Search in Book Reviews

I have my doubts about this book. It seems to make the assumption that all is rosy in the garden and that everything works as it should, straight out of the box. I would have a thought that one essential chapter would detail what to do if things go wrong, or what if the system is very slow or what if applications keep crashing. There is a section of troubleshooting but it again makes chromium plated assumptions;

'... the server's fervent desire that a blurry-eyed administrator will stop playing pinball and start fixing the darn server.'My experience of NT administrators is that they are often blurry- eyed, but not through playing pinball!

The accompanying CD was not of much use to me either. I could not get it to install on my W98 system;

'General file transfer error: please check your target location and try again.' But check it for what? Check for disc space (plenty)? Check for attributes (none)? No CD instructions featured in the text.

The author suggests that NT needs

'Any manufacturer's true server model ... not a glorified desktop.' But what is the difference? All things aside, I see no difference other than the case, oh and the price!

Chapter eleven on the NT registry occupies only 16 pages. On my shelves a whole book is devoted to the W98 registry alone.

No, if your objective is to set up and install a complex NT system and a lot of people are, then this book alone will not be sufficient. It is a mere guide, as the title says.