Microsoft Books

The title pretty much says it all. No matter what level of experience you have, there's something to learn here.

the product was good,the delivery was on time.
The book was in good condition

I bought this because it was highly recommended as a must have for the software engineer. I browsed through it and I'm not sorry I bought it. It has some good stuff.

Besides agreeing with the other reviews all I can say is that this text has made me a better programmer. Truly.

Though this book is filled with debatable opinion and redundant information, it's an important read. Read it if only to keep software engineering topics fresh in your head. Otherwise, if you are already experienced, it's kind of elementary.

Very handy cookbook reference for my office bookshelf. I've used it a number of times, and it's more than paid for itself in expediting regularly-scheduled inquiries of our AD structure here at GEICO HQ.

Excellent reference if you work with AD on a regular basis either as an admin or a developer. Each "how to" offers methods for manually performing a specific task as well as (where possible) how to automate the task using code. Should be on every Windows admin/developer's desk.

Overall, this is a great book for reference.

There are a number of areas where I think the book falls short - all of the scripts are very hard coded scripts that don't tell you how to do some functions that would make their scripts actually useful (like "pull the list of users with attributes from a tab-delimited file and create them" or something similar, this would make mass creation of users actually useful, instead of "create user1, user2, user3, etc..."). I think that the writers expect you to be a VB expert (or at least close to it) if you're going to actually make the vb scripts useful.

Most of the scripts are "How to use a script to do the same functions that you can already do in AD with ADUC or another MMC", but I think that the most important thing for me about the book is what it inspires me to think of doing. Things that MS doesn't necessarily expect you to do. I'm still not seeing a way to add sidHistory to an object (MS does it with another applet - there is a way...), but there are so many things in the book that just have me thinking about how you can implement changes to an environment that MS says you can't do. What they really mean is "You can't do that with the GUI tools that we provide you".

I am so glad that this book was recommended to me by a guy I took a class on scripting from. I use this book everyday (almost). I even took it on vacation with me for light reading.

Firstly a warning, this is the second edition and covers Windows 2003. There is a third edition that covers the newer OS. I bought this book by mistake and it's too big (postage would be too expensive) to return. So buy with care.

This is a big book in terms of pages but the content is less than stellar. Don't expect to find too much on designing AD in real world situations such as integration with networking topologies and devices. Nor expect to find details on integrating AD with other Microsoft technology such as SharePoint. No this cookbook is really an administrator companion, and I think it does a pretty decent job in that but not more.

I have read (or tried to read) other WPF books but this one is by far the best one, both in terms of readability (the colors really make a difference) and contents. It feels like each page has a gem of information. If I were to buy only one book about WPF, this would be the one.

This book is a must have, I have recommended to all my friends and family. Kudos to the Author for publishing such a wonderful book.

I have read may books on WFP and this is the one I go to when I need to figure out how to do something. Mine is full of tape flags, post-it notes and dog-eared pages because it gets used all the time. Another book, Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (Microsoft .NET Development Series) is also very good, but it isn't a refrence book like this one. If you want to program in WPF you need Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed bu Adam Nathan!

I had a lot of fun with this book, and it provided me with a fantastic foundation of knowledge for implementing WPF technology in my applications.

It's organized well, in that important tips are easy to find (no digging through paragraphs to find answers to common problems), and conversely thorough in detail; when more information is required. So it is quite versitile, whatever your reading mood. Whether it's casually flipping through, or digging deeper in to advanced topics.

The book's written very well, and most notably with a passion. The writer explains concepts clearly to the reader, and I'd highly recommended it to anyone interested in learning about this technology.

I ordered this book and Pro WPF in C# 2008 (Mathew MacDonald) at the same time. I read WPF Unleashed first because I saw the reviews on Amazon.com. I thought, wow, great book. Then I read Pro WPF in C# 2008.

I found Pro WPF in C# 2008 to be a much better book than WPF Unleashed. It's thicker, has more content, and dives much deeper. It also covers .Net 3.5 because it's newer.

Don't get me wrong, they are both excellent books and I recommend them both. But if you really want to understand core WPF concepts, Pro WPF in C# 2008 is the better choice.

dr. field has done an excellent job of making stats understandable and spss user friendly. as a social psychology grad student, i enjoy the ease of use found with the index. if i forget the differences in rotation methods for factor analysis, i can quickly find clear explanations in the book. i suggest to all grad students and advanced undergrads using spss to get a copy of this text!

