Customer Reviews

Windows XP Timesaving Techniques For Dummies

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I am shocked that no reader review is posted about this useful book.

Started using mainframe computers in 1972 and PC's in 1985 so I get asked tons of computer questions. Since the advent of Win95, the questions have become more "How do I get the computer to do X as I don't see an button to click for that?" Most of the questions reveal a lack of understanding the basics of the software on computer. The lack of understanding reflects that most people have never been trained to use the computer.

Woody Leonhard is well known for his expertise in explaining Microsoft Office for the last 15+ years. Now, Woody has written a great book for those who have the WinXP operating system on their computer. It is the book Microsoft should have included with every copy of WinXP. Windows XP Timesaving Techniques for Dummies serves both as a quick reference on how to do something and a basic primer on understanding WinXP. Learn to protect, speed up, and make your computer work your way. Learn how to personalize the same computer for multiple users. Learn quickly and don't worry about being buried in technical jargon. This book is well written for both the novice user and the immediate level user. And if you are the comptuer guru, it's great as a quick reference. It also makes a great gift to the less than expert users as it is easy to understand. I have given three copies as gifts to individuals and been pleased by their positive feedback about how useful they found this book. In fact, I was buying another two copies when I noticed the lack of a reader review.

I bought this book about a year after I wound up upgrading to XP. Even at that, it has been incredibly usefull, espically in regards to getting rid of Window's graphics, and in regards to making the desktop less, well, lush and pretty (I don't care that much about it, and it takes up resources).

This book walks you through, step by step, many suggested techniques to tweak XP. Many of them I'd learned the hard way (I wish I'd bought this book when I got the new computer!). Many others were not relevent to me; I don't have a network. I already had Norton AntiVirus. I've already dealt with spammers, etc.
However, probably 20 percent or so of the suggestions were new and useful for me, and although I'm no computer demi-god, I'm no novice. Those suggestions alone of immensly helped my system. He gives some good advice on security issues, offers some good tweaks for IE, and shows you how to force XP to show file extensions; these alone are godsends (espically that last, as it helps to ID viruses).

He also offers help in dealing with common maladies (viruses, whatnot) and in getting XP to work with various types of hardware (mainly cameras and scanners).
His tips for dealing with spam and pop ups are good, espically if one's been having problems. If you're new to XP, buy this book. Even if you've been using it a bit, buy this book. It'll help you deal with the junk that's inevitable with XP (any program as large as XP will have massive amounts of it).

That said, some of the tips are personal choice issues; he reccomends some things (like disabling the info gathering on Media Player) that I don't like, or don't think of as important. But dear heavens, this book has a ton of useable, solid, good info. It's not overly basic, but manages to be understandable adn informative.

If you run XP (and you're anything short of a full fledged computer geek) you can learn a lot from this; more than enough to justify the purchase.

This author understands Windows XP and lets the reader know how to use it in clear and simple language. He guides you easily to a well based understanding of how to use the system. There is much general knowledge, caveats and tips about living with computers and the internet.