Customer Reviews

Windows® 98 Secrets®

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

 

 

Windows® 98 Secrets makes a great reference book. It has rescued me out of a couple of jams. It covers Tweak UI which Microsoft shuns. It shows how to restore Microsoft Fax which MS omitted. The list goes on...If I ever happen to lose my copy, I will buy another one. Can't say that about many books.

I found this Windows Secrets book just as helpful as its predecesors. I had used the Windows 3.1 Secrets years ago, in order to become more accuainted with the OS and learn some tricks that don't come well documented, and it certainly helped to do so.

However, if your goal is to become an EXPERT of Windows 98, i.e. learning the whereabouts of the Registry, you might be disappointed.

One last thing: this book does NOT deal with the Second Version of Windows 98. For example, it mentions tons of times a VERY useful un-documented tool called TweakUI, which is not supported by the Second Edition (sadly enough.)

Most of the info in this book can be found in the Windows98 help files. The few scant "secrets" that are mentioned could fill maybe one or two honest book-sized chapters. Perhaps by making the book over-bloated they felt justified at the over-bloated price. Do not fall for this scheme. Save your money.

This is one of the most helpful books on WIN 98 that I have seen. Although it's published by the same company as those "dummies" books, it steers well clear of the condescension and verbal clutter of those. You don't need a great deal of experience to make use of the book, though it does make the peculiar assumption that you've upgraded to WIN 98 from a 3.X version, rather than from WIN95. Fortunately, those parts are easily skipped. Less useful are the shareware programs included on the CD-ROM, but the book is well priced for what it contains. You need to know, however, that this is far from an exhaustive treatise on Windows 98. If you are seeking real depth of detail about DLLs and registry files, you will have to look elsewhere.

When a shareware program I tried screwed up my Outlook Express address book, I was in deep voodoo. The two books I had on Windows 98 were worthless. Then I stumbled onto Secrets. It helped me develop an adequate work around. In general, I've found it to be quite useful and worth the price.

A large and ponderous work lacking any reference to Microsoft Backup. I suppose, in writing about such a complicated subject as Windows 98, minor errors of ommission are inevitable. But, to omit such an important subject (where would any computer user be without backup), seems negligent. With so many reference books on Windows 98 flooding the market, why bother with this one. Additionally, the writing style is tedious and the screen-shot reproductions are muddied.

I spent 3 hours looking for a way to change the contents of my desktop tray, to no avail. Then I looked for a way to contact the authors - to no avail. In reading thru the book looking for useful advice, it seemed that practically every discussion and explanation used Windows 3.1 as a reference. I guess if you are seeped in Windows 3.1, that might be useful, but it wasn't to me.

I agree with other reviews - the featured areas of Windows seem odd and random, not based on the kinds of things users need to know.