Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 816 pages
- Published by: For Dummies
- Edition: 2nd Edition October 22, 2004
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0764574639
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764574634
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.3 x 1.7 inches
- Weighs: 2.6 pounds
Amazon.com Review
The cover of
Windows XP All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies boasts that it's "nine books in one." That's a stretch--it's really a book about
Microsoft Windows XP for novices, with supplementary information about America Online and MSN--but cover claims aside, this book represents a good value for someone new to computing. Woody Leonhard--a respected Windows authority who writes with enough humor to keep things light but not so much as to unusual the facts--begins with how to use a mouse and works all the way through installing printers and setting up a little network in a home or small office. Granted, if you've found this page on the Internet you probably don't need Leonhard's "how-to-click" tutorial, but you may be shopping for someone unfamiliar with Windows. This book is good for such people.
While the nine separate indexes (one at the end of each included "book") will annoy you--the unified one at the back of this book is much easier to find and use--Leonhard's style will compensate. He's very good at explaining how to do what Windows XP was meant to do, up to a certain level. Want to add a music file to a Windows Media Player playlist? There's a procedure for that. Want to cancel AOL because you can't stand it? He explains how. He does not, however, provide detail on more complicated jobs like setting up a cable modem or dealing with the specific security risk posed by Universal Plug and Play. Overall, this is a nicely written, friendly book that covers Windows XP well, but to a limited depth.
--David Wall Topics covered: Microsoft Windows XP for home users, particularly novices. Windows XP basics (like windows and the mouse pointer), customization, Internet tools (including Outlook Express and Internet Explorer), America Online (AOL),
Microsoft Network (MSN), printers, small networks, and Internet connectivity are all addressed.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Windows XP All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies (Paperback)
No one speaks Windows XP the way Woody speaks Windows XP in his new publication "Windows XP All-in-one Desk Reference", which is a masterpiece of organization, indexing, and commom sense treatment of technical topics in non-technical discourse. Not since Woody's publication of "Woody Leonhard teaches Microsoft Office 97" has such an instructive, clearly written and illustrated technical book on Microsoft products been published. There is a mind-boggling number of subjects each treated individually in short, simple explanation that gets to the heart of the subject. The dialog and explanations are laced with amusing analogs that make reading a pleasure, aside from the technical content. Subjects ranging from the simplicity of the XP Desktop to the meaning of the highly technical term DHCP, are handled with the same masterful stroke of simplicity. This book is a must-have in every home and office that expects to stay on-line in the 21st century.
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