Customer Reviews

Windows XP Hacks, Second Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Users of Microsoft Windows XP often want to push the OS to its limits. Unfortunately, out of the shrink-wrap XP doesn't offer much in the way of tweaks, nor does it fully expose the power that lays underneath its graphical interface. In this revised Windows XP Hacks book from O'Reilly, you will find a wealth of information on how to tune and trick-out Windows XP (with and without SP2) and take the OS to new levels of power and performance.

The book is organized by category, such as Networking and System Peformance, and then broken down into individual "hacks" as they are called that guide you through tweaking a specific component. Often, the hacks cross-reference each other so if you are interested in doing one thing, you can easily find related topics to that change or tweak. In traditional O'Reilly fashion, each hack is also prefaced with a difficulty ranking -- so you can start out tackling the easy stuff and move up the ladder as you feel more comfortable.

The author does a good job of covering the new features, and significant changes, to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Although some may think of SP2 as merely a minor release, there are many things that have changed since the first edition of this book and they are all covered in detailed throughout the book. In addition, the author also provides a good background on each topic covered -- so you know exactly what the hack does, and why you might want to apply it.

The book is geared towards the more advanced user in mind; be warned upfront that in many places you will be asked to edit the system registry directly. However, as stated above, a difficult level will help guide novice users through some of the easier changes they can make. It is still worthwhile to note though that a new computer user, or one with limited comfort going "under the hood" may find this book more than they wish to swallow.

The only drawback to the book is the author does have a very slight occassional habit of getting off-track about Windows XP. In several hacks, she devotes quite a few pages to talking about Firefox and other items that are unrelated to the XP Operating System itself. However, some readers may find this beneficial and look at it as a way to extend the OS; while those not interested can simply skip over the hack.

Altogether, a good book that provides the blueprint for tweaking and changing Windows XP to your liking. The book introduces enough new material and concepts that readers of the first Windows XP Hacks book will find enough changed material to make room on their bookshelf for this newly released edition.

This is a great book for someone like myself who doesn't need a intro level book explaining how to open folders and send E-mail but is not an XP expert. The chapters on editing the registry and debugging local networks are worth the price of the book.

Some books about XP only tell a reader things he has probably figured out on his own, but this book will actually take you to the registry to fix problems. For this reason it is worth a good review. I only wish that the registry introduction were a tad more step by step.

If you want some really good information on Windows XP and hacks, this is the book. You have to be really interested in doing this kind of thing as it is not for a user, but an indepth computer person.

I thought this book was great. I'm an intermediate level user with XP using it every day and this book is just outstanding, even just for speeding up the star up for my computer.

I got what I ordered and in good shape. It took a while but I guess that is book rate

The first name we tend to think about books about doing things with computers is O'Reilly and Associates and their popular In A Nutshell, Learning, Programing, and Hacks series of books.

The Hacks series is supposed to be more or less about things you can do using a programming language, software product, or hardware.

Sadly, Windows XP Hacks does not live up to that standard. The only major hack that still seems relevant in this book is using the TweakUI program. Since Microsoft has discontinued it's Microsoft XP Plus! package, several of the examples could no longer be done. A real bummer considering my Netbook runs XP.

Vista and 7 users will find no use for this book. (As if Vista or 7 have any real use to start with in a world where XP is still king.)

Examples for how to do stuff with Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer make the book misleading. This book should be about Windows XP not Microsoft Outlook, Explorer or Office. (Put that in a separate book. (Oops! I forgot, they already are! See Word Hacks and Excel Hacks. (I highly recommend Excel Hacks if you want to learn some of the more finer points of Excel, but that's for another review.)))

I am glad that the Second Edition made a couple of mentions of Firefox, but Firefox was new software at that time and Firefox Hacks didn't come out until after this book. So really this book was written for Windows users circa 2004 rather than 2010. (Generally, when an O'Reilly title is released, it has a shelf life of about 5 to 7 years before it is time for a new revised edition is published.)

Even though Vista and 7 are now on the market, the author should really go back and write something for the Netbook users who buy a Netbook with Windows XP SP3.

There are better books out there than this one. Hacking Windows XP by Steve Sinchack is one of them. (That one had been around since 2004 when SP2 just came out and still has relevance for SP3.) I would suggest buying that over this book.

This is one O'Reilly that should probably be avoided.

This book would be great for somebody that just wants too learn about windows xp. I only gave it four stars because it is outdated. I would recomend this book if you are planning on using or are using win xp. It will help you get the most of it, but be carefull some of the info is only good for sp1 not sp2 or 3, and you could cause problems. Just as you always should set a restore point before doing anything and you should be just fine, enjoy.

You better have a high level of understanding the registry before buying this book. Also most of the book is geared to network administration

Well, Hacks is not the right title. How about Tips instead. Very helpful with home wireless router setup and security. I liked the remote desktop section too. As far as XP itself, it's good if you are a beginner, advanced guys, don't bother.