Book Review

Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

Que / Macmillan

ISBN: 0-7897-2125-2

List $39.99, $31.99 on Amazon

Well if you’ve been wondering why I have been so quiet lately, it is because I have been reading like a mad-man. With the release of Windows 2000 my customers (yes I do work for a living) have been asking for a good book. So I have had to read a lot of them, trying to find one I would be comfortable recommending. I finally found it, the book that could have been the manual Microsoft does not provide. It is a Que book one of my favorite publishers. Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. Written by Robert Cowart and Brian Knittel. This is the one worthy of my recommendation.

This book is not for you if you’re a system engineer or network architect, but it is the one you can recommend to your users and wana-bee power users. Of course you or I or the real power users would use the Resource Kit & KB for more technical info. But for an all around book about how to use Windows 2000 this is the one. It gives enough information for users to get their work done but not enough to get them into serious trouble. Robert & Brian even tell them when things are getting too technical to call someone who knows what they are doing. Not just once but at least 6 different times I remember.

Weighing in at 1500+ pages it is  heavy enough for a proper doorstop and long enough to cover most everything they will need. It has plenty of screen shots and helpful links to web sites with more information. It covers installation, all the applets and the basics of networks. Not just a rewrite of an NT-4 book as some of the others I read. And only 1 instance of confusing NT-4 and Windows 2000, some of the others had more than a dozen. Interspersed in the text are 433 useful tips. There are also notes and cautions throughout to keep the reader clear and on track.

This book comes with a CD of not only the obligatory shareware, but full Electronic copies of Special Edition Using Office 2000, Special Edition Using Windows 98 and Special Edition Using Linux along with the most complete command line reference I have seen in a long time. I just wish they had included the Electronic Version of the book itself, so you could search it like you can the others.