This book was an enormous help to me in writing my doctoral dissertation. Now, I am a Communications scholar and I did a content analysis, so I didn't need to master a lot of highly advanced techniques. But nor had I taken courses that taught statistics in any depth. I was feeling quite at sea on some things. And for a dissertation, you really have to understand things, so you can defend it at the end. Although I had other statistics books and they certainly were helpful, this one that walked me through the tests I had been doing and -- quite simply, with patience and good humor -- helped me to understand why they were necessary and basically how they worked. I liked the fact I could read much or as little detail as I could absorb at the time -- there are quick summaries, clearly marked, or longer, quite simple explanations for those in a hurry, as well as in-depth explanations for things you really need to know thoroughly. It was having those choices that made this book incredibly helpful.

This book is perfect!! Very informative, the layout is systematically and on top of it all; statistics becomes fun. It is a pleasure to read this book!!
Thanks to Andy Field which made my life as a PhD easier!!:O)

Useful and entertaining stats books are hard to come by but this one has hit the mark! Comprehensive and clear explanations of statistical theory are provided as well as of SPSS output. Love the examples and icons. Who would have thought a stats text could make me laugh out loud?!

This should be the first book you buy if you need help with stats and SPSS. When I first began doing empirical research I knew almost nothing about statistics or SPSS, and had to learn virtually everything I needed to know about complex multivariate tests on my own. I had suffered through many of the relevant, canonical books before I happened upon Field. It was a V-8 moment. Not only does the book explain everything in engaging, easy to understand, often hilarious terms (a favorite example is the caption of the photo of statistician Bonferroni: "Carlo Bonferroni before the celebrity of his correction lead to drink, drugs and statistics groupies"), but again and again it answered questions I had that other sources didn't address in a practical way. One example out of many is how to calculate and interpret effect sizes, which SPSS doesn't calculate for all multivariate tests, or calculates using a measure that has been widely criticized. Field describes the rationale behind several measures of effect size as well as formulas for calculating them, including clear indicators of where to find the data in SPSS output.

Other reviewers have commented that this book is light on theory. I don't know enough about statistical theory to know if this is a valid criticism. But, I do think the book provides ample and detailed "whys" behind the "hows" that I haven't found elsewhere and that were necessary to help me justify the tests I run and how I interpret them. The level of detail and abstraction, in my opinion, is completely appropriate for most researchers and students.

The book is well organized and very easy to read. It captures both the novice as well as those who have been working in WPF since beta (or is that CTP). The only complaints I have for the book are really just complaints on WPF in general. A lot of the material in the book (as well as WPF in general) focuses on making fairly outlandish applications (getting all the wizz bang features and animations). What I find lacking are items like validation, threading (when having a long background task), and items more akin to Windows Forms development. This book was an invaluable tool while I put together my first WPF application.

A quick background of my skills prior to reading the book so you know where I'm coming from:
- Strong: C++, Win32, 2D UI
- Learning: C#, .NET, WPF, XAML, XML

Being extremely anxious to dig in to WPF, I was seeking a book that would hold my hand through the process but by the end, leave no stones unturned. This book comes close.

My first attempt at learning was "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan. I quickly became frustrated with the book because I was regularly feeling lost. You know, like when you are conversing with a really intelligent person who has a hard time helping you connect the dots. I do recommend Adam's book as a supplement as it's got good material and is in full color. After reading the reviews for "Programming WPF" by Sells & Griffiths I took the leap.

I read the book cover to cover minus 3 chapters: 3D, Interoperability and Async/Multithreaded -- about 700 of 800 pages. Usually books this fat have lots of useless pages. Not this book, no sir, which just goes to show how much there is to learn about WPF and XAML. In a word, the book is brilliant, written for experienced programmers who want to learn WPF and XAML.

It has the same feel as Petzold's Win 3.x books, i.e. Light-hearted, start easy and built to a powerful crescendo as the chapters progress. The latter chapters are no more difficult to digest than the previous chapters, but do build upon previous chapters. That said, I was extremely grateful that the book didn't have a grand project that was slowly built upon chapter by chapter; code examples mostly stood on their own and were plentiful (and they worked as printed!)

