headers are well defined enough that it is easy enough to skip ahead if I'm not interested in a particular topic.... which, of course, most other books do as well.... However, the difference here is that this author never makes me feel like I missed some key critical sentence in the area I skipped. I can pick up wherever I want to in the book. By the end of Chapter 6, I was thinking, "WOW, I HAVE to write a positive review of this book, I didn't know Windows exposed so much to the command line" By the end of Chapter 8, I was thinking, "Windows Server 2003 could do ALL THIS???????" :) So, in all, I got a huge dose of administration knowledge for Windows Server 2003 in a VERY compact format. I'm off to purchase the other books that this author read. It is seldom that I've come across an author that packs so much into so few words. A harried administrator's (or Programmer's!) must read.
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Summary: Immediately useful!
Review: I tried a number of books to learn more about scripting and the command line. None of the books I found gave the depth, breadth and clarity provided by this book. The book is very well written and full of extremely useful information. Many of the things I was trying to do with the command line I could find no information on until I got this book. What I learned from this book I simply could not have learned from any other resource that I could find. If you're wanting to take advantage of the power of the command line you absolutely must have this book! It has saved me many hours and paid for itself many times over. A superb resource!
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Summary: Should be titled, "The Administator's Pocket Bible".
Review: I went through several books before I finally found this one. None of them ever got me to write a review before. This book has everything you need to go in and get 99% of what you need done. This is not only a fantastic reference but teaches you as well. A great one time cover to cover read. An excellent life time reference. Any one on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 needs this book.
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Summary: Stanek strikes again
Review: Like most of Stanek's books, this volume is concise, practical, and emminently useful. There have been several "command line" books published previously, but this book is by far the best. The book contains a quick course in writing .bat files for those not already "in the know." I liked this section for both beginners and old-hands who need to occasionally need to create quick command files and do not need the functionality of a full scripting language. The various commands are covered in sufficient detail. The command include the basics plus AD commands and commands from MS's website and resource kits. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Stanek strikes again
Review: Like most of Stanek's books, this volume is concise, practical, and emminently useful. There have been several "command line" books published previously, but this book is by far the best. The book contains a quick course in writing .bat files for those not already "in the know." I liked this section for both beginners and old-hands who need to occasionally need to create quick command files and do not need the functionality of a full scripting language. The various commands are covered in sufficient detail. The command include the basics plus AD commands and commands from MS's website and resource kits. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Wow what a great book and what a great boost for windows
Review: My only complaint about moving from Unix to Windows was the lack of command line tools. Will Bill Gates heard my cries and brought on a SLEW of command line tools. I just wish they could be released for windows 2000.... but I guess thats the hook to upgrade to windows 2003.
The book in wonderful and I recommend all of these miniguides as they are incredibly informative and usefull.
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Summary: THE command-line manual
Review: Stanek's pocket consultants are excellent. I have his Exchange, Windows 2003, and IIS books and they are the most used on my shelf. I bought this one as soon as I saw it even though I own several command line books already. Once again I am extremely pleased. This is the type of book that will help you get your job done.
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Summary: DOS Will Live Forever
Review: There was a time when all we had was the command line. We didn't call it that, but when we wanted to see what was in a directory we typed DIR, to change directories we typed CD.
Back in these old days the operating system even came with a manual. And strangely enough one of those old manuals would have been almost the same as this book.
Now most people don't even realize that every Windows operating system has what was called the MS-DOS Prompt.
To be sure there are a lot of new things you can do that relate to things like network printers and security, but this is still the type in one command at a time and tell the computer to do something that we used to know and love.
The book is basically a reference manual on how to use these functions.
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Summary: Concise and Potent
Review: This is a very well written book with every page being very useful and consise. Each page is a treasure, which is a far cry to a lot of tech books filled with fluff and opinion these days.
I am both a Solaris and Windows system administrator, and though I dearly love GUI interface to access complex things, I would not like to repeat these tasks on hundreds of desktops. With this book, I found that I could automate chores and remotely configure desktops. There are so many gems in this book, this is a MUST have for any PowerUser, Admin, or anyone simply wanting to use command-line alternatives.
In the beginning Stanek covers the differences between Windows and MS-DOS command shells (cmd vs command) and environments, Win2k3 Reskit, and Cmd Shell fundamentals (similar but slightly different that ol' DOS Batch files). He then jumps into (Chap 4) one of the most important topics, task scheduling from the command line, which is essential for automation, especially for backups, virus updates, etc. The following chapters, he covers topics like registry maintence, process management, event logging, disk maintences (RAID, partitioning, formatting, etc.). The process management part can be useful in killing spyware processes, especially for spyware that blocks out such functionality through the GUI.
My favorite sections that have the most impact for me is Active Directory tools (account creation, groups, etc.), printer management, and network management. I tried to figure out, for instance, the enigma of "netsh" command before without success, and this book helped me on that powerful tool. Now armed with this knowledge, I can remotely configure desktops IP addresses, and monitor the health of printers, without even getting out of my seat.
All in all, this book is excellent. Very well organized chapters and flow of information, and very well written. It's works both for general reading and also as a reference.
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Summary: Should be titled, "The Administator's Pocket Bible".
Review: Wow! So concise and well collected. It contains so many commands needed by the administrator, systems engineer or build architect when scripting together any batch scripts, wrappers or quick install routines. For those who missed out on growing up in the MS-DOS era and wish to become MCSA/E or even desk support staff: This is where you *really* should begin! Always well written by Stanek, and remember: He's the guru that has been re-educating Microsoft programmers how to code secure for the past few years. Go Buy!
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