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Do you yearn for the days when you bought software that included a well designed user manual? We have for so long lived without a manual with new software, that when a rare vendor does supply one, we are thrilled at what we now perceive as "extra value" provided with the program.

Author David Pogue, now well known for his acclaimed "Missing Manual" series from O'Reilly, once again stuns us with his latest title, Windows Vista: The Missing Manual.

The latest in this marvelous series of "Missing Manual" guides will surely get the attention of potential buyers when they peruse the abundance of computer books now filling the shelves. More importantly, Vista is a major new operating system from Microsoft, not just another security update, and this makes this title even more important.

These "Missing Manual" guidebooks are designed to be authoritative, superbly written guides to popular computer products that don't come with pre-printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each one features a hand-crafted index, cross-references to specific page numbers (not just "See Chapter"), and the always user friendly RepKover, a detached-spine binding that lets the book lie perfectly flat without the assistance of weights, like staplers or cinder blocks.

This "Missing Manual" series is now a joint venture between Pogue Press and O'Reilly & Associates. With O'Reilly's already established reputation for solid, substantial computer books that are a cut above all the rest, and the wonderful attention to new users that characterize all these "Missing Manual" works, this venture should prove very successful for these publishers.

As with any operating system you buy these days, you get no user guide with the software. Instead, you are expected to read the online help system built into the software. While this decision is understandable, as a means of keeping down the costs of the software, for many users of the software, using electronic help files is just not enough help. 

With Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, this lack of a manual has created an opportunity for others to fill the gap. To the rescue comes this wonderful guide to Windows Vista that easily can serve as the manual that should have accompanied the software. Filled with hundreds of screen shots, this guide includes numerous step-by-step instructions for using almost every Windows Vista feature, including those you may not even have quite understood, let alone mastered.

Author Pogue has organized this book into eight parts, including The Windows Vista Desktop, Vista Software, Vista Online, Pictures, Movies, and Media Center, Hardware and Peripherals, PC Health, The Vista Network, and the Appendixes.

In this Missing Manual title, the author also discusses concerns regarding upgrading, versus a clean install of Windows Vista, and the all important issue of whether to even consider loading Vista on an existing machine, versus purchasing a brand new machine with Vista already installed. Readers will also be glad to know that the author includes comments on all the five (5) versions of Vista that will be available. These include Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Enterprise, and Vista Ultimate.

Table of Contents

The twenty-seven (27) chapters include the following titles.

Part I: The Vista Desktop
Welcome Center, Desktop, and the Start Menu
Explorer, Windows, and the Taskbar
Searching and Organizing Your Files
Interior Decorating Vista
Getting Help

Part 2: Vista Software
Programs, Documents, and Gadgets
The Freebie Software
The Control Panel

Part 3: Vista Online
Hooking Up to the Internet
Internet Security
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Mail

Part 4: Pictures, Movies, and Media Center
Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Media Player
Movie Maker and DVD Maker
Media Center

Part 5: Hardware and Peripherals
Fax, Print, and Scan
Hardware
Laptops, Tablets, and Palmtops

Part 6: PC Health
Maintenance and Speed Tweaks
The Disk Chapter
Backups and Troubleshooting

Part 7: The Vista Network
Accounts (and Logging On)
Setting Up a Workgroup Network
Network Domains
Network Sharing and Collaboration
Vista by Remote Control

Part 8: Appendixes
Appendix A: Installing Windows Vista
Appendix B: Fun with the Registry
Appendix C: Where'd It Go?
Appendix D: The Master Keyboard Shortcut List

Target Readers

This important book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level, except system administrators. Computer network operators will want to supplement this book aimed more at desktop users with other more technical books on supporting Vista that will soon fill the shelves.

The primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate PC users. If you are a first-time Windows user, the special sidebar articles called "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. If you are an advanced users, keep your eye out for similar shaded boxes called "Power Users' Clinic" that offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the veteran PC fan.

Book Contents

848 pages; acknowledgments; introduction; figures; tips; power user clinics; FAQs; appendixes; index; cover colophon

Author

David Pogue

About the Author

David Pogue, creator of the Missing Manual series, is the author or co-author of 25 computer, humor, and music books. These include the Computer Press Association award-winning "PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide," 2nd Edition, six books in the "...for Dummies" series, six books in the "Missing Manual" series, as well as the "Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual." David is the weekly computer columnist for the New York Times, and In his other life, David is a former Broadway show conductor, a magician, pianist, and occasional book reviewer for the New York Times. He and his wife Jennifer Pogue, MD, live in Connecticut with their young son and daughter.

ISBN

January 2007, First Edition
0-596-52827-2
978-0-596-52827-0

List Price

$34.99
$45.99 CAN

Publisher Contact

Marsee Henon
marsee@oreilly.com
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, California 95472
707-827-7000
800-998-9938
FAX 707-829-0104
www.oreilly.com