As noted above, I know very little about WinForms, and WPF is the obvious successor. Though parallels were duly noted, I was thrilled that there were not constant sidebars saying "Hey Mr. WinForms! Everything's OK! This is just new stuff and you can handle it. Rah! Rah! Rah!" As the authors make abundantly clear from page 1, WPF is light years ahead of WinForms.

As noted above, WPF and XAML are big topics so be prepared to get up and stretch your legs a lot, hold you head frequently and doubt the wisdom of learning new things.

On the down side, the book is weighted a bit too heavily towards XAML for my tastes. Since C# can do absolutely everything (and more) that XAML can do, I wish there were more dual examples that show how XAML does it and then how C# does it. There are examples like this but not enough. This would satisfy the curiousity of developers who wonder about how XAML "magically" achieves things.

Another gripe, now that I am attempting to apply what I have learned: I am frequently having to turn to a Google search to find details not present in the book. For example, the section about event bubbling covers good ground but I immediately had a problem when trying to use bubbling: I was attempting to use it with sibling elements and that does not work but (as far as I can tell) this was not noted in the book. It feels as though the book was not field tested.

And a final gripe: The index is sparse. I am regularly having to pencil in items.

Some brief notes:
- I really hope this book evolves along with WPF's evolution
- The material seemed fresh (as of Oct 2008) except the Silverlight appendix which has aged since Silverlight 2.0 has been released
- The corresponding errata website does not seem to be updated regularly (though I didn't encounter many editing problems)
- Even though the book only has a dozen pages of color plates, you won't feel deprived as the examples will light up your display in all sorts of fun ways.

I have both WPF books by Chris Anderson and Adam Nathan. I read initial chapters of both of them but never got so excited to continue reading and got astray into LINQ and other stuff. Then I bought this one from Chris Sells and all I can say is it is much better than both Anderson and Adam book and the book keeps you engaged making you eager to find out what next in very simple terms and wonderful example. I loved the way the data binding chapter was explained and am hoping to finish this soon.

Great Job Sells and Ian.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that after diving into WPF back when it was known as "Avalon", I haven't even touched WPF since. So I finally needed to suck it up, get started, and learn WPF.

As somebody new to WPF, I just have to give a huge "Thank You" to both Chris and Ian. This book is very entertaining and the quality of the writing between both Chris and Ian is just tremendous. The pace of the book is perfect and the teaching style is one that any developer can relate to.

As a Technical Evangelist working for Microsoft, I think that every "Evangelist" in the tech industry can learn from Chris and Ian on how to tell a compelling story that developers can relate to and "grok". We evangelists are all-too-willing to simply explain the technical details of an API while completely forgetting to answer the "why" (let alone telling a compelling story to suck people in). This is yet another area that this book excels at.

I can say with full confidence that this book is the first book I recommend to anybody wanting to dive into WPF. Enjoy!

Jason Olson, Technical Evangelist, Visual Studio & the .NET Framework
[...]

Writing a programming book is not an easy thing to do -- I know, because I've done it myself. And I have to say that I'm really impressed with the job that Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths have done with "Programming WPF". This is one of the best programming books I've ever read (and I've read a lot of them).

For a programming book to be good, it's not enough for it to simply contain all of the information that you need to know. If that information doesn't stick to your brain, then the book hasn't done it's job. If you want the information to stick, then the book has to be interesting to read. It has to have a lot of clear examples that show you real-world applications without extraneous fluff. And to be really effective, all of that should be done with a little bit of style and wit.

And I'm really pleased to say that "Programming WPF" does all of those things. I recently needed a refresher on WPF, so I just spent a lot of time over the last few weeks going through the book very carefully. And I have to say that I'm really impressed. It's engaging, interesting and they chose really good examples. And it's witty! (You'd be amazed at how the occasional chuckle keeps a reader from getting that "eyes glazed over" feeling that far too many books induce.)

I know from experience -- believe me, I know! -- just how hard it is to pull that off. And they did it with style. So first of all, congratulations to Chris and Ian for doing a great job. And second, if you're a C# developer looking for a good, hands-on way to learn WPF, I highly recommend "Programming WPF".

I first saw this book at an airport bookstore. After reading the summary I instantly purchased this book to read on the plane. The moment I start reading it kept me moving to the next page, next page, next page.
The story is moving! Great book. Another suggestion is The Dream - a self-made entreprenur who made millions during his teenage life. Very inspiring! Refreshing to mind too.

Enjoy reading.

