Product Description

Windows Vista is Microsoft's most important software release in more than a decade. It offers users an abundance of new and upgraded features that were more than five years in the making: a gorgeous, glass-like visual overhaul; superior searching and organization tools; a multimedia and collaboration suite; and above all, a massive, top-to-bottom security-shield overhaul. There's scarcely a single feature of the older versions of Windows that hasn't been tweaked, overhauled, or replaced entirely.

But when users first encounter this beautiful new operating system, there's gonna be a whole lotta head-scratchin', starting with trying to figure out which of the five versions of Vista is installed on the PC (Home, Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate).

Thankfully, Windows Vista: The Missing Manual offers coverage of all five versions. Like its predecessors, this book from New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue illuminates its subject with technical insight, plenty of wit, and hardnosed objectivity for beginners, veteran standalone PC users, and those who know their way around a network. Readers will learn how to: Navigate Vista's elegant new desktop Locate anything on your hard drive quickly with the fast, powerful, and fully integrated search function Use the Media Center to record TV and radio, present photos, play music, and record any of the above to DVD Chat, videoconference, and surf the Web with the vastly improved Internet Explorer 7 tabbed browser Build a network for file sharing, set up workgroups, and connect from the road Protect your PC and network with Vista's beefed up security And much more.

This jargon-freeguide explains Vista's features clearly and thoroughly, revealing which work well and which don't. It's the book that should have been in the box!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #984 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-27
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

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. Titles in the series include Mac OS X, Windows, iPod, Microsoft Office, iPhoto, Dreamweaver, iMovie, and many others. His Web page is www.davidpogue.com, and his email address is david@pogueman.com.

Customer Reviews

Windows Vista: The Missing Manual
Title: Windows Vista: The Missing Manual
First Edition: December 2006
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-52827-2
ISBN 13: 9780596528270
Pages: 848


Book description from O'Reilly:

"Windows Vista: The Missing Manual offers complete and comprehensive coverage of all five versions of Vista. In his inimitable witty style, New York Times columnist and bestselling author David Pogue illuminates this subject with clear technical insight and hard-nosed objectivity. He explains Vista's features clearly and thoroughly, revealing which work well and which don't. Written for beginners, veteran stand-alone PC users, and those who know their way around a network, this jargon-free guide is the book that should have been in the box!


Windows Vista is Microsoft's most important software release in more than a decade. It offers users an abundance of new and upgraded features that were more than five years in the making: a gorgeous, glass-like visual overhaul; superior searching and organization tools; a multimedia and collaboration suite; and above all, a massive, top-to-bottom security-shield overhaul.


There's scarcely a single feature of the older versions of Windows that hasn't been tweaked, overhauled, or replaced entirely.


But when users first encounter this beautiful new operating system, there's gonna be a whole lotta head-scratchin', starting with trying to figure out which of the five versions of Vista is installed on the PC (Home, Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate).


Thankfully, Windows Vista: The Missing Manual offers coverage of all five versions. Like its predecessors, this book from New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue illuminates its subject with technical insight, plenty of wit, and hardnosed objectivity for beginners, veteran standalone PC users, and those who know their way around a network."


This description can hardly start to reveal how good this book is. I did both types of installation: the complete wipe [second] and that other install I will not name. The author claimed the "other install I will not name" would take 5 days, but it only took 4 for me. The performance was not there and I was too research oriented to take his remarks seriously. I thought if the first type of install did not work right, the other would make up for it. The clean install 'might take 15 minutes' according to the author. It took about 4 hours and I still ended up with three partitions and 12 GB of stuff on my hard drive when I was looking for about 4-5GB. Sounds like a book of my own to write someday...


I do love Vista, do not get me wrong. This book really helped me do things I did not think of before I got the Business edition. It would have been very hard to figure out problems that occurred if you were not online to get the Windows version of the fix without this book. It would take at least two computers: the one you are loading with Vista and the other one that is online and searching for fixes.


There are some mistakes in the book, but you can deal with most of them. Page 58, the author means 'translucent' when he writes 'transparent...blurry image...underneath'. Some errors are more troublesome, such as page 350 where 'personal folder==>appdata==>roaming==>etc' does not exist.


This book is worth 5 stars and every penny charged for it, taking everything into account. A balanced point of view is being used by the author in parts of the text. Well done.


I really like Windows Vista: The Missing Manual and find it to be an impressive book and operating system.


Frederick J Eccher Jr
MBA
M.S. Management of Information Systems
A.B. Psychology
B.A. Biology
CIO, Community Partners
President, Board of Directors, Saint Louis Visual Basic Users Group
rick@stlvbug.net

Excellent for those transitioning to Vista
For the most part, I've found The Missing Manual series to be generally well written, informative and useful. This one - "Windows Vista: The Missing Manual" is better than average.

Reluctantly I had to install Vista on at least one computer and learn it, so I needed something that would help me quickly and hopefully painlessly transition from Windows XP Pro.

I tried Windows Vista: The Definitive Guideand found it lacking. Very lacking.

"Windows Vista: The Missing Manual" is well done. It is a very nice blend of material for the novice, the power user and everyone in between. It's really quite an accomplishment, I think.

Pogue has a very light style. I found that just by going through the book quickly page by page, I learned all the significant differences between Vista and XP. Pogue uses sidebars extensively to make the task user. He is also very much into providing useful tips.

Overall, "Windows Vista: The Missing Manual" is very well done and will help the reader to quickly transition from XP to Vista.

Jerry

Mr pogues Book will remain by my computer for reference.
the book contains over 800 pages and covers just about everything I may wish to do on a computer and very much more. Mr Pogue makes Vista appear to be easy to operate and a pleasure to use well that may be the case for the geeks of the world but it's also a pain in the but.

However the information contained in the pages of David Pogues book will enable me to enjoy a new computer experience.
That's all I have to say for the present. I have 3 more chapters to read
DRB