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Windows 98 Annoyances
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Author: David A. Karp
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1565924177
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates (01 October, 1998)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 81,864
Average Customer Rating: 4.73 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 5 out of 5
A brainy and essential companion
In the several years since I switched from Mac OS to Windows 98 I've spent quite a lot of time on the phone with Dell tech support. Sometimes it's the hardware, occasionally it's the software, but often it's the operating system, Windows 98, that is giving me a problem. The Dell employee recommended this book to me, asserting that in his view and the view of his cohorts "Windows 98 Annoyances" is the best reference available for the wide variety of little problems, bigger puzzles, and flat-out mysteries that Windows 98 is so devilishly capable of posing to its zillions of users.I like to read a book from start to finish, which you obviously do not need to do with this one. On the other hand Karp has explained and provided straightforward solutions to at least twenty obstacles, glitches, or difficulties I've encountered with Windows 98. There is a wealth of conceptual information here, too. In addition to responding awfully well to niggling problems, Karp also supplies the demystifying know-how that enables you to modify aspects of your set-up. It's terrific, there's a CD ROM with it, the index is a real index that is a tool and not a token - and I wish that I could personally thank that Dell tech support guy for giving me such great advice by recommending that I buy this book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great Book
I really loved this book, it really tells you how to get around each and every limitation that's present in Windows. Some of these limitations are just plain bad design, while others are attempts to hide "confusing" concepts from the precious, fragile user. Also, like most O'Reilly books it is very entertaining and easy to read. It's not dry or overly technical, despite being very detailed and advanced.In response to "A reader" from Ann Arbor, Michigan: I definitely agree that the anti-microsoft potshots wore very thin after a few pages, but I *definitely* don't think that makes it deserve a piddly two-stars. As far as your other complaints, first of all, Windows is a very popular operating system, so you'd have to expect that some of his solutions might have been mentioned elsewhere, and they were probably discovered independently. Second of all, if you actually read anything other than the table of contents, you might have noticed that his suggestion to use DOS was only an alternative. He said that if you want to avoid the delete confirmation box, you can by right clicking Recycle Bin, properties, then unchecking the option for the confirmation box. But, he also said, that if you like the confirmation dialog, but don't want to go through 700 of them when deleting a directory, you can use the deltree command. Besides, why do you look at DOS as separate from windows? DOS is just the windows command line, and that's what Karp was trying to say. Sometimes it's more appropriate to use the command line.
Rating: 5 out of 5
An excellent Win 98 reference
This book contains a lot of useful information arranged in a practical fashion, so that you can look up whatever problem you are having and find out how to fix it. It certainly does not contain everything, but it does contain a lot of valuable information. Despite the title, it should be clear that it is for all Win 98 users, not just for Microsoft-haters. This is one of three books that I keep handy for solving Windows problems. The O'Reilly web site has samples (and corrections!) for this book, so check it out if you are interested. I am very glad that I bought this book!
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