Customer Reviews

Windows 98: The Complete Reference

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

 

 

I'm new to computers and have found "The Complete Reference" is easy to use to find the help I need. I liked the CD with the click-on weblinks!!! I have have "Windows 98 for dummies" and "Dan Gookin Teaches Windows 98" and this is the most helpful by far.

Recently, my Win 98 Registry kept getting restored from an old backup and I had to re-install a networking driver, VPN, and a mail client several times. In evaluating the book's Chapter 40 on the Registry, I asked myself how much it would have helped me solve this problem. If I'd had the book, I would have learned I could restore the Registry from Command Prompt Only mode by running scanreg /restore. This information is not available in Windows Help on the Registry. If I had run scanreg /restore, I would have gotten a choice of backup files to restore and the dates of those files. At that point I would have discovered that one of the backup files was dated five months in the future. In short, the book would have led me to a solution to my problem, so it now has a deservedly prominent place on my bookshelf.

This is a book I use every day. It is there when I am lost and have that"I don't know a thing," feeling. It also keeps me from the dreaded 800 -wait until your hands fall asleep -or the "On-line," help-where you get lost in the maze of "did this helps".

Book fails to address the more in depth problems that Windows '98 users can encounter, for example, the disappearance of Microsoft Fax is very difficult to find in the book, as is the explanation of how to fix this. ODBC doesn't even appear as a topic, in either the glossary or in the text. Unlike SAMs books, Osborne Press doesn' t appear to really edit what they publish for truly useful (to the reader) content. Save a tree, and don't buy this book!

I have at last decided to get myself up to date with the computer age and bought myself a computer with windows 98 installed. Knowing nothing about these machines I looked for a book to assist me in over-coming any problems that I might encounter. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive volume in plain understandable English that a novice such as myself can understand. I have no hesitation in recommending your book to friends and colleges. I have yet to come across a problem that this book cannot assist me with. Thank you.

As a complete novice in computing I found this book very easy to understand and follow and would recommend it to beginners and experienced users alike.

I could find answers to most questions; allowed me to move platforms reasonably easily and troubleshoot the envitable problems eg ISP customising software. The book reads well; hints and tips are very useful - nuggets of wisdom (learned the hard way) count for a lot more than obvious explanations.

It might be worth adding a link to Rescue Me ! software which provides a good tool for looking at what installation programs have done to your registry and other valuables.

I like its completness and correctness. I gives me a complete answer and I love the CD which I think is invaluable. It has solved more problems than any other source. For example, I didn't know what to do with zip I had downloaded (sound wavs) and it told me including that I needed an unzip program like Win Zip.

Also, it was the only correct source that explained how and where to empty my cache.

I was very disapointed with the book. The content was nothing more than I could find using the windows help index. It was a compiled list of cut and paste screens from the help menus into a document. If the Title of the book were something other than "Complete Reference" I could have understood. I bought what I thought to be a comprehensive, in-depth book to use as a reference guide, but what I got was a VERY basis overview of windows 98.