Windows Vista The Missing Manual - David Pogue

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	Medium
How interesting was the book?	Captivating
How useful was it?	Very useful
Would you read it again?	Absolutely
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Broad coverage, lots of useful tricks, great writing style
Disadvantages:	Nothing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

With Windows Vista now out in the wild, anyone who has just bought a new PC or has migrated over from Windows XP will be wondering what hit them. The first tranche of Vista books are now upon us, some aimed at the more technical end of the spectrum, others firmly targetted at people who just want to know how to use it. Windows Vista The Missing Manual could be just what they're looking for.

Windows Vista The Missing Manual comes from the rapidly growing stable of 'Missing Manual' books aimed at end users who have either found the online help rather lacking or in the rare case an actual printed manual was supplied with their software, that it skimps on the details.

Unlike many books which focus on the new features of Vista, this one is more of a general guide to Windows, it just happens to be Vista in this instance. Accordingly, there is a fair amount of content which experienced users may want to skip over such how to use explorer, the taskbar and so on. Of course, it does also cover the new features and ways of working Vista offers when working with files.

Usefully, the book then delves in to each of the major bundled applications such as the new Calendar, Movie Maker and DVD maker as well as the new gadgets feature.

Part three covers the Internet features, online security and the new Internet Expolorer 7 and covers the improved features such as RSS feed handling.

Part four covers the new picture options and the now built in Media Center, part five goes through hardware issues such as using the fax, troubleshooting new hardware and finally the laptop and tablet features which have been beefed up in Vista.

The last two sections cover maintenance, backing up and networking. I were particulary pleased to see the new features in Vista for system monitoring being explained clearly and in some depth as these will go some way to Vista justifying it's claim to improved reliability.

The Appendixes cover installation, activation and perhaps somewhat rashly, regedit, which in inexperienced hands can kill your system nicely. XP users will also appreciate a section called 'Where'd it go?' which covers XP features which have either morphed out of all recognition or gone completely.

I'm happy to say this title continues the excellent form of previous 'Missing Manual' books. The writing style is excellent - clear yet covering all the important stuff and in a very easy going style that makes it feel like you're having a friend chatting to you. Each feature clearly notes which versions of Vista it is available in - a must as Vista has so many versions it can get confusing as to what features you are supposed to have.

As Vista is so all encompasing, the book naturely includes content that may confuse PC novices but that's unavoidable really. For anyone who has any sort of familiarity with Windows and needs to know about what's new in Vista but in laymans terms, this is an ideal book. Absolute beginners will also find this a useful introduction to Windows Vista but will probably want to jump over some chapters for now. In short, recommended.