Customer Reviews

Windows® 7 Resource Kit

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For a first edition, this RSK shows great promise. Too much information for those who wish to only be power users of the OS, but for anyone who needs to master and administer Windows 7, you can't go wrong with this behemoth. You would be hard pressed to not find an answer to general question or administrative need therein.

Continuing the trend set forth in prior Windows RSKs, this RSK introduces a lot of topics, but requires you to purchase additional books or read additional (and most of the time lengthy) TechNet material to fully make use of the technology or to completely understand what information they did present. A good example of this is PowerShell. The RSK and CD make heavy use of PowerShell scripts to automate tasks, but you do need to follow their How-To link if you actually want to learn the language. Another good example is the section on automated deployment. Although an excellent overview, most of the information you will need to completely perform the task you must get from one of the 7 links they provide you for resource materials.

I have also been somewhat surprised at the amount of information which is just missing, items that any administrator opting to customize the environment might need. As an example, if you're looking to deploy Win7 using the WIM on the install DVD instead of capturing your own, you will probably want to configure the Default User profile - a topic you will find minimal information on beyond folder locations and establishing mandatory profiles. Something as simple as how to configure the default background image is nowhere to be found. There are also no references to OEM configurations, such as changing the stock background image displayed when at the logon screen. Countless web sites publicize the information, but not the RSK.

Yes, this RSK is well written and an invaluable addition to your administrative library, but it won't be the last book on Windows 7 you buy/read.

This book is like an encyclopedia for Windows 7. I got this book, the administrators pocket consultant and the MCTS Windows 7 exam book to ramp up on Windows 7 which we will be introducing at work in the next few months. What I liked about this book is that it had material that was not easy to find on TechNet. This is a good book to keep at the office because of its size and depth. The deployment chapters and the chapter on direct access are both very useful.

The book follows in the Windows Resource Kit series, now well-established for the Windows operating systems.

One significant fault for the Kindle Edition, which I read in my iPad Kindle app, is that there is no index. To be of fully useful, such an index should be hyperlinked to the pages the index refers to. Without such an index of some sort, this book is very hard to use since searching such a large book takes forever on portable systems like the iPad or iPod Touch (or iPhone).

The least impractical way I have to find something in this ebook is to use Amazon's "Look Inside" web-based feature, scroll down to the index, and try to get some idea of where it is in the ebook. Since many ebooks, including this one, do not show print edition page numbers, this tactic is of limited utility. I understand that many future Kindle e-books will include print edition page numbers as well as location numbers.

The Table of Contents is hyperlinked, so that touching the TOC link takes you to the chapter, but this often doesn't help that much when you're searching for something very specific.

I may try to get my money back for the Kindle edition and buy the paper edition instead...but I would really prefer a fully featured Kindle Edition! At least the paper edition would have an index!!

This is an absolute must have for anyone that will be or is running windows 7. This book is massive think two phone books stacked together. While you can get a lot of this information from MS TechNet, sometimes it is just nice to have a hardcopy resource. I really like the eBook on the CD that comes with this it makes it handy to have on my laptop when I go out in the field. This is not a book that you just chill out and read with coffee. That is unless you are really board. I highly recommend this book for any Administrators bookshelf.

Large authoritative book. Designed for a departmental Sys Admin. Gets to the details of W7. Recommended for serious OS users only.

As an owner of all previous Windows Resource Kits (except VISTA), it was an absolute necessity for me to purchase! I have always found the Kits extremely informative, and this one is no exception! Admittedly, it is not for the "average" user, as it goes into an enormous depth of technical detail (and weighs a lot!), but for everything a System Administrator needs to know, it is SUPERB! As a retired System Administrator, I have found it extremely helpful already, resolving a few (relatively simple) issues: e.g. Remote Assistance; between different Windows versions, over VPNs etc. Can't recommend it more!!

A good resource to have. Well written and worth the money. I needed a source to get back on track after supporting Windows XP then changing job to a site deploying Windows 7. Very handy with lots of additional value on the companion CD.

Everything that you might need to know about Windows 7 and then some.
The book is heavy, so it is not a good backpack/briefcase item but well worth the money as a desktop reference.
However, the included DVD makes it easy to take this book with you.

This book doesn't get into too many details of the topics it covers, often referring you to Technet or help files for the application in question, but it provides a very good overview of the subject (Windows 7) as a whole.

This book is filled with anything and everything you need to know about windows 7. It tells you how to do pretty much anything on windows 7. This book is great for more advanced users and even the new users.