How to Do Everything with Windows XP

Rating:
Summary: Easy to use and Comprehesive
Review: Great book, learned the in's & out's of XP in no time. I found the book to be well organized and easy to understand. Each chapter gives step by step instructions to do just about everything imaginable with Windows XP. It appears the author has taken extra effort in providing a well referenced index, so finding applications and definitions can quickly be found. Great as a reference tool. I highly reccomend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to use and Comprehesive
Review: Great book, learned the in's & out's of XP in no time. I found the book to be well organized and easy to understand. Each chapter gives step by step instructions to do just about everything imaginable with Windows XP. It appears the author has taken extra effort in providing a well referenced index, so finding applications and definitions can quickly be found. Great as a reference tool. I highly reccomend this book.

Rating:
Summary: view of "How to do Everything With Windows XP"
Review: I found this book very readable and helpful, as it covers virtually all the headings and functions of xp, detailing even the different tab headings. I would criticise the fact that it doesn't mention detail such as the fact you need software to play dvd and the limitations to cd burning. However it helped me out of a scrape as it gives helpful info on how to recover from potential pc problems - such as how to use system restore. Useful advanced detail for those interested. I'd buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Another great "How to do Everything" book!
Review: I'm glad the folks at Osborne seem to believe in the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Author Curt Simmons delivers cut-to-the-chase information in the "How to" format, and it works well. Rather than a boring litany of functions or definitions, material is organized in a logical manner: basic to more involved, in roughly the order an average user might explore the functionality and features of Windows XP. Simmons teaches classes in Windows, and his experience as an instructor shows. The text is direct and useful, and doesn't speak down to the reader. There are a large number of screen shots and illustrations, which -- amazingly -- seem to all match the just-released version of Windows XP Home (many pre-release books are immediately obsolete because features or interfaces have changed between book publication and product release).

Since XP comes with basically no documentation (other than a single-fold page that highlights some new system features), *some* additional resource is almost mandatory. I've found the "How to do Everything" books thorough and useful, and this one is no exception.

If you are new to Windows XP, this would make a great book to add to your collection. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Save it for the nerds
Review: Publishers ought to realize that people buy computer books because they want topics explained to them in plain terms that they can understand. This book is very poorly written. I can't count the number of times I scratched my head and had to read instructions over again to try to interpret what the author was saying.

Save this one for nerds.

Rating:
Summary: Useless, even for newbies
Review: The guy who said he used the pages of this book to start his Bar-B-Que was pretty funny. But the bad jokes and puns by this author are not as amusing, the information in the book is not terribly helpful, and the author provides little or no clues on how XP is different from 98, Win 2000, and XP pro. I needed some info on Groups and Domains, access control lists, and sharing permissions - not a word of it to be found. The chapter on networking was a good laugh - "Use the Wizard" "Contact your network administrator" - Oh Please! This certainly does NOT teach you "How to do everything with Windows XP".

Rating:
Summary: Not much help, even for newbies
Review: The guy who said he used the pages of this book to start his Bar-B-Que was pretty funny. I'll think I'll keep my copy in the bathroom, in case I ever run out of paper. But the bad jokes in this book are not as amusing, the information in the book is not terribly helpful, and the author provides few clues on how XP is different from 98, Win 2000, and XP pro. I needed some info on Groups and Domains, access control lists, and sharing permissions - not a word of it to be found. The chapter on networking was a good laugh - "Use the Wizard" "Contact your network administrator" - Oh Please! I apologize to the author for such harsh criticism, I'm sure he put a lot of effort into this. But I felt ripped off that such a thick text contained so little that was useful.

Rating:
Summary: May be th Worst XP book on the planet.
Review: Truth is short. You can learn more from a retarded two year old. This book is the worst of the worst. If you just want to read a few XP buzz words then this is for you. If you want to learn something - start by saving your money. The "one star
rating" comes from my using the pages to start the barbeque.