Windows XP Home Edition, The Missing Manual …
What a great book! Many people using XP would have no need for tech support if they only had this manual! In fact, the first page of the book includes the quote, The book that should have been in the box. This is the second edition, significantly updated to reflect the changes caused by Service Pack 2.
This is one of a series of books (30 so far!) by O’Reilly Media. The series was started because software today rarely comes with a thorough, useful manual. Users need a source for help and the Help files in software may or may not be very helpful. Most people don’t like using Help files because they are cumbersome and inconvenient.
This book would be a great help to all of us using Windows XP. It’s written for XP Home, but so much of it applies to both Home and Pro that it should be on every XP desktop. The book is written by David Pogue, a weekly computer columnist for
The New York Times and the founder of the Missing Manual series.
Pogue writes in a very understandable style, sometimes even with humor. He makes what could be dull reading very interesting and helpful.
There are six chapters, each with several sections:
| | · The Window XP Desktop (126 pages)
· The Components of Windows XP (150 pages)
· Windows Online (104 pages)
· Plugging Into Windows XP (88 pages)
· Building a Network (68 pages)
· Appendices (35 pages)
· Index
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Pogue starts out in the Introduction with an explanation of what’s new in XP
| | · System File Protection. This innovation cured the vexing problem of software installers replacing a newer file with an older one.
· System Restore. Introduced in ME, this allows you to roll-back system files in the event of serious disruption.
· More careful driver management. XP monitors software to see that a driver is not replaced by one that is incompatible with your hardware.
· AutoUpdate. One of the major changes to ensure that users have the latest in repairs and security fixes.
· Cosmetic overhaul. Many parts of Windows look and act differently and, more importantly, are faster.
· New features for pictures, music and movies.
· Inclusion of various panels to point out things that can be done that wouldn’t otherwise be obvious.
· Differences between Home and Pro Edition.
· Activation. Microsoft’s attempt to short-circuit piracy. Incidentally, did you know that if you make a major change in your hardware or install XP on a new computer, all you have to do is copy Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak to a diskette beforehand, then copy them to the new machine or configuration?
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Chapter One deals with the Desktop, Start Menu, windows, folders, Taskbar and Help. Pogue’s style is sometimes tongue-in-cheek, as witness the beginning of Elements of the XP Desktop:
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Once you’re past the heart-pounding excitement of the new startup logo and the Setup Wizard, you reach the digital vista shown in Figure 2-2. That’s right, it’s the Windows desktop, now graced by a pastoral sunny hillside that should look familiar to anyone who has ever watched Teletubbies.
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He points out how clean the new desktop is, attributing it to a team at Microsoft that has gone cleanliness-crazy. Just about every page has illustrations of one thing or another; although in black and white, they show clearly what is being demonstrated in the text or the box beside the picture. If a menu is involved, it is shown, too, with the mouse in position to take or have taken the action described. In some cases, the illustration has identification text as well, pointing out the important parts of the picture.
There are often special illustrations showing various possibilities of taking an action. For example, he shows the normal Turn Off Computer screen, with its Standby, Turn Off and Restart buttons, but also shows the little know alternate menu that shows when Shift is pressed, Hibernate, Turn Off and Restart. He also explains the consequences of using Hibernate rather than Standby, especially for laptop computers.
The author spends quite a lot of time in this chapter on the Search functions. He shows how a simple search can be conducted and what the result is. What’s more interesting, though, is all the possible conditions that can be included in a search, depending on the type of file or document you are looking for. He mentions the ways to search for multimedia, document and program files. He also tells how to get rid of the dog character that accompanies every search, or to substitute another character, should you want to.
Pogue also spends some time on the subject of searching for people on the Internet, using any of several search engines. He also shows why searching for documents that contain a particular word is faster than you’d think, because of Microsoft’s Indexing Service built into XP.
He then goes into the Start Menu, what it contains and how to modify it, using several different methods.
The Windows, Folders and Taskbar section tells all about manipulating windows and folders, the elements of the Taskbar and how to use and change them, and tells about the different types of toolbars available.
Pogue’s explanation of folders, files, disks, icons and how to use them is very clear and would turn on the aha! light for many people. He explains the different ways to copy and move files, which is a difficult subject for many people.
The last part of the first chapter is an explanation of the different ways to get help, including the newly designed Help and Support Center. This Center has information on just about anything you could need help on. It has a connection to the Internet, so you have access to the thousands of databases available there, as well as those included in XP. I suspect most people aren’t aware of this great resource.
The second chapter first covers Programs and Documents, how to launch and use them, including the important topic of copying data from one place or program to another. The cut-copy-paste functions are one of the boons of Windows, going back to the earliest versions. Those functions give you the versatility to use what you created in one place in many others, without having to re-create.
Pogue also covers in this chapter the nasty subject of uninstalling software, why it sometimes doesn’t work and what to do about it. He also describes how to get pre-XP software to run under XP, using the program file’s properties window.
Next he covers the many free programs included in XP. Next is the fairly new subject of pictures, how to get them into your system, what program to use to manipulate them, how to use them for wallpaper and screensavers and how to email them. He spends a fair amount of time with Media Player, Microsoft’s answer to working with sound files, movie files, ripping music tracks and burning to CD and, lastly, movies.
The last section of Chapter 2 is devoted to Control Panel. Pogue goes through each of the items, explains what it does and how to use it.
Chapter 3 deals with your computer and the Internet, hooking up, security and SP2 and Outlook Express. Of course, the most important part of this is the security section. Microsoft has tried valiantly to get everyone to use an antivirus app, use a firewall and, recently, use antispyware. Service Pack 2 deals with the first two of these and almost forces you to use either Microsoft’s antivirus or one of your choosing, and to turn on a firewall. Doing both of these goes a long way to protecting your computer from unwanted intrusion and violation by outsiders.
The other significant security feature of SP2 is Automatic Update. This is turned ON by default, which causes Microsoft updates to be automatically applied when available. This, too, keeps you safer than if you were left to your own devices.
Chapter 4 deals with hardware you attach to your computer, a printer installation, for example. He not only describes installation, but also usage and how to print from an applications. It also deals with maintenance, such as System Restore, Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter and Backup, that function we all should do regularly but so often don’t until it’s too late.
Chapter 5 deals with network issues, including user accounts and how they function on a single PC.
Chapter 6 has 3 appendixes, Installing XP, the menus of XP and the Registry.
Finally, the end of the book, as usual, has an Index. The Index in this book is particularly good. If you don’t find what you need by looking in the Table of Contents, the Index will certainly point you in the right direction.
Many books of this type include a CD-ROM with information and helpful programs. No such CD is included here. You can get what would have been on it by going to missingmanuals.com and look for the missing CD icon. This reportedly saves you $5, the cost to include a CD-ROM in the book.
This is a most useful book, one you will keep close to your computer. As a User Group member, you can get a 20% discount by ordering online from O’Reilly and using the code DSUG.
Windows XP Home, The Missing Manual, by David Pogue (624 pages)
Published by O’Reilly Media missingmanuals.com or oreilly.com
Price about $25 Available from O’Reilly and many online book stores