Sarala
email: sarala1jan@yahoo.com

As another reviewer said, this is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. If you are in a job that is not that fulfilling, but you're afraid of making the leap, Wood's journey from Microsoft to the non-profit sector will be educational. If you are happy with your job, but just want to make your job inspiring, Wood's lessons from Microsoft that he applied to Room To Read will show you ways to do that, too. Thank you, John, for writing such a heartfelt memoir of your emotional journey.

This book is a must have, I have recommended to all my friends and family. Kudos to the Author for publishing such a wonderful book.

Namaste John. Kasto Cha??

You have made all Nepalese indebted with your incomparable deeds. You are true hero in our hearts. Yes, we salute you from the core of our heart.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. John Wood does what all of us dreamers out there imagine we could do: quits his excellent job at Microsoft to do his part in saving the world. Wood's style of writing is so smooth and easy to read, he never bores you. If you're at all familiar with the inside workings of the Microsoft company (my boyfriend interned there, so I am), you'll get a good laugh here and there when he talks about someone like Steve Ballmer and some other inside jokes. I highly recommend you read this book if you have any interests at all in poverty alleviation and humanitarian aid.

I have a friend that recommended me this book and I have to agree with him that this was a very well written book. Don't let the fact that the title says "Windows NT" discourage you from getting this book. There is a lot of useful information in this book that is still standard practice for scripting in Server 2003. Probably one of the few and only outdated commands in the book is the AT command that was replaced by SCHTASK. Even then, the author goes into detail on how these different commands work and how to use them in your work environment to you benefit. I recommend this book as a learning tool and as a reference for my fellow scripting brethren.

Great book on NT shell commands that Microsoft doesn't even document. Not even "command /?" gives you any help.

Great for reference and to learn.

Although this book was authored in 1998, it is still as relavent today with Windows Server 2003 as it was when Windows NT 4.0 was first released. The fact is that the Command Shell hasn't changed all that much over the years and Timothy Hill's book remains the best guide to using and writing command scripts that I could ever recommend. And with Windows Server 2003's push to be able to do everything from the command line that one can do from the GUI, it's even more important to fully understand how the Windows Command Shell works.

Windows NT Shell Scripting is less about Windows NT than it is about how to write shell scripts. It covers the details of using the Command Shell in interactive mode, its configuration and how the 32-bit Command Shell differs from the 16-bit DOS box. Then it delves into the structure and syntax of the Command Shell language, providing a clear understanding of how the program control features such as IF and FOR work. Finally, it shows you how to create sophisticated shell scripts using the internal commands and external command-line utilities included with Windows and their Resource Kits.

Not everything in this book has survived the test of time. The old task scheduler using the AT command, though still supported in current version of Windows, has been mostly replaced by more powerful Scheduled Tasks of Windows 2000 and later. And you will want to supplement this book with a modern reference of the utility programs available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (such as OReilly's "Windows Server 2003 In A Nutshell"). Yet this represents only a small part of the book and majority of material stands up very well. Certainly there is no better and more in-depth tutorial for building command scripts than Timothy Hill's book.

I like this book because unlike many technical books, the first three chapters aren't a pedestrian introduction to the basic fundamentals. This book spends chapter 1 with insight, similar to the way Applied Cryptography immediately gives you knowledge. I'm an experienced NT command shell user, and this book was valuable for me as well.
The DOS shell has become a requirement and skill relegated to the background by the direction of Microsoft curriculum, this book explains it and teaches it.

The authors instructions are easy to follow, without doting like the Teach Yourself "whatever" in 24 hour books, Tim Hill doesn't waste your time, or your money.

If you have a bit of programming experience, this book together with access to the NT Resource Kit tools will provide you with the foundation for doing almost anything you could imagine within Windows NT Shell Scripting.

The book can be used both as a tutorial and a reference for Windows NT scripting and gives good examples of the commands, tools and concepts covered. For Windows NT, this book does the job as your Shell Scripting Bible in less than 400 pages.

Since Windows NT 4.0, a lot has happened in the Windows scripting field though. With the release of Windows 2000 and the subsequent Windows XP and .NET Server, shell scripting has become much more powerful. A second edition of this book covering the new commands and tools would be most welcome. Until one exists, you might also want to look at newer books covering shell scripting for operating systems based on the Windows NT kernel.

You might also want to look at other, often more powerful ways to script your Windows NT-based environment. For that matter I recommend looking at other books covering WSH (Windows Script Host), ADSI and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation).

