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This is yet another teach yourself Windows programming book, but with that little bit extra for NT. It starts of well enough with an introduction highlighting the differences between Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 3.11, but as the book progresses the reader might start questioning what those differences actually are. If you forget about Windows 3.11 (and I am sure most readers of this book will never have programmed for Windows 3.11) then this book is a standard text taking the reader through the common 'teach yourself Windows' subjects, e.g. menus, dialogue boxes, scroll bars, etc.

Now the main differences between Windows 95 and Windows NT are the issues relating to security, thread-based multitasking, the client/server model and data types. This book does have a very good chapter dealing with threads. There are the handy hints for when the WIN.API is different from the WIN32.API, but as this book comes across as a beginner's book then most of the text is already taken up before we can get onto the realWindows NT issues. The book does not deal with the security issues at all, leaving this as an exercise for the reader. Unless you are converting from Windows 3.11 to Windows NT (and I have already said that readers of this book will not) then the hints do not add much to the book.

If you want a book to learn about Windows programming then there is already a wide and varied choice. If you want a book to learn about issues relating to NT then there are more specialist publications. If you want a book to learn about both then you could be asking too much.