operating systems

I had never read any of Mr. Stanek's books previously, and had grabbed this at a local store because (1) it was on sale and (2) I wanted to see if there was any additional command line info I could glean from it, especially since a quick browse showed that I would learn a few things like command-line task scheduling. [I've done basic batch scripts since MS-DOS 5]

By the end of Chapter 3, I was thinking that this was an excellantly written book. The other reviewers have it properly nailed down that this author's style is concise. There's no better way to describe it. I never feel like I'm wasting time reading what the author presents. The other plus to the organization of the book is that the headers are well defined enough that it is easy enough to skip ahead if I'm not interested in a particular topic.... which, of course, most other books do as well.... However, the difference here is that this author never makes me feel like I missed some key critical sentence in the area I skipped. I can pick up wherever I want to in the book.

By the end of Chapter 6, I was thinking, "WOW, I HAVE to write a positive review of this book, I didn't know Windows exposed so much to the command line"

By the end of Chapter 8, I was thinking, "Windows Server 2003 could do ALL THIS???????" :)

So, in all, I got a huge dose of administration knowledge for Windows Server 2003 in a VERY compact format. I'm off to purchase the other books that this author read. It is seldom that I've come across an author that packs so much into so few words. A harried administrator's (or Programmer's!) must read.

Stanek's pocket consultants are excellent. I have his Exchange, Windows 2003, and IIS books and they are the most used on my shelf. I bought this one as soon as I saw it even though I own several command line books already. Once again I am extremely pleased. This is the type of book that will help you get your job done.

I tried a number of books to learn more about scripting and the command line. None of the books I found gave the depth, breadth and clarity provided by this book. The book is very well written and full of extremely useful information. Many of the things I was trying to do with the command line I could find no information on until I got this book. What I learned from this book I simply could not have learned from any other resource that I could find. If you're wanting to take advantage of the power of the command line you absolutely must have this book! It has saved me many hours and paid for itself many times over. A superb resource!