Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
I was very pleased when John Savill agreed to my doing a review on his latest book The Windows XP/2000 Answer Book which is available from the Bookstore.

Here's our review which is due to appear on Amazon UK:

Billed as 'A Complete Resource from the Desktop to the Enterprise', just by it's sheer physical presence of almost 1300 pages this book looks like it's up to the job.

For those of you that aren't aware, John setup and has been running the Windows NT/2000 FAQ site at http://www.windows2000faq.com for the last five years, a site I confess to being one of the first resources I use whenever I have a Windows question or issue.

One of the drawbacks of any computer based information is making it more accessible. Personally I don't believe the paperless office will ever come about purely because most people find it easier to print something off and read it off of paper rather than a screen.  John obviously saw this as well and decided to make his website available in print a couple of years back in the form of the Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book.

Since this first edition the world has moved on and this new book now deals primarily with Windows 2000 and XP, the current 'flavours of the day'.  Although designed to be read from start to finish, the organisation of the book makes it extremely easy to 'dip into' if you need a particular answer.  For example if you're only on Page 97 but you find having those annoying tips keep showing on startup and wonder how to get rid of them once and for all then a quick scan through the index and hey presto FAQ 6.101 'How can I stop tips showing on startup' in the 'System Configuration' chapter gives you the answer.

All in all there are 38 chapters in the book covering everything from what the difference between XP Home and Professional edition is right up to installing and maintaining your system and everything in between.

The only slight criticism I have is that it would be really useful if the book came with a searchable version on CD to make it a bit more portable when you're going to a customer site or you need to nip down to the server room because something has gone screwy.

In summary this book is definitely worth the money and a useful addition to any Windows XP/ 2000 user regardless of their skill level.