Description:
Packing all of the details of an entire (and major) operating system's revamp into a single book--any book--is a challenge that puts a strain on professional bookbinders everywhere. After all, there are only so many pages that you can stuff into a book before it starts to fall apart under its own weight. For this reason, most publishers have skimped on their Windows 2000 Accelerated Guides and stripped out the vital parts, reducing their books to brief but easy-to-read skims (or inflating them into technical monstrosities that are as fun to read as an accounting textbook). Fortunately, Coriolis's Windows 2000 Accelerated Exam Prep is a breath of fresh air; comprehensive, packed full of technical goodness, and clear as a summer's day, the Prep is just what you'll need to pass the tricky MCSE catch-up test. The Prep assumes that you've kept your knowledge current from the Windows NT tests, and doesn't go into enormous detail on creating alternate-disk boot disks or give you long WINS walk-throughs. It starts with a brief overview of most of Windows 2000's new features, before it launches into the more complex (and confusing) parts of Windows 2000--namely, Active Directory (AD), DNS, and domain configuration. In fact, the first 11 chapters (and 300 pages) all are devoted to understanding the vagaries of the new AD features of Windows 2000. And it is here that you see the strength of this book. Unlike many other books, which might devote two or three chapters to these elaborate new parts of Windows 2000, the Prep explains the overview and then goes into extremely gritty detail about how each step is accomplished. If you want to be taken "under the hood" for Windows 2000 (and you do), the Prep provides a wealth of details. Unlike some other books, you won't find just a mention that the AD is replicated between controllers; in the Exam Prep, you'll discover all of the fine (and lovely) details of Sequence Numbering, Propagation Dampening, Conflict Resolution, and Replication Topology. Instead of just telling you that AD has schema that can be applied to objects, the Prep delves into the minutiae of schema querying, the consistency and safety checks that Windows applies to schema alterations, and the required attribute syntaxes. Every aspect is gone over thoroughly, which is exactly what the new tests call for--instead of laundry lists, the Prep shows you the guts of Windows 2000, which will help you troubleshoot exactly where (and when) things are likely to go awry. Future chapters cover almost every major exam topic in the same loving, granular nature, with the notable exception of the highly touted ability to hook up multiple monitors to one Windows 2000 computer. For that, you might want to hit a Web site or two. The writing is clear in most chapters (although the RAS chapter is a bit sketchy) and strikes the right balance between assuming that you know what you're doing--you are a core-certified MCP, after all--and handholding you through the tougher new concepts. It's difficult to read through a chapter and not get a solid idea of what the new features can and can't do. "Real World" exercises appear at the end of every chapter, but in general they're fairly simple exercises that are designed to show you the basics. One wishes that there were more screen shots in those exercises--or, for that matter in the entire book--but, as stated, when you're trying to compress so much information into under 800 pages, you have to make cuts somewhere. Coriolis chose screen shots. You can do without. There are quizzes at the end of every chapter, and they're fairly tough. You'll find a lot of the dreaded check-all-correct-answer questions, as well as some obscure topics covered. Get through the questions, and the test should go well. Unfortunately, the feedback that you'll get on the questions is subpar; unlike the fine Exam Crams--in which you get an explanation of why each answer is right or wrong--when you look up the answer in the Prep, all you'll see is a single letter and a paragraph's explanation. If you're unclear why choices "a" and "c" were incorrect, you're out of luck. Also, you'll have to keep flipping clear to the back of the book, and then to the chapter again, because all of the answers are located about as far from the questions as possible. The other weak spot here is that the book really doesn't cover any of the Windows NT concepts that have been ported over into Windows 2000. If you must make a boot disk and can't remember what rdisk(0) stood for, you might need to brush up elsewhere. But this is a minor complaint. In short, this is an excellent choice for professionals who are looking to keep their certifications past 2001. For the money, it's worth it. Highly recommended. --William Steinmetz
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