Book Review - It's Never Done That Before by John Ross
Category Book Reviews
I can think of a number of times over the past few years I could have used this book... It's Never Done That Before! - A Guide To Troubleshooting Windows XP by John Ross. This is a solid volume on figuring out what just happened to your computer...
Contents: Troubleshooting Methods and Tools; Types of Windows Problems and Failures; What to Do When Windows Won't Start; Black Screens and Blue Screens; Solving Device Driver Problems; Using the Microsoft Knowledge Base and Other Online Resources; Using System Restore and Other Rollback Techniques; Underneath It All - The BIOS; The Windows Registry - Here Be Demons; Dealing with Individual Programs and Files; Service Packs, Patches, and Other Updates; Viruses, Spyware, and Other Nasties; Internet Connection Problems; Local Network Problems; Dealing with Hardware Problems; Troubleshooting and Replacing Hard Drives; Troubleshooting and Replacing Other Hardware; If All Else Fails... Call Tech Support; Cutting Your Losses - What to Do When Nothing Else Works; Things to Do Now, Before Your Computer Crashes; Device Manager Error Codes and BIOS POST Beep Codes; Free and Inexpensive Security Programs for Windows XP; Index
The nice thing about this book is that it's completely focused on fixing problems. It's not just an add-on to a larger book on how Windows works. As such, you end up getting much more troubleshooting detail that you might see in other books. Ross writes in a conversational style, so you end up with information that doesn't intimidate at the same point in time that you're already stressed out to start with. Even better, it's enjoyable enough to read *before* you end up with problems that bring your computer to it's knees. There's good defensive information contained in there, such as how to back up data and create restore disks (which I still need to do). This can help you minimize the damage in case things go completely south...
I've rebuilt my Windows OS enough times now that I'm not quite as freaked out as I used to be when things went wrong. But a book like this would have been a lifesaver the first time I got a blue screen of death that wouldn't go away. If you don't have any Windows troubleshooting titles in your bookshelf, this might be a good place to start.
I can think of a number of times over the past few years I could have used this book... It's Never Done That Before! - A Guide To Troubleshooting Windows XP by John Ross. This is a solid volume on figuring out what just happened to your computer...
Contents: Troubleshooting Methods and Tools; Types of Windows Problems and Failures; What to Do When Windows Won't Start; Black Screens and Blue Screens; Solving Device Driver Problems; Using the Microsoft Knowledge Base and Other Online Resources; Using System Restore and Other Rollback Techniques; Underneath It All - The BIOS; The Windows Registry - Here Be Demons; Dealing with Individual Programs and Files; Service Packs, Patches, and Other Updates; Viruses, Spyware, and Other Nasties; Internet Connection Problems; Local Network Problems; Dealing with Hardware Problems; Troubleshooting and Replacing Hard Drives; Troubleshooting and Replacing Other Hardware; If All Else Fails... Call Tech Support; Cutting Your Losses - What to Do When Nothing Else Works; Things to Do Now, Before Your Computer Crashes; Device Manager Error Codes and BIOS POST Beep Codes; Free and Inexpensive Security Programs for Windows XP; Index
The nice thing about this book is that it's completely focused on fixing problems. It's not just an add-on to a larger book on how Windows works. As such, you end up getting much more troubleshooting detail that you might see in other books. Ross writes in a conversational style, so you end up with information that doesn't intimidate at the same point in time that you're already stressed out to start with. Even better, it's enjoyable enough to read *before* you end up with problems that bring your computer to it's knees. There's good defensive information contained in there, such as how to back up data and create restore disks (which I still need to do). This can help you minimize the damage in case things go completely south...
I've rebuilt my Windows OS enough times now that I'm not quite as freaked out as I used to be when things went wrong. But a book like this would have been a lifesaver the first time I got a blue screen of death that wouldn't go away. If you don't have any Windows troubleshooting titles in your bookshelf, this might be a good place to start.
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Posted by skip At 05:03:01 On 05/07/2006 | - Website - |