This slender but jam packed book by Steve Bass, contributing editor of PC World magazine, will delight and inform the reader. Anyone with a grievance against some niggling "feature" that they revisit daily on their Windows OS, email, browser, Office app or PC hardware will most likely find a solution within these covers.
Steve Bass has compiled a nifty collection of tips, tricks and downright (not so) dirty registry hacks to eliminate many of the day to day annoyances that PC users face. For such a slim volume, the number of usable solutions is nothing less than amazing.
The chapters are laid out to cover: email with subcategories detailing application specific problems and solutions (outlook, outlook express, aol, eudora and hotmail are all represented); Windows issues; internet (browser problems, how to maximize Google and solutions to instant messaging woes); Microsoft Office tricks and tools; Windows Explorer workarounds; music, video and media tips and finally, information about solving various hardware device mysteries.
The pages list each annoyance and associated fix with sidebars containing related figures, short tips (keystroke solutions to replace mouse action, for example), humorous cartoons and a mass of links to tools and utilities available on the internet. I hope these links don't prove to be a built in annoyance for the reader, however; at the time of this review, they should all be active and available. Over time, however...
At first glance, I thought this book would be a reference type volume and not one to read cover to cover. However, once I started, I found it hard not to read every page, even if I was well familiar with a particular annoyance and its solution! A warning to the reader: if you use stickies or strips of paper from magazine subscription pullouts (which I do) as bookmarks then you will find that you will have referenced a lot of pages! A better approach is to sit with this book at your computer and try them out as you go.
I would be surprised if even the most experienced PC user (which I consider myself to be) couldn't find at least a handful of solutions that they weren't previously aware of. I believe most of us know we can find the answer to a particular sticky problem by googling the web or searching a tech site but often, we need to move on and actually accomplish some work before taking the time to solve an issue not related to the task at hand. This book is the perfect companion
Steve Bass has a conversational style of writing that will appeal to the entire range of user experience. He doesn't "dumb down" his explanations nor does he focus on newbie issues. His humor is light and does not detract from the subject of interest. The book is graphically well designed and easy to read. A perfect gift for a friend, a loved one, or even for oneself!
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