CLR via C# is an excellent look into the finer details of the .Net Framework. It is not really a book on how to program in C# per se (there are many excellent books on this subject, such as Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Base Class Library by Francesco Balena) but more a book on how to get the most out of the .Net Framework while using the C# language as your vehicle. If you are new to programming or to C#, this should probably not be your first or even second book on the subject.

In this 648 page journey through the CLR, Mr. Richter covers such subjects as how code is converted from high level C# to MSIL, Types, Generics, Events, and Asynchronous programming, to name just a few. The book assumes some level of knowledge not just of C# but of programming in general. The author does assume that you, as the reader, are familiar with some common data structures and programming best practices. Mr. Richter also interjects his own opinion at various times on why certain features work the way they do, or how they would/should work were he in charge of creating the CLR.

If you are already a competent C# or VB.Net developer who is ready to take your development skills to the next level, I highly recommend this book. At 648 pages long, it may take some time to get through, but I can guarantee it will be time well spent.

Usually books like this are used for reference. I read this one cover to cover. It's a great read for rounding out your knowledge of .Net - what's on the stack, in the heap, value vs. reference types, c# compiler tricks, IL compiler tricks, etc. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to better understand .NET.

Considering how many books about .NET there are today, it's surprising how many of these books are really rather good.

However, there are a number of books that are truly GREAT. This is one of them.

Quite simply - if you're a .NET developer, you owe it to yourself to buy this book, regardless of your level of skill with this or any other technology - there are few people with the skills, background and expeirence and sheer ability to write coherently that can exceed Jeff Richter in Windows development overall, and his ability to detail just HOW the CLR and .NET FX work is unsurpassed.

Essential reading.

This book is really fascinating. It's the only book I've seen dealing with the the inner workings of the CLR. It really helps understand what's going on when writing C# code. Highly recommended! A lot of substance!

Possess a driving license? That probably means you know the mechanics that makes cars work. Thereby the skill necessary to ferry ourselves to and from places in daily life.

Wait, what has this gotta do with reviewing a technical computing book?

Well, you knew incorrect air pressure worsens tyre grip, accelerates wear & tear, and reduces fuel efficient, right? You knew improper engine tuning may lead to unsynchronized valve and spark plug timings, resulting in severe loss of power, right? You knew air bubbles in brake fluid can result in inconsistent application of brakes and uneven deceleration, right? Ah, so many important factors of physics revolving around the science and engineering of motoring. Yet so subtle and unknown by the vast majority of motorists. And ignored. Never realising what performance-leaking sins they commit against their cars.

This very book will expose the fact that you are effectively guilty of the same level of ignorance with the .NET CLR as you go about your daily programming work.

There are tons of titles covering the use of technologies and frameworks that build on top of Microsoft's .NET Framework. By and large they are fine, fulfilling the needs of developers as they work on the real purposes of their jobs - delivering beneficial (or entertaining) value to users and industries. But so few step into that deeper realm to discuss the very thing that makes this all possible. The very heart of the .NET framework, at its core, the mighty execution engine known as the CLR. Jeffery Richter takes a different approach by removing the shroud of magic surrounding the CLR and the C# compiler, exhibiting the internals and explaining all the little crucial activitites it does behind the scenes so that programmers can carelessly forget and not bother.

He organises the book into five parts and twenty four chapters of excrutiating detail:

Part 1 CLR Basics
Chapter 1 The CLR's Execution Model
Chatper 2 Building, Packaging, Deploying, and Administering Applications and Types
Chatper 3 Shared Assemblies and Strongly Named Assemblies
Part 2 Working with Types
Chapter 4 Type Fundamentals
Chapter 5 Primitive, Reference, and Value Types
Part 3 Designing Types
Chaper 6 Type and Member Basics
Chapter 7 Constants and Fields
Chapter 8 Methods: Constructors, Operators, Conversions, and Parameters
Chapter 9 Properties
Chapter 10 Events
Part 4 Essential Types
Chapter 11 Chars, Strings, and Text
Chapter 12 Enumerated Types and Bit Flags
Chapter 13 Arrays
Chapter 14 Interfaces
Chapter 15 Delegates
Chapter 16 Generics
Chapter 17 Custom Attributes
Chapter 18 Nullable Value Types
Part 5 CLR Facilities
Chapter 19 Exceptions
Chapter 20 Automatic Memory Management (Garbage Collection)
Chapter 21 CLR Hosting and AppDomains
Chapter 22 Assembly Loading and Reflection
Chapter 23 Performing Asynchronous Operations
Chapter 24 Thread Synchronization

