Press Release
September 12, 2005
"Windows XP Cookbook": Solutions for Administrators and Power Users Who Want to Get the Most Out of Windows XP
Sebastopol, CA--The tide has changed dramatically for Windows
administrators in recent years. With Windows NT, they were forced to
do a
lot with the few tools that were available to manage the operating
system.
Now, with Windows XP, administrators have literally thousands of
programs,
tools, commands, screens, scripts, buttons, tabs, menus, and settings to
work with. Often, this is more than they can handle, especially when
faced
with a problem.
"To take full advantage of Windows XP, you have to know lots of gory
technical details," comments Robbie Allen, coauthor of Windows XP
Cookbook (O'Reilly, US $44.95). "We've been doing Windows system
administration for nine years, and we still have a difficult time
recalling the correct tool, command, or scripting interface for certain
tasks." Between Microsoft's documentation and all the books that detail
the theory behind Windows XP technology, he says, "neither provides a
quick and easy way to find solutions to an immediate problem."
With Windows XP Cookbook, Allen and coauthor Preston Gralla offer a
guide that addresses hundreds of day-to-day tasks and vexations that
users
are likely to encounter. "IT staff and administrators are increasingly
overworked, and need to do more in less time," Gralla explains. "Our
book
helps them get to the core of the problems they need to solve right
away.
Based on our own experience, hours of research, and years of hanging out
on newsgroups and mailing lists, we've compiled more than 325 recipes
that
should answer many of the 'How do I?' questions you could ask about
Windows XP."
From installation, configuration, and maintenance, to disk management,
editing the Windows Registry, and more, Windows XP Cookbook is useful
for anyone who has to use, administer, or automate this OS--not just
administrators of Windows networks, but also power users who want to
tweak
home PCs. Among hundreds of tasks, readers will find ways to turn off
XP's annoying balloon messages, stop mysterious tasks from running,
turn a
PC into a jukebox, run multiple OSes simultaneously, and tackle network
settings when moving a laptop from one wireless network to another.
"Together, the two of us have several decades of experience working with
different versions of Windows on standalone machines and various sized
networks," Gralla notes. "We've distilled our knowledge of Windows XP
into
the step-by-step Cookbook approach so that readers can get what they
want
fast. People are tired of books stuffed with filler. They want to get
more
out of an operating system immediately, without having to wade through
explanations they don't need."
For those unfamiliar with O'Reilly's successful Cookbook format,
Windows
XP Cookbook comprises recipes that succinctly state problems and offer
practical solutions with clearly defined instructions. Following that
is a
detailed discussion about the solution, including how and why it works,
and a "See Also" section contains references to additional sources of
information. Most recipes include three ways to implement a solution:
through a graphical user interface, a command-line interface, or by
using
scripts.
Between them, Allen and Gralla have written three dozen popular computer
books on topics such as Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory. They
know the Windows world inside out and understand what makes a technical
book truly useful. "For computing professionals and power users, there's
nothing more important than being able to troubleshoot Windows XP and
get
the most out of it," they observe. "Also, by mastering XP in
corporate and
home environments, they'll be well-prepared to handle Vista, the next
version of windows, when it arrives."
Additional Resources:
Windows XP Cookbook
Robbie Allen and Preston Gralla
ISBN: 0-596-00725-6, 678 pages, $44.95 US, $62.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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