Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #518632 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 664 pages

Customer Reviews

Thorough Treatment (with minor faults)
THE GOOD
This book offers all you'll ever likely need to know about the IBM-compatible MS-DOS Command Line Interface, or "Command Prompt", with special attention to how it functions in the Windows 2000 and Windows XP environments. Here is everything needed to fully understand files and their attributes, directories, and batch file functions. Also you'll find the fundamentals of disk backup, Operating System troubleshooting, and networking - all from the command line perspective. The text is straightforward and presented as simply as possible, the lesson plans are well thought out, and the book is full of useful charts and sample exercises. The learning activities can all be completed "at home" and are not tied to a classroom experience.

THE BAD
"Windows 2000 MS-DOS Command Line..." was published shortly after the release of Windows 2000 but contains an extensive update to cover changes in Windows XP, and therein lies the primary flaw of this textbook. Although the update's information is thorough, I feel that rather than an appendix, the XP update would have been better had it been integrated directly into the original text. Flipping back and forth from the chapters to the appendix can make searching for information a bit cumbersome. Indexing is exhaustive, but can sometimes be off by a few pages. The syllabi (one for everything up to and including Windows 2000 and (again) one for the XP Update) are generally helpful, but the inclusion of reference page numbers for the various entries would have made them more so.

OVERALL
The positives here *far* outweigh the negatives. Now that I have completed my exploration of the subject matter, I know that "New Perspectives on Microsoft Windows 2000 MS-DOS Command Line" will become a permanent part of my computer reference library. Highly recommended!

Indespencible for Learning the Command Line
For any Windows User who just wants to know more about the functionality and nuances, the Command Line Offers control and understanding. This book is very well written and very concise in its approach as well as providing an extensive appendix for differences encountered with Windows XP.

The book is very well structured with very detailed introductions of the various topics as well as providing extensive "hands-on" examples and self-tests to evaluate your understanding.

The only improvement I would reccommend in a future edition would be to provide some method of self-checking your answers to the example problems to evaluate your learning.

I reccommend this book highly for anyone who wants to learn the invaluable Command Line skills to harness Windows.

Detailed and Thorough
Command line proficiency adds a new dimension to your understanding of Windows. While it is true that there are usually several ways to accomplish the same thing in Windows, the most elegant way is often performed in the command line.

This book shows you how to use the command line to perform basic as well as advanced functions, and offers explanations of how the various commands work.

While this book falls into the self-study or textbook category, it is a decent reference book as well. The index is complete, and very detailed.

It has been completely updated for Windows XP, and you will find an excellent discussion of the use of the Recovery Console, should you ever find yourself needing that.

I recommend this to anyone who is serious about wanting to know more about Windows Command line.