Take a good look at this list topics, and honestly ask yourself if you know everything about how the CLR facilitates all these? Most approach the CLR as a black box - I knew myself to be one - and in result only knew what was sufficient to work with it, which in turn developed quite a number of misconceptions about it. Jeffery Richter goes through chapter by chapter and puts me through a constant pace of surprises, shocks, and pure enlightenment. He goes as low a level as the CLR can operate, and communicates in terms of memory locations, CPU registers, and gives the repeated impression that many of the CLR automated activities we take for granted has a performance cost. The material he writes about are astounding and sometimes downright shocking. It goes an extremely long way to remove whatever misconceptions you may have about the CLR or compiler, influencing you to rethink about many of the habits and practices you have now.

Challenge some examples. Just a small number of matters. Did you know C# constants are really only good for referencing within its own assembly? Any referencing and use of constants in other assemblies are hardcoded at the MSIL level. Do you know the exact garbage collection sequence the CLR takes to identify generations of orphaned objects and housekeep the memory? What does it take to resurrect an object from the Freachable queue? Why are finalizers generally not recommended? How would you compare strings with the added dimensions of encoding and globalization cultures? How do you construct strings and convert types to and from strings? What are the implications of unboxing a Value-type object from a Reference-type variable and assigning values? Did you know an assembly need not necessarily be just a single .DLL file? How does the metadata for your types turn out in the assemblies as the compiler emits the IL equivalent of your code?

Each chapter brings to light information you never knew you needed to know. As much as possible, Jeffery Richter provides code samples and programs to demonstrate his points and prove the effect. He not only provides the information, but lists many alternative ways to achieving a said effect, along with pros and cons for each method. He is here to explain, not to sell the CLR, and does not hold back on what he honestly thinks are design flaws by Microsoft. At almost every junction, you will feel vulnerable by the knowledge he passes to you. If you ever felt snotty and arrogant over your knowledge of the .NET Framework, this book is the antidode to humble yourself. If you ever positioned yourself to learn more about .NET, you will surely rejoice with gladness.

For all the great depth to be had throughout the book, a topic that I found notably absent is how the CLR actually performs interoperability with unmanaged layers in the OS. There is only a brieft touch on it in the first chapter. The WIN32 and COM platforms are still cornerstones of Windows development; it would have been ideal for developers like myself who began development after the advent of the .NET Framework.

Even then, this is one book you'd repeatedly refer for years to come to double check you don't commit another subtle mistake. By the time you are half way or perhaps even a third way through this rich material, you would have understood the term "managed code" is a literal description and not a marketing buzzword at all.

Overall rating: 10/10
Good: In-depth tour under the hood; shocking revelations; you were wrong, and will rethink;
Bad: No true chapter and detailing of P/Invoke and COM interop mechanics; seriously, why is this not in the SDK?

This book "flows" easily and it does a great job covering the meteoric rise of both Bill Gates and Microsoft. The narrative is never dull and both, the man and his company, are given a fair treatment. This book was published in 1993 and a lot of interesting stuff remains to be told. Wish the authors would team up for a sequel. This is a well written and authoritative account of Microsoft and its founder.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

This book is a must-read for people who consider themselves ambitious and driven. It taught me the importance of single-minded drive and determination, coupled with a passion for the line of work one is in. IT is a tough line of work to be in - jobs could be outsourced anytime, skills become redundant quickly and there isn't the glamor or get-fabulously-rich possibility of finance or investment banking... but this book demonstrates that as long as you are passionate about what you do, there is always room at the top. Take heart from it!

This is the definitive Book about Bill Gates (and the history of Windows). It covers all the management aspects of how he drove Microsoft and how the work became his life. The man doesn't do business... He LIVES it. And this book describes it in very much detail.

The details includes how Bill "turned over" IBM... Promissing them the OS/2 under the "NT Technology" flag and how he realeased Windows 95 and killed IBM forever from the Desktop business. It also shows Gates apreciation for Older woman (and many that took him to bed). As part of this "private" package, it also explains the problems that He had with Steve Ballmer. How Ballmer was showing poor management and leadership under Gates perspective and how Ballmer got over it and made his loyalty to Gates forever.

