Customer Reviews

Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Windows 95

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John Mueller and this book have saved me more hours of grief with Windows 95 than I could have imagined any one book would do. For example, when I needed some recommendation about how to keep my machine running correctly, I found everything I needed. There are sections on backup, regular maintenance like diagnostics and disk optimization, and some simple troubleshooting. I also found sections on the use of various files that other books don't even hint at. One such example appears in Chapter 9 where the author explains what the various compatibility files like Autoexec.bat are used for.

This book is a tad theory heavy, but even here the author excels. I now know how various parts of Windows 95 operate, making it much easier for me to diagnose problems with my system. The clear and easy to understand diagrams are a real plus. Again, the author lists filenames in the theory section. These file listings recently helped me fix a problem DLL (also known as DLL hell) by simply copying a new version of the DLL over the old one.

One of the authors, John Mueller, thoughtfully left his email address as part of the About the Author. I contacted him and found him extremely helpful and thoughtful of my concerns. Even though Windows 95 is old news, the author spent considerable time helping me use his book more effectively and even helped me around some problems areas within the book.

About the only two problems with this book are the index (not the author's fault since the publisher puts this together for him) and the lack of new hardware information. However, considering this book was put out before much of the modern hardware appeared on the scene, I can hardly blame the author for this oversight. My only thought is that he should keep the book up-to-date better for those of us who are still using Windows 95 and not filling Microsoft's pockets by buying Windows 98.

Windows 95? Sure. It works, and I'm not going to a bloated and buggy newer version just because Microsoft needs a few more billion dollars. Besides, how many times am I expected to learn Windows? So I got this book that advertises it has everything there is to know about the subject.

Alas, whoever laid out and wrote the text for Peter Norton's Guide to Windows 95, Peter Norton or John Mueller or, more likely, perhaps what would amount to a committee, seems to have jotted down subjects that came to mind then found chapters to plunk them into.

The hopeful user of this tome of over a thousand pages is subjected to a collection of introductory sections: Overview, Contents, Quick Reference (30 pages is "quick?"), Acknowledgements, About the Author ("Author" is used singularly and, interestingly, does not mention Peter Norton), Tell Us What You Think, Introduction (11 pages of mind-spinning advice on how to use this unuseable book). As awful as most computer books are, this one sets a new standard. Any novice or intermediate user could learn every function of Windows 95 by the time they learned how to beat the most elementary information out of this book.

It's not a lot different from a maze game, where you're sent hither and yon in search of the trail to the finish line -- this book has many such labryithine trails, and most seem to lead nowhere. For instance: Windows Explorer's File menu has a handy "Send to" choice which comes out of the box with two choices -- 31/2-inch floppy and My Briefcase. Of course, it seems reasonable that I could add other destinations (my Zip drive, for instance), and in this Guide's index you'll find the entry "Send To -- page 40." On page 40 we're told:

"Send To: Use this special entry if you want to send the file or folder to a floppy drive or other location. We'll see later that you can modify the destinations listed in this entry to include just about anything you might need."

Ha! Exactly what I want to do! But what's this "We'll see later?" Why not now? A paragraph later I was encouraged to be told, "It's often handy to create additional destinations such as the desktop, project folders, and network drives for this section of the 'context menu.'" That statement sounds like the one before it, said in different words. Now are we to discover HOW to create additional destinations in the Send To menu? Nope. In spite of a laudable assurance in the Quick Reference section of the book that "Entries . . . are often repeated both within and across topics for quick reference", seldom will we find anything repeated where it would be most useful (which is ALWAYS where we are reading about it at the time). Instead, we're constantly sent on fishing expeditions elsewhere, even when the instruction needed would consume only a few words. (In this case, by trial I found that the Guide could have said simply: "Drag the Zip-drive icon from My Computer to the Send To folder in Windows Explorer.")

Here's the next tidbit of useless information on the subject of adding destinations to the Send To menu: "Chapter 5 shows how you can use this feature to make your desktop a friendlier place."

