The second edition of Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual has been updated and catches up with Service Pack 2. Other new topics are Bluetooth file sharing, wireless networking, Media Player 10, and editing the Registry.

As usual, the front cover carries the sub-title: The book that should have been in the box. There is no manual with WinXP, which is a serious shortcoming that obliges end users to pay extra if they want the documentation that should have been supplied. The online stuff is pretty hopeless; it has been described as terse, technically shallow, and lacking examples.

An excellent solution to a widespread problem is David Pogue's missing manual series. These books are set up in the style of what a user manual should be: well organised, written in a style that makes for good readability, comprehensive, well illustrated, and supported by a detailed table of contents and good index.

WinXP Home Edition lives up to the standard; it is well presented and contains detailed information about the things that ordinary users need to know. There is a good mix of tutorial instruction and discussion.

The book is in six parts that cover: the WinXP desktop; WinXP components (which includes the applications that come with XP); Internet-related features; Plugging into WinXP (all the things that can be attached to a WinXP PC: scanners, cameras, printers, etc.); building a network; and a series of appendices that include installation and provide useful tabulated information about commands and menus).

Security issues are well covered in a chapter that discusses Service Pack 2 features, especially the firewall. I was amused by the comments on XP's first firewall: "... in the original Windows XP the firewall's factory setting was Off, and finding its deeply buried On switch required three weeks and the assistance of a Sherpa". That has changed — the more readily available switch is 'On' — but some other complications might be lurking and they are discussed.

The book "is designed to accommodate non-professional readers at every technical level. The primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate PC users". There are boxed introductory explanations for novices, and Power Users' Clinic notes for advanced users. It is a proper manual with a lot of extra information included. Excellent value.
 

David Pogue: Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual 2/e Published by Pogue Press/O'Reilly, 612 pp., RRP $44.95 incl. GST

Reprinted from the August 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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