Windows Vista: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box-with a Dazzling New Look.

Windows Vista: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box-with a Dazzling New Look

Sebastopol, CA-First reactions to Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP, are exciting. Those who have seen it applaud Vista's gorgeous, glass-like visual overhaul; its superior searching and organization tools; its multimedia and collaboration suite; and above all, the massive, top-to bottom security-shield overhaul.

Microsoft will release Vista to general consumers early this winter-but without a user's manual. Thankfully, David Pogue's (O'Reilly, $34.99) will be right there when Vista hits the streets-an up-to-the-nanosecond single book that offers complete, comprehensive coverage of all five Vista versions.

"After years of clunking along, piling features upon features without much thought or care about beauty, elegance, or coherence, Microsoft has gotten an Apple-like religion of doing things right," says author David Pogue. "Vista is beautiful, and presents a much less technical, geeky personality. Unfortunately you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. In Vista, familiar features have been simplified, thrown out, renamed, or moved around. In other words, Vista is much better, but very confusing to anyone used to the old Windows."

Like its predecessors in the Missing Manual series, this book-sporting a new updated look-from columnist, bestselling author, and Missing Manual creator David Pogue, illuminates its subject with technical insight, plenty of wit, and hard-nosed objectivity.

In Windows Vista: The Missing Manual readers will learn how to: Understand and use features that were unavailable in Windows XP Avoid feeling disoriented, lost, and frustrated with the new Vista interface Navigate the totally new desktop Use the Media Center to record TV, radio, present photos, play music, record to DVD Chat, videoconference, and surf the web with the vastly improved Internet Explorer 7

Build a network for file sharing, and connect from anywhere Protect their PCs from viruses and spyware with Vista's beefed up security Understand the demand Vista puts on computer hardware

David Pogue is witty, down-to-earth, and unafraid to identify certain useless features as "dogs." His Windows Vista: The Missing Manual is a powerful, inexpensive how-to guide that informs the reader about thousands of new features, showing not only what they do but why you would use them--or not.

The bottom line is that when Windows Vista hits, there'll be a whole lot of head-scratching going on--and The Missing Manual will be there to show readers the important things they need to know.