I found nothing about the Send To menu in Chapter 5, the kind of frustrating dead-end encountered repeatedly.

The index is next to useless. The index in any computer book should reference and cross-reference; it should accommodate every search term a user might imagine. But not this Guide to "Everything You Want to Know About Windows 95 -- In Plain English."

Struggling through this $35-book for a year before I threw it away reminded me of IBM's response to the Department of Justice's demand for documents during an old antitrust proceeding (that fizzled out): Documents? You want documents? So IBM sent several moving vans full of documents for the DOJ's lawyers to scratch their heads over: Case dismissed.

The authors got me up and running very fast. I didn't care all that much about details at first and this book avoided those details until later. The best thing it did at first was get me on the Internet with few hassles.

The power primers helped get my overloaded and underpowered system running better. I don't have the money to upgrade my system every few months, so getting the most out of what I have now is very important.

Once I did run into problems with my machine, the various theory and troubleshooting sections helped a lot. I found Chapter 15 especially helpful when I couldn't get games to run properly. The material on DirectX was great, even if it is a little out of date.

So, if you're looking for a book that's going to give you everything you need, try this one. I found that it really helped me when I needed it.

The book is very complete in detail. it's convienient to use as a reference. LOTS of info and LOTS of references to Peter Norton and his computer habits. It's a bit scary to read how many times a day Peter runs scan disk. He rules his PC's and this book with an Iron Glove.

While totally dissecting Windows 95, Norton and Meuller have managed to make this book an enjoyable read. It dives deep into every aspect of Windows without resorting to a lot of techno-speak. Plain English is used throughout and everyday examples are given in order to make subjects easier to understand. Not just a complete reference dictionary, but a valuable learning guide for the novice user to the professional administrator.

I looked at many Windows 95 books when I first bought my PC and none came close to Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Windows 95. I used the book at the bookstore a few times, then I decided I needed to buy a copy. It is thorough and covers the enhanced Service Pack 1 and OSR2 features. It tells you where to download these from the Web if you don't already have them. I like the fact that it is not a watered down Windows 95 book and contains everything you would ever need to know about Windows 95

I am an undergrad student of CS and a A+ Certified computer technician. I just hate this book. I have never seen a book so stupidly verbous. If you want to get tired with Windows 95, just start reading this one.

Firstly, I don't like the Author's writing style. More importantly, as someone who feels that Win95 is fighting me every step of the way, this book didn't turn out to be an ally. I installed DriveSpace, and it went pear-shaped, no info on how to stop it from retrying everytime I rebooted. And no warning that this might happen. I eventually worked it out for myself. I also tried to set up direct cable connection, when I ran it an additional dialog box appeared requesting the host name. This was not covered in the book so I emailed their tech support. 2 Months later they replied asking for the exact title & ISBN. I replied. They obviously didn't read the bit where I described what was happening because they just pasted in the relevant, wrong, section from the book. Some parts are fine, but when I really *needed* it, it let me down. If I could find the receipt I would test how true their money back guarantee is.

Most of this book expands on topics of no interest to anyone who has a life. The prose is dense and hard to take. There are many technical details no one in their right mind would care about, even slightly.

You would think such a title would, at least, have its share of useful information. Trust me, it's slim pickings.

Out of 1160 pages of text, there are three on startup problems. Basically, you are told to start in Safe Mode. If you can't, good luck!

An example of the type of help you can expect is on page 20 of Chapter One (introductory material): "A value could tell you which interrupt and I/O port settings a piece of hardware uses. Suffice it to say that you'll find the value you need by using the keys, but you'll find the actual information you need by reading the values. There are three types of values: binary, string, and DWORD. Usually, only applications use the binary and DWORD value types. Values usually store configuration data in a format that can't be understood by humans."

I will modestly add, the way the early topics are explained is truly extraterrestrial. But for people who usually reside on this planet (as, I think, I do) this book is to be avoided. I kick myself for having wasted hours trying to follow the first two hundred or so pages.

This book would do well in a competition for the worst book ever written in the English language. I recommend it as a collector's item for that reason.