Microsoft Books

Several years ago, I was teaching a college course in Visual Basic, a VB course for a local company and VB in community education classes. At times, there was a need for quick projects and this was one of the primary sources that I consulted. There were also times when students would come to me and ask questions about specific problems they were having in their work. A few times I was able to get some good ideas or at least hints as to how their problems could be solved from this book.
The book contains a series of 68 different complete projects using VB 5. The range of the projects is considerable, the general categories are:

*) Extending control features
*) View controls
*) Class fundamentals
*) Object fundamentals
*) ActiveX controls
*) Internet integration
*) Application performance
*) Using the WIN32 API
*) Windows socket programming
*) Forms
*) Databases
*) Logo compliant applications
*) Extending VS and managing development

The area that I found most useful was "Using the WIN32 API." I am a firm believer in teaching about API's and I used the ideas in that section to develop exercises where the students were required to call several of the API's. This is a very good book for the learning of the now largely deceased VB 5. However, many of the ideas and principles still live in VB.NET, so it can still be of value.

This books just provide you with everything you want to know about VB5.0. It is so useful!

Visual Basics for Behavioral Psychologists is an essential guide to those seeking to streamline their data collection process or create innovative experiments. This step-by-step guide successfully leads you through the sometimes grueling process of generating computer code and programs. This manual will not only allow you to develop the standards programs described in the text, but it will give you skills to generate novel material to suite your individual needs.

Very useful if you're a psychologist who is scared of Visual Basic and those giant manuals on the software. This clearly teaches you the basics you need for programming psychological experiments and then some. This book is for the ".Net" version of Visual Basic. There are some differences if you only have the VB 6.0 version. You can get the book much quicker if you just order it directly from the publisher at contextpress dot com. Amazon took 3 months to deliver this to someone I know.

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.

"The illustrations. . .are very good. I like to see the screen captures of what the author is talking about just in case the student is studying and does not have a computer in front of them." ----Laura Hunt Tulsa Community College

Well written and easy to understand.I have had great success teaching from previous versions." Cathie Hoffman, Scott CC

I've read plenty of books on Windows 2000 Server, and this is one is my favorite. You can tell the author used to be a teacher because the explanations and walk-throughs are very thorough, decreasing the chances of making an error while performing tasks. I especially like the explanations on TCP/IP, Active Directory domains, DHCP, and DNS. Of course, these are basic pieces of 2000 Server, but Ms. Ballew details them nicely.
There are also an incredible amount of resouces on the CD that I've printed out and used in my migration from NT to 2000, and my Net Admins are appreciative for the good start and organizational options these offer.

If I had to choose one book to pick for upgrading to, migrating to, or installing a new Windows 2000 domain, I'd have to choose this one.

Wow! This book has it all! I'd suggest this book for anyone who is upgrading to or using Windows 2000 Server on a network. For those who are upgrading, a complete guide for planning, installing, and managing, as well as setting new standards for inventory, security, and more. There's plenty of information on using DNS and DHCP too, as well as a chapter devoted to Routing and Remote Access.

On the CD, there's a hundred or so worksheets that can help you with the migration or upgrade, and plenty of web sites that you can access if you get in trouble with it. I'd say this book is a MUST HAVE for any Windows 2000 administrator.