Microsoft Books

For those of us who've performed more than 50 percent of our administration tasks from the command line (in Windows) for that past 15+ years, it's nice to see that Microsoft is still committed to this method of administration. It's also good to see a book like this that teaches a new generation of technology professionals how to get things done most efficiently - at the command prompt.

Windows Server 2008 intrduces the "core" concept, which is an implementation of Windows Server without the full GUI. You use command line commands to do everything from creating user accounts to setting up services. This book is your one-stop shop to find out how to get it all done.

Divided into seven parts, this book provides you with detailed step-by-step instructions for every major task (and most minor ones) that you'll need to perform in a Windows Server Core installation. The books starts by explaining what Windows Server Core actually is and then moves on to coverage of basic command line usage. For those who've been working at the command line for years, you may be able to skip straight to Part 3, "Working with the Hardware".

Parts 3-5 will probably be used most frequently as an ongoing refernce. Part 3 teaches you how to work with files, the network and other hardware devices. Part 4 moves to working with applications and services and also the monitoring of the same. Part 5 provides an overview of user management and security.

Parts 6 and 7 also provide beneficial coverage of third-party addons and working with IIS. The Appendices are very helpful as they provide lists of command line tricks, as well as various listings of the available commands.

The batch file section will also be invaluable for those who may have created batch files in the past (for example, when working in DOS), but have grown rusty through lack of utilization.

Overall, this is the best Window Server 2008 book on my shelf so far (among five others).

This book seems to be the first 2008 Core Server book out. Sometimes, a fancy title might be picked, but it doesn't really apply to the book contents... That is not the case here. This book is a handy reference guide for administering the GUI-less version of Server 2008.

Being faced with pretty much only a DOS command-line can seem pretty intimidating, but this book helps you figure out how to do those typical administration tasks that would be required when dealing with a networked server.

This is definitely a good reference to have handy. Also, pretty much everything in the book will also apply to the other versions of 2008 with a GUI. With the GUI version, this book will definitely help you with automating various tasks.

Marco Shaw
Microsoft MVP (2008)
Windows Server-Admin Frameworks
[...]

The book helped me to understand when I should use which BackOffice product and where. The scenarios at the begining of each chapter provide examples of how BackOffice can addressmany of the challenges faced in systems integration and administration.

This book is a excellent survey of the Microsoft BackOffice technologies, and the business environment in which they are implemented. This book is a must read for those in business or technology roles that are trying to determine the best infrastructure for their business solutions. If you are looking for how to add a mailbox to Exchange Server this is not the book for you, but if you are trying to understand the business issues and benefits of deploying BackOffice then you have found a unique book that should be listed with "Business" books in addition to "Computer" books.

I almost didn't by the ASP.NET 3.5 for Dummies. Then I noticed that it was a different author than ASP.NET 2.0 for Dummies and I thought I would give it a look. Bill Hatfield wrote the 'Dummies' book on the previous version and while I found him to be very knowledgeable, I got frustrated because I was trying to learn how to use Visual Studio with ASP.NET and his book didn't provide much help. Ken Cox however "gets it". He wrote the book for use with Visual Studio and by the end of Chapter 4 you're already using AJAX with no difficulty! By chapter 7 you're delving into LINQ! Ken's approach is intelligent and his style works both for the beginner as well as those more seasoned in ASP.NET. Excellent book!

I am an experienced developer so I only expected to skim over the book to get familiar with any of the new asp.net 3.5 features. I found myself reading every word of every page because the book was actually "entertaining". The writing is very smooth and easy to understand. You feel as if a really good teacher who knows how to relate to people is talking to you.

I was also surprised how deep the book was able to go into each subject. For example Linq is a very complicated subject yet the book does contain enough examples for you to use it in the real world.

If you can believe it we have a client that is still running the original BizTalk 2000. They have been using this guide religiously and I've heard them many times say how much better it is than the online documentation that came with that version of BizTalk.

I realize that we are far, far beyond this ancient release by now, but IF you happen to still be running the original BTS, then you should have this book by your side. There's probably a good reason it, along with its 1000 pages (!), is still in print after all these years.

Great book. Not only covers the meat of BTS 2000, but also the changes contained in BTS 2002, and, how the BizTalk Accelerators work. It's not only remarkably comprehensive (and thus really thick), but also a pretty easy read. Solid examples and good use of screen shots. Covers some of the deeper configurations that weren't fully flushed out in previous BizTalk books. An absolute must-have for a BTS Admin, or, someone who wants a deep understanding of what BTS can do.

After looking through counless books on building servers i finally found this one. This book answered all of my questions. Now i have a very profitable web services bussiness. I owe all of my success to this book.

