When O'Reilly uses "Definitive Guide" in the title of a book it is a guarantee that the content is accurate, complete, and detailed.

Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide lives up to that specification: it runs to almost 1000 pages without a skerrick of padding or waffle. Readers are assumed to be at least well acquainted with a previous version of Windows and have a working knowledge of the Internet. The style is a blend of relaxed narrative and concise tutorial that generally do not require any special technical background.

Discussions of advanced topics- -such as managing the Windows boot environment--are more technical and terse, but that reflects the book's breadth of coverage and the intended audience: ordinary users through to developers, administrators, and 'power users'.

The author focuses on giving general readers an understanding of the operating system and how to get the most out of it; for those who book on O'Reilly need professional-level information the information is succinct, but contains everything they need.

I could list the topics covered, but more important is what is not covered. Well, very little if anything. I was surprised that the index has no direct reference to the command line or Command Prompt; in the text I found two mentions of 'Command Prompt': one in a discussion of the BCD Editor, and the other in a description of the Startup Repair Tool.

For those who are curious, BCD stands for the Boot Configuration Data file, and Bootsect is the Boot Sector Configurator. Configurator? Is it just another quaint Microsoftism? This is a real, albeit obsolete, word: configurator was coined by John Gaule c.1652 and is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: astrologer, magician. However, there is no smoke-and-mirrors in the Definitive Guide--it is a tour de force.

An invaluable resource for anyone who advises, helps, or teaches Vista users. It contains information unlikely to be found elsewhere, such as a description of how to install a previous version of Windows on a computer running Vista.

Microsoft says you can't, but the book contains a work-around that involves using Bootsect and BCDedit, topics in themselves that I have not seen mentioned in other Vista titles.

An essential reference for administrators and those who are about to be involved in the deployment and configuration of Vista for multiple users.

If you have a serious interest in Vista this is the best reference I have seen. My only complaint is the animal on the cover. Vista deserved Bufo marinus rather than Rana temporaria.
 

Vista: The Definitive Guide by William Stanek ISBN 78-0-596-5200-3 Published by O'Reilly, 922 pp, RRP $89.95 incl GST.