Customer Reviews

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit (IT Professional)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At over 1700 pages, the Resource Kit contains all you need to know about Windows 2000 Professional and then some.

The Resource Kits have a good side and a bad side. The good side is that they're excellent research books and go much further in depth any other similar books. The bad side is that they are very tough to read cover to cover. We would recommend to purchase the Resource Kits to have access to this in-depth material. However, your initial Windows 2000 reading should probably come from a shorter, more concise book.

Many people will start the Windows 2000 MCSE track with the Windows 2000 Professional Exam (Exam 70-215). A great approach to studying would be to pick up both the Windows 2000 Professional Training Kit and the Resource Kit. Read the Training Kit to prepare and use the Resource Kit to go deeper in an area if you're confused or curious. This should definitely give you enough knowledge to pass the exam.

This book covered 90% of my Windows 2000 Profesional questions and problems at work when I upgraded our computers to this operating system. In fact one year latter it still sits by my side at work and provides the answers to 2 to 3 questions a month. There is a lot of stuff in here, and you know what: You won't use or probably know 75% of it - but the great part about this book is that it's all in one place in case you do forget or need to know. On a side note: The Resource Kit Tools that come with are something I can't live with out and makes this book worth it just for that.

Print this out and take it to your boss. The IT department has to buy this book if you are running Windows 2000 Professional. The on-line help is for users. This is the documentation set for professionals. This is the book MS no longer includes with the software. You also need this as a reference if you expect to get a W2K MCSE or if you make a living consulting to W2K shops. This should be a total no brainer. You might be able to administer minimumially configured user workstations using online help, but if you intend to implement the powerful new features of W2K (that's what you paid all that money to MS for, isn't it?) then you simply can't get by without this. While a good deal of this info can be obtained from TechNet or Knowledgebase, you just can't highlight and dogear those resources for future reference. I'm giving this 5 stars not because of outstanding performance on the part of Microsoft Press with this edition, but because of the absolute necessity of having it.

This book stands out among other Win2K references, not for its slim profile, but for every useful and thorough bit of information on absolutely anything directly related to the OS, even to other interesting aspects of modern computing. This book is as useful to a Windows 2000 Professional user as Windows 2000 Professional is to your computer!

What's annoying with people who don't take the time to look at what they buy, is the negative feedback on things they buy. One complains about not being able to find info on the server components: To this person, I would advise him to get the SERVER edition of this series ($700) as IIS doesn't ship with the workstation ed. To the customer bitching about DC (or lack of it) there are lots of 95/98 books out there talking about direct connection with Win'95: please buy a volume that refers to Windows '95 and nothing else.

Why, why, why, can't these people read the title and description of things they buy more carefully? Better be cautious than sorry.

Finally, this book has every answer on Windows 2000 technology as it comes out of the version called Windows 2000 WORKSTATION edition. Buy it if you use THIS OS (and don't complain if you are a Linux user and don't find a chapter on LINUX inside ;-)

I was gonna rate this book 4 stars (as I rarelly give 5 stars to technical books), but now I need to give it a 5 stars to balance for these whiners in order to do justice to this great book.

While this book contains 1700+ pages of information, most of it is too shallow, ill organized and inadequate to be of benefit to anyone configuring and troubleshooting Windows 2000 Professional. Instead of spending your hard earned money on this overpriced book, consult Windows 2000 online Help section as well as Microsoft's website, where many of the tools on the CD that accompanies this book are available.

This book is a wealth of knowledge but was lacking on information on hosting a web site, FTP server option and SMTP that are all on the Windows 2000 pro install. I was looking for some information on SMTP and they mentioned it ONCE in this book. I thought for sure with over 1800 pages and being almost 4in thick this book would go into great detail on these subjects, but I found out different. I do have to say with the information in the book you do not have to be a computer Guru to understand everything in this book. It does give a great explanation on everything from set up to managing it and even gives to tips on how to increase performance with single or Duel processors. All in all I will be keeping this book as a great reference manual. But it only gets 3 stars because of the lacking information on the FTP, SMTP, and web hosting.

Microsoft - to some a four letter word, to others a savior of the computer software industry. Either way, if you need to work with Microsoft's OS's then this is a must have. Besides the great resource kit utilities we have all come to know and love, the book is a must have for the level 2 support people in any organization.

10/6/2000 It certainly is about the thickest book I ever saw.

However, the first thing I wanted to check out in it came up empty. I wanted more information on Direct Connection setup, and some info on how to solve some problems I am having with DC to a Win95 desktop from my Win2000 laptop. The book made only the most casual mention of Direct Connection, with no details or any other info.

Maybe it will help the next time I need more info about optimizing my use of Win2000, but so far, it's a major strike-out for me. My Windows 95 Secrets book was far more helpful in my Win95 environment than this book has been in the Win2000 environment.

12/07/01 update - I recently used this book to help solve an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE problem. I hadn't looked at it since the Direct Connection problem. It was rather helpful and informative this time. It had good info on the use of things like System State backup, ERD, Recovery Console, so the help I got from this alone was probably worth the cost to me.

As comprehensive as the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit (SRK) is, I still rank the Professional Resource Kit as essential. This kit contains info either glossed over in the SRK or, amazingly, just not there. My one gripe is the same as I have with the SRK: Lighten up Microsoft! How about some fun desktop themes? Sure Windows 2000 Pro is meant for a corporate environment, but even white shirts like to have fun once in a while!