Clear, well written and full of usefull examples are why we rated this book 9 on a scale of 10. This book is a must for any new NT user that wants the low down on NT and how it interacts with the World Wide Web. Seasoned vetrans will enjoy the advanced tips given as well as the undocumented features only Microsoft knows. This book will take you from basic concept for a working machine in less than a day ! A Must have book for your working collection

Excellent Book. But, I need to contact with the author

At the end of the book, is offered to buy the floppy disks with the code.

I like to buy them, but I like to contact the author first. I need his E-mail.

Regards,

Valentin

This is exactly what I was looking for, a book that examines the nuts and bolts of the C# while taking advatage of my C foundation. The book also makes language comparisons to Visual Basic, C/C++, Java, JScript, and Visual Foxpro. I thoroughly enjoyed the historical chapter 1, describing the evolution of programming. General programming concepts like proper use of control flow selection, proper initialization, and passing by reference versus passing by value are covered sufficiently and efficiently. C# language features are made clear with example code. The debugging environment in .NET was also covered, explaining the whole set of menu options for debugging.
You are not going to get any programs of that put together all the concepts, but your going to build the foundation to taking that step on your own. The authors are remarkably clear and to the point, usually giving an example where necessary. I'll be interested to try their C# for Windows Programming book next. A final comment: this is not a reference book, it more of an "adapting to C#" type of book, which serves its purpose to the tee.

My boy friend at UCLA let me borrow this book, but I finally bought my own copy. This book covers all of the features of C# which is the new Microsoft language.

If you know any C++, you are going to have no trouble with C# espically with this book. They have included a lot of short example programs that help you understand C# programming features.

They really helped me understand arrays in C# because they are totally different than for C++. Also, get ready for this, pointers are not used in C#, so you have got to do things another way. If you are like me, I didn't get along to well with pointers anyway.

Get the book, dude.

Offering a practical, "user friendly" guide to implementing object-oriented cross-platform communications, C++ Objects for Making Unix & WinNT Talk is an ideal reference for network programming. Readers will learn advanced techniques which provide features not inherently available from pure sockets including Remote Procedure Calls (RPC); Remote Execution (REXEC); File Transfer Protocol (FTP); Cross-Platform Semaphores; Pipes (for process-to-process communications that transmit and receive data using standard input and output file descriptors); as well as Publish and Subscript application frameworks allowing UNIX and NT to communicate without customizing message sending and translation. This highly recommended text is accompanied by a CD-ROM which equips the reader with C++ Objects that can be plugged into their own applications.

This book is excellent to those who have C++ programming experience. You will Understand C++ on UNIX/WIN NT and Newtwork Programming with greater detail. Learning the syntax of a language C++ is the easy part -- the hard part is understanding why things are done in UNIX/WIN NT in certain ways and how to best utilize the language features on both UNIX/WIN NT , and I felt this book did a great job of explaining that. It contains code pieces(Classes) for IPC(Inter Process Communication), Socket Programming, RPC(Remote Procedure Call) and Threads very well. A lot of code can be just cut & paste onto our real world problems. It teaches how to write portable C++ on both the environments UNIX/WIN NT. There is lot of new stuff compared to its older version. I would say it is worth buying this book coz it teaches u C++, UNIX/WIN NT, Network Programming(TCP/IP) and lot of Underlying details of OS & heterogeneous Networks.

I learn a whole lot just by leafing through the book. Highly recommended. Many weird problems (like who to plot hours which isn't natively supported in Excel) are shown how to workaround.

I bought this book as soon as it was available, since I know Bill Jelen personally and know his great talent for teaching. I learned quite a bit from this book, often wondering "How the heck did he ever find THIS trick?" I probably learned about Excel 2007 charts the same time Bill did, but he became the instant expert, and with so many interesting examples and figures, it's easy & fun to learn. Nice work, Bill!

I think this five books are perfect to find all the information you will need about COM/COM+.

There are five volumes: Volume 1:COM+ Programmer's Guide Volume 2:COM+ Reference Volume 3:COM Fundamental Volume 4:Autometion Volume 5:Structure Storage and ActiveX

I'm a VB programmer and I like to know what VB does under his shell and I think this is the first COM/COM+ a programmer need to read.

If you do not like get lost trying to find some information about an specific Interface using the Microsoft CDs or DVD, those book will help you a lot.

Have fun.

If you have an MSDN subscription, you get these books for free electronically. But sometimes you don't want to sit in front of a monitor for hours, reading skinny black text off a bright white screen. Frankly, that sucks.

When you start to specialize in a technology like COM+, I think a set like this is essential. In this case the set is very handy and even gives some nice overviews of COM+ in the Windows DNA world.

With this book you get an MSDN Library snapshot DVD (from July 2000) and a $200 rebate on a MSDN Universal subscription. Unfortunately that expired March 31 2001 :( so you should know that before buying this set. Even so, I think this is a great set and it is not simply a "function list" like most sets but is actually a great learning tool.