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Microsoft stopped including printed manuals with their products for two reasons: 1) to increase their profit margins, and 2) to save the environment, since most people don't bother to read printed manuals anyway. But for something as complex as Windows XP Home Edition, having a paperback ready for referencing is quite important -- even though XP is actually pretty easy to learn and use even on your own.

David Pogue, who has been an Apple Macintosh evangelist for years, is now also writing Windows training books, presumably because there's simply more money to be made from Windows users/readers. Whatever his motives, Pogue's writing style has improved a lot since his early days as a Macworld columnist (when I used to be unable to stand his verbosity), and this book is a very useful guide to Windows XP Home Edition. (A separate book, co-authored by Pogue, covers Windows XP Pro Edition. I think it would have been nicer to just have one book for both versions, but I guess the business decision and greed got the upper hand.)

What surprised me about the book is that Pogue makes no attempt at mocking Windows XP like so many anti-Microsoft people like to do. He just tells us how to make the most out of Windows XP Home Edition. Starting with a brief and clear overview of the OS, he moves quickly to guiding the reader through all the features of Windows XP, covering pretty much everything you can do. The only thing I can think of that's missing is DVD burning and wireless networking. But these can be considered "advanced" topics. Of course, the book does have a sidebar on the differences between the Home Edition and the Pro Edition, so you can decide for yourself whether you need to upgrade to the Pro version... hopefully before you buy this book!

Some errors aside, the book makes a good companion to the more-than-casual XP user. It does so by giving him tons of step-by-step guides as well as useful tips, and I in particular like the right number of screenshots, which are not too many or too few. The placement of some of the screenshots, however, can be confusing, and I hope the next edition can rectify this annoyance. My biggest complaint is the font is too small and punishing for my poor eyes.

In summary, this is one guide to WinXP Home that every user can understand and learn a thing or two from. Mr. Pogue, please unify this book and your XP Pro book, even if you need to charge a bit more. Many of us actually use both versions (one at home, the other at work)! Thanks.

David Pogue writes in a clear, relaxed style with the kind of humor that makes reading a Windows XP book enjoyable. There are many screenshots and well written instructions on what to do and why you are doing it.

Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual is a hands on book but can be read when you're not in front of your computer. Topics cover the standard things like setup, how to get around the new interface, included applets and networking.

If you've used a computer before and chances are good you have if you're reading this review then you'll be comfortable with the technical level and explainations in the book. Intermediate users will enjoy being able to look up areas of interest and actually there are some great tips on how to work with Windows XP Home Edition. Advanced users will want more and this is not the complete comprehensive text. That said it is one of the best.

XP was a big change from earlier consumer versions of Windows and users will pick up quite a bit of useful tips and tricks as a bonus.

What it comes down to is how you enjoy learning. If you like text heavy books this may dissapoint. If you enjoy step by step books you will get that and considerably more. This is a good balance between both styles and is an easy read. Read the example, it will give a good idea of the style of Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual.

As with virtually all Missing Manual books, this one goes a long way in describing the features of XP, both new as well as existing ones from previous Windows versions. I recently installed Windows XP on my PC and knew this book was likely the most descriptive and informative book I could find about Windows XP. I was right. Between finding out about countless new features of XP as well as previous ones (and old familiar ones with new names!), I fairly quickly became quite comfortable with XP.

With five main parts and two appendices, this book covers just about all the questions an XP user would have, which again is why I got a hold of it before I installed XP, so I would know what to expect once I started using it. Among the topics discussed here? The book starts off with "what's new in XP" (new features) as opposed to 98, ME or even 2000, and from there then discusses the Start Menu's various options. Even if once I read through some of the book, I realized a lot of the material covered were subjects I was familiar with, it was still good to have a "heads up" when I encountered something that had changed (for example, the DOS window in 98 now being called "Command Prompt," or ScanDisk or DeFrag having new titles).

The book goes on to describe the XP taskbar, "organizing" your files, the much-improved XP Help system, how to work with programs in XP, as well as pictures, movies, sounds, and also the famous control panel, which we all first got to know and love in Windows 95. The book also devotes a whole section to the online world, devoting chapters to the Internet, videoconferencing, and Outlook Express. Another section is devoted to networking: security, building and using a network of XP machines. There's also material about "plug and play," another concept first introduced with 95. And also more importantly, a chapter devoted maintenance, backups and troubleshooting. There's hardly any Windows users around that have never had to deal with backing up files or trying to figure out why their new sound card won't work with Windows software or why a program that worked great previously suddenly stops working for no apparent reason.

Lots of book are out there that explain how to use XP. But I found this one not only to answer whatever questions I had, but also was a book I know I can refer to whenever I run into an issue with XP.