Dale Atchison, Tampa Bay Computer Society, Dec 2002
Joe Farace, ShutterBug, Dec 2002
Linda Tyler, Mid-Hudson Computer User Group, Dec 2002
Nick Peers, PC Answers, September 2002
Gerhard R. Fischer, Charlotte Bytes, September 2002
Sam Gardner, PC News, August 2002
Review
Bob Esch, The DataBus, June 2002
Larry Blasko, Associated Press, June 24, 2002
Gerhard R. Fischer, Charlotte Bytes, July 2002
Michael Cahlin, Emerging Tip World, July 19, 2002
Larry Blasko, Associated Press, June 24, 2002
Gerhard R. Fischer, Charlotte Bytes, July 2002
Mike Berman, Scripps Howard News Service, July 31, 2002
Ed Laskowski, The Vista PC Journal, August 2002
Product Description
Windows XP is the latest, most reliable, and best-looking version of the world's most widely used operating system. The new Windows combines the same stress-tested, extremely stable engine that drives Windows 2000-Microsoft's corporate operating system-with the far superior compatibility of Windows Me.
Windows XP offers dozens of important new features. In addition to the vastly more elegant user interface, it offers drag-and-drop CD burning, powerful built-in features for viewing and managing digital photos and music, and a Remote Assistance feature that lets invited PC gurus or help-desk technicians see and even manipulate what's on your screen over the Internet.
But one major failing of Windows remains unaddressed in the XP edition: It comes without a single page of printed instructions.
In Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, New York Times technology columnist (and Missing Manual series creator) David Pogue provides the friendly, authoritative book that should have been in the box. It's the ideal users' guide for the world's most popular operating system.
The book begins at the beginning: with a tour of the Desktop, the new, two-column Start menu, and instructions for customizing the Taskbar and toolbars. A special focus: Organizing files, folders, and windows for maximum efficiency and minimum clutter.
More advanced chapters explore each control panel and built-in application; walk through every conceivable configuration (setting up a PC for Internet use, peripheral equipment, laptop life, and so on); and setting up a small network, including how to share a single Internet connection among several PCs. Finally, special chapters are dedicated to standard rituals of Windows life: troubleshooting, installation, and upgrading.
Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual is a one-stop reference for the Windows user. In keeping with the high standards of the Missing Manual line, the book features superb writing, special features for both absolute novices and power users, and complete coverage. If Microsoft could wave its magic software wand and wish for the perfect guide to its flagship product, Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual would appear like magic.
About the Author
David Pogue, Yale '85, is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. With nearly 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors, having written or co-written seven books in the "for Dummies" series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music), along with several computer-humor books and a technothriller, "Hard Drive" (a New York Times "notable book of the year"). Pogue is also the creator and primary author of the Missing Manual series of complete, funny computer books, a joint venture with O'Reilly & Associates. Titles in the series include Mac OS X, Windows XP, iPod, Microsoft Office, iPhoto, Dreamweaver, iMovie 2, and many others. His Web page is www.davidpogue.com, and his email address is david@pogueman.com.
Excerpted from Windows XP Home Edition by David Pogue. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
When you turn on a Windows XP computer for the first time, you may think that you’re simply seeing the traditional Windows startup process as redesigned by a West Coast graphic designer.
Yes, it starts up slightly faster—that’s one of the most heavily advertised new features of Windows XP—but otherwise, turning on a PC shows little more than a
newfangled version of the progress bar you may know and love from earlier editions of Windows.
If it’s a new computer, you may also receive a big hello from the company that sold it to you. Then, if you’ve just performed a clean installation of Windows XP (see Appendix A), or if it’s a brand-new PC, you may now be treated to a series of blue "Welcome to Microsoft Windows" setup screens. This Setup Wizard guides you through setting
up an Internet account, activating your copy of Windows (page 18), setting up accounts for different people who will be sharing this computer (Chapter 16), and so on. Appendix A has a complete description of this process.
After that basic startup business is taken care of, however, you may be in for a series
of surprises.
Logging On
What happens next depends on whether you’re the PC’s sole proprietor or share it with other people in an office, school, or household.
If it’s a new PC, or your own PC, no big deal. You arrive at the Windows XP desktop.
If it’s a shared PC, you may encounter the Welcome dialog box, shown in Figure 2-1. Click your name in the list, type your password if you’re asked for it, and click the little right-pointing arrow button (or press Enter). You arrive at the desktop.
The Elements of the XP Desktop
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.
On a fresh installation of Windows XP, you may be surprised to discover that Microsoft has gone cleanliness-crazy. A brand-new installation of Windows XP on a new computer presents an absolutely spotless desktop, utterly icon-free except for the Recycle Bin. Even the familiar My Computer, My Documents, and My Network Places icons seem to be missing. (If you’ve upgraded from an older version of Windows, you’ll still see your old icons on the desktop. Furthermore, the company who sold you your PC may have stocked the desktop with a few of its own icons—but
you get the point.)
Those former desktop icons are now in your Start menu, which appears when youclick the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen (Figure 2-2). The fol-lowing
pages cover the Start menu in detail.
Windows XP is composed of 40 million lines of computer code, scattered across your hard drive in thousands of files. The vast majority of them are support files,
there for behind-the-scenes use by Windows and your applications. They’re not for you. They may as well bear a sticker saying, "No user serviceable parts inside." That’s why the Start menu is so important. It lists every useful piece of software on your computer, including commands, programs, and files. You use the Start menu to open programs, install new software, configure hardware, find files, and more.
When you click the Start button at the lower-left corner of your screen, the Start menu pops open, shooting upward. Its contents depend on which options you (or your computer’s manufacturer) have put there; Figure 2-3 illustrates an example.
The new, multicolumn structure of the Start menu is one of the most radical developments in Windows XP.
The new Start menu is divided into four chunks. One area, the pinned items list, lists programs you use every day (and is yours to modify). Another, the most frequently
used programs list, lists programs you use often, and is computed automatically by Windows. The final two sections list Windows features and standard Windows pro-grams.
Figure 2-3 describes the function of each section.
