Windows XP Registry Guide (BPG-Other) [Paperback]

I was a die-hard Windows 2000 user and disliked XP for many reasons. The new user interface, new services-running by default, hidden application settings, and generally, decisions Microsoft made based on marketing data for users who wanted someone else to make decisions for them.

I never wanted anything to do with XP, but when I needed two new computers earlier this year, I had no choice. I bought Jerry's book because I hoped to learn some basics about where Microsoft had hidden certain settings; I didn't know it would make me a Windows XP lover.

Not only were the basics like data types and key locations discussed, but also complex registry manipulation and deployment through scripting, Answer files, and Windows Installer.

The Windows XP Registry Guide takes a systematic approach to learning and using registry tools to get the most out or your XP system. Novice users will learn enough to make the book worthwhile by reading just the first section (five chapters), but once you get that far you will want to read it all. Jerry is careful to warn about careless hacking and thoroughly covers backing up and restoring the registry using tools already included in Windows XP and several third party tools. I was surprised to learn how useful Microsoft's Word application is in managing changes made to the registry.

If you already use TweakUI to manage your XP system, a complete mapping of every change is included in Chapter 5.

Are you an IT professional? This book will show you how to work around IT problems in Chapter 15. Also for the professional is detailed information about disk "cloning" using Sysprep. Using Group Policy settings, and deploying User Profiles.

Registry based security and security templates information in Chapter 7 will show you how to manage and control access in computers from "Simple File Sharing" in your home network or the control needed in a computer available to the public.

Another chapter I found particularly useful is the Office XP registry-based user settings covered in Chapter 15.

This book has it all, and to help even further are links to very important whitepapers and documentation available at Microsoft's Web site and additional third party resources. Add to this the four appendices; (A) File Associations, (B) Per-User Settings, (C) Per-Computer Settings, and (D) Group Policies, and you have exposed the heart and soul of the Windows XP operating system.

Buy this book!

Beyond the policy mappings, the book also covers topics associated with the registry, such as creating your own group policy templates, managing deployments of user profiles, managing the way systems such as Office XP and the Windows Installer work, and providing recommendations as to ways to manage these settings via scripting. That said, keep in mind that the purpose of the book is to provide information on the registry and configuration settings, not to be an introduction to management utilities such as Resource Kit components or the WSH.

The appendices are an extremely valuable resource, providing at-a-glance table reference of user and computer settings, group policy mappings and file associations. Very handy.

The book is not meant for casual users of XP, or those that do not administer XP desktops, but for Administrators and developers, this is a recommended title.

The strengths of the book are: (1) presentation; (2) chapters on deployment; (3) backing up and (4) Group Policy mapping to registry keys (but containing some errors). Such information is hard to find elsewhere unless you set the policy and find out what changes (but there are hundreds of policies to verify).

The section on scripting is only introductory and does not tell you how to read or write REG_BINARY values in hexadecimals. There are four significant and quite unnecessary section repetitions: (1) autologon; (2) IE SearchURLs; (3) IE History Lists and (4) IE Toolbar background. Some sections like those on customising group policy templates and *.inf files are for IT professionals rather than home users but the advanced home users might benefit from reading about them.

It compliments rather than competes with another registry book by P. Hipson (from Sybex, but the Sybex falls behind by some margin in terms of usefulness.)