Microsoft Books

Whenever I need some help with Visual Basic.net, this is the first source that I use. Sometimes it is better than the on-line help. I would supplement this book with the "Visual Basic.Net: The Complete Reference" book. I would highly recommend that both books be added to your Visual Basic.Net reference library. Although not as fast as the on-line help, the book provides better answers to your Visual Basic.Net questions. The only error that I found is ADO.Net becomes ADO.Next in the chapter on ADO.Net. Must have been the publisher.

I am not a professional programmer so I need all the help I can get. I was stuck trying to get the Long Date format to work correctly so I consulted the help menu in VB.NET and all that provided was information that was incorrect and or that I could not implement correctly so I picked up my new copy of Programmerýs reference and found the solution within seconds. I use the previous version Programmerýs reference for VB6 and it also is an excellent resource. Both of these books by Dan Rahmel have MORE information that I can use in the real world than several of the 1500 page books on my shelves.
Lloyd Gregory techrep@lloydgregory.com

I'm in a class that uses this book as the text. I am very impressed with the step-by-step instruction. The text doesn't assume anything and yet, it doesn't insult my intelligence.

Very well-written, easy to follow, and confidence inspiring.

Well done, Mr. Mostafavi!

This is an introductory book on programming in Visual Basic 2005. However it does presume that you have programmed before on some kind of system. It doesn't matter which language, but the basic concept of writing commands, logic, and so on should be familiar to the reader. To be sure, he does give a bit of instruction into basic programming principles, but it is pretty basic.

Next he goes into a description of Visual Studio which is used to program in several Microsoft languages. Then on to writing programs. He leads you through the writing of a pretty basic program. While basic in nature this program covers a lot of the principles of programming. By the end of the chapter, you've put a small window on your screen.

Throughout the book he uses a series of extentions to the little program, and by the end of the book you should have a pretty good understanding of the language.

I'm an experienced programmer although I'm just learning VB. This book is essential to becoming productive quickly.

Being a VB Consultant and a VB Teacher, I've had the opportunity to go through many VB books. By far, VB4 Unleashed is the best. If you're already a good VB programmer, VB4 Unleashed will take you further. You'll learn how-to easily add sound (.wav) to your applications, how-to make screen savers, and even help files. Best part is that there is NO need to purchase any additional third-party controls in order to use the examples. (E.G. Learn Visual Basic in 21 days requires purchase of 3rd party OCX controls to use many of the examples.) I highly recommend this book. Kevin Scott, Visual Basic Application Developer, First Logic Inc.

This book bring me from Intermediate level into advanced level.
It shows you all real useful examples by utilizing ASP, VB, Db design, and Stored Procedures calls. It's kind of learning how real-world sophisticated shoppong sites(like amazon.com) are created. I am very happy with the book. If you want to become a professional web developer, or learn how to design a data-driven web site, the book is what you want.

I recommend that the book is for Intermediate level who has some experiences in VB, SQL Server.

Although title says developer's guide but it makes a reader from novice to developer. Before that e-commerce was complicated,difficult even reading other books makes you confuse more about the subject but after reading this whole concept becomes clear. In my opinion Only prerequisite for reading this book is some databases experiance, it will accelarate if reader have experiance in Access, Sql server. The 99 percent Use of stored procedure is one of the greatest thing by Noel. I have built my web site base on concept and examples given in this book. Though there might be some minor errors but I think they make you learn and eventualy they make you master the vb script, stored procedure and concept.
I congrulate Noel and request him to upgrade this book to Asp.net and vb.net as well as other of his book named e-commerce developer's guide to building community tools.

Thanks Noel

As a former student of the author, I can only say that I really benefitted from his ability to focus on the idea of Object Oriented Programming and to work within that context with Visual Basic.
This book takes the reader full circle through Objects in Visual Basic with unparalled clarity and understanding.
This is a great book for starters and for Visual Basic Programmers who need a higher grasp of OOP.