I was more interested on the part that explains how Microsoft Windows 1.0 was developed. How disastrous the first Office was compared to the competition and how they managed to "work around" and fix it, by "coping" the competition and improving it "the Microsoft way".

Buy this if you want to know how business can be done... or be "copied".

Delightful book. Its one flaw is its addictiveness, I couldn't put it down which did cost me sleep (I'm an IT professional with an entrepreneur spirit- your results may vary).

The Microsoft/Gates biography is impeccable in its wealth of interesting details and engaging story-telling.

Bill Gates is a fantastic decision maker. He would be as successful selling water or space suits, he just happened to be at the right time in the right booming industry and pushed with his business-business mentality to the limit. Right decision after right decision, the Microsoft journey is a story that any entrepreneur should nitpick and absorb as much as possible.

Of course, his terrible capitalistic drive is a perfect subject for a discussion on morals, social responsibility and related matters, but without a doubt when it comes to maximizing outcome while playing by our economic rules, Hard Drive tells a tale of epic proportions featuring a superhero / villain that rivals the best of science fiction.

This is a decent book on how Bill Gates and his business team built the Microsoft empire. The good aspects of this book include the following:

* The emphasis on how Microsoft was not built in a day but with many, many long days and lots of innovative thinking. This book illustrates how hard Gates worked.

* The portrayal of how relentlessly competitive and ambitious Gates is, be it at efficient programming, dominating the various software markets, studying higher mathematics or playing poker with his buddies.

* The specific details of the growth of Microsoft, as a company, up until the time of the book's publication.

* The implicit theme of how Gates never stops thinking.

Unfortunately, there are several aspects of this book that I disliked. These include the following:

* The writing is repetitive and often very stream-of-conscious. This book reads like a 250-300 page book diluted into a 400 page book.

* There is a lot of negative commentary about Gates' personality. First, this negative illustration seems to be done without providing the proper context. Gates is often portrayed as very immature. In this book, Gates is described as frequently issuing direct attacks on the intelligence of his employees during meetings and in private communication. He is also portrayed as immature through negligence, such as when he, presumably inadvertently, left his dirty laundry thrown about on a hotel floor for a top executive of his company to collect.

Although these incidents may be true, the authors should have emphasized that Gates is an enormously successful executive who is *only* in his twenties. While this does not excuse the described behavior, it does provide context for it. Needless to say, these immature outbursts would be appalling if they were committed by a seasoned executive in his early sixties.

More generally, this image of Gates conflicts with the image I gathered of him through other means. A friend of mine who worked at Microsoft described Gates as routinely hosting interns in his mansion for dinner, magnanimously forgiving a new employee who accidentally dented his car and graciously answering a personal e-mail concerning the artwork in his home. The Gates I have heard of through my friend, and the one who runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, does not fit the mold of the Gates described in this book.

I am not challenging the veracity of the information contained within, I am just surmising that the negatives sound like a few bad habits that Gates may have grew out of.

Since my book is older, it was a used version, the hints are for older things. It does have some helpful tools, but lots of the annoyances, I already knew about.

This book is written in a very easy to understand language. The hints are pratical and should help everyone in some way. Microsoft will not tell you much of how to make your operating system work the way YOU want it to. Steve Bass takes care of that. It is a valuable resource for anyone who has a PC, novice or experienced. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about computers and I even learned a few new tricks.

I am still pretty much a neophite where computers are concerned, so I bought this book hoping that it could get me out of the "messes" I'm always getting into. It really DOES help! Thank you!!! Steve Bass, I'm now searching for other books you have written.

This is the first computer book I actually said down and read, cover to cover. It holds your interest, and each tip gets you excited for the one to follow. I call it my AHA book. All the time you read it, you go "Aha! That's the problem!" or "Aha! That's how to get rid of that!". Can't recommend it highly enough.

I've read many computer books, and I have to say this is one of the most informative. More important, Steve provides hundreds of tips to overcome the small (and large) problems of Windows. It's nice to konw that even a well-known computer columnist experiences the same frustrations we ordinary users do. Happily, he willing to share the solutions he's found.

In my first reading, I discovered the answers to at least 7 windows annoyances I've encountered.

And instead of including a cost-raising CD, the publisher has made 100 utility programs available online, a better solution that including them on a quickly outdated disk.

A useful, and often amusing book.

You need it!