I have searched through numerious books on Visual Basic, many targeting the object oriented aspects of the language. I found many that showed the general theory behind OOP and gave numerious examples, but none truely taught how to approach writting a program in Visual Basic from an object oriented mindset. This book does just that.

This book introduces the reader to building programs in class modules first and not the traditional approach of writing programs centered around form/code mudules. This later approach was used in all the other Visual Basic books I have read. The reader is not even intoduced to forms/controls till much later in the book.

Two of the biggest complaints that the programming community has for Visual Basic is that it is not a true object oriented language and it leads to sloppy programming. First, the author states that Visual Basic is not a C++/JAVA OOP language, it is a Visual Basic OOP language. That means it lacks many things that C++ has but offers others in return. Second, the approach of this book forces the reader to learn code first, then fancy controls second. This leads to writting better structured code.

In conclusion, I have wasted alot of time and money finding this book. It is [spendy], but as many of you know, so is buying 3 or 4 books in search of the right one. In addition, once you gained that obect oriented mindset and want to add the fancy controls that Visual Basic offers, I strongly recommend Programming MS Visual Basic 6.0 by Francesco Balena. Any library containing these two books is pretty much covered.

A remarkably concise and clear intoduction to client/server application development with VB. A good first book to read before you get into the details of coding.

This book is what I've been looking for! It covers it all, from the Visual Basic environment itself to how to write a database application. Excellent examples and the language is very easy to read. Great book!

Active Directory is without a doubt the most important part of Windows 2000 and this book -- written entirely based upon the release version of Windows 2000 (not based on the betas) -- is a comprehensive introduction and reference to this important technology.

Building from the ground up, it combines step-by-step instructions to do complex tasks instead of dismissively telling you that you should do X (where X is undocumented elsewhere) and also teaches basic VBScript and integrates scripting solutions alongside point-and-click and command line methods.

The topics covered range from understanding and installing Active Directory through all the constituent parts to Group Policy, other Intellimirror technologies and advanced topics such as troubleshooting, interoperability and design issues.

I hope you enjoy the book.

I have gone over several books on AD but this is the only one that provided me in depth information. This is not a book for the very beginners of Active Directory but is a book that needs to read.

I've been a Windows developer for about 6 years with focus on Win32 API, MFC, COM, STL, ATL, SQL Server, and .NET.

I own several books on Windows development including Jeffrey Richter's masterpiece, "Programming Applications for Windows, Fourth Edition" by Microsoft Press. Although I love and cherish that book, I've got to admit that for most of my day-to-day Win32-related questions I refer to Ben Forta's book. This book has not seized to amaze me ever since I bought it some 3 years ago. Specifically, the information on Shell/Windows Services, commonly-used Kernel objects, and the Active Directory is very thorough and yet simple to follow.

This is by far the best inexpensive computer book I've ever owned.

Finally, a easily readable and highly informative book on Windows 2000 development. This book covers lots of basics, as well as very advanced topics, and all with lots of useable source code. If you are an experienced C/C++ developer, or if you are a Windows development beginner, this is about as good as it gets.

Worth the money to have this book by your side if you are running Win2k. This book is well organized and everything is explained very well.

This is the best Windows 2000 book that I have read! The author has packed this book from cover to cover with great things to maximize the use of this new operating system.

As a network integration company my employees are very much in need of a suitable and content rich guide to ease the transition into Windows 2000. I believe that the writing style of the author lends itself well to the technically savvy as well as computer newcomers and we will continue to recommend this book to our clients.

The instant reference is organized very intuitively and every page is something that I have run into or I know that my clients will run into in the future.

I hope to see more from where this came from!

I have finally found a book that gives complete and practical coverage of this massive new OS. Most books on the subject don't seem nearly as practical. I especially liked the worksheets that were included on the CD-ROM. I am using those to help plan and implement W2K in my network. The Decision Trees are cool too. This book is well worth the price.

This Windows 2000 Professional On Site book provides you with plenty of step-by-step instructions on how to perform both intermediate and advanced tasks in Windows 2000. It is easy to follow, and provides insight on topics that are rarely documented. This is a must-have book for anyone managing Windows 2000 Professional.