"Everything you need to know about the inner workings of Windows XP Home and Professional - in plain English!"
That's the first of five promises presented on the cover of the book - and the first it falls short of fulfilling. It's probably
impossible to anticipate all the informational needs of the newcomer to Windows XP, and your experience may differ,
but I'd find it hard to give this "Complete Guide" more than a 5 or 6 on a 10-point scale. Here's why:
The book came to me for review because I upgraded from Windows 98SE to Windows XP over the holidays.
I hoped it would help make the transition less traumatic than anticipated. The transition was indeed more easily
accomplished than I'd expected, but I'd have to give the bulk of the credit to Microsoft rather than Norton.
Note to reader: the author must confess being more than a little ticked over the way in which Symantec, which also
publishes the various Norton software products, handled upgrades to make WinFax Pro function under XP. Symantec
offered an upgrade from WinFax 10.0 to WinFax 10.02 at a cost of about $50. The upgrade was available only from
its own Web site, only in CD form [no downloads] and at last reports, was out of stock.
The book's best (but nevertheless imperfect) feature is Chapter 1: The Updater's Guide to Windows XP. Even here,
Norton provides considerable - but not quite enough - valuable advice for those preparing to update. I'd been planning
to do a clean install but was told that the XP update system worked well. It did, but what Norton didn't say almost
came back to haunt me.
Example No. 1: back up everything twice before you begin. What he didn't say: some backup formats are not
supported by Windows XP. I do my major backups on tape, but the tapes I made in Windows 98 aren't readable in
XP. Same tape drive; same tapes; updated software; still unreadable. In this instance, I'd also backed up my user files
on CD-ROM.
Example No. 2: Microsoft offers a system checker (you can run it from their Web site or download, as you prefer)
that will alert you to most incompatibilities in your existing hardware and software. Norton suggests that you use it.
What he doesn't tell you is that finding upgrades may not be all that easy. And that once you've found them, they may
not work. Hewlett-Packard and Seagate, for example, don't offer new drivers for all the products sold under their
names. They refer visitors to third party vendors whose products may or may not do the job. Those that do invariably
are available only at costs ranging from $50 to $75 - mighty high prices for drivers.
Example No. 3: Norton doesn't tell you that entire families of "compatible" products (all of Adobe's programs, for
example) have to be re-installed before you can run them under Windows XP.
Example No. 4: Norton waxes enthusiastic over the Windows XP fax function (which is no substitute for WinFax Pro)
but provides no guidance as to how to make it work. It's not routinely installed from the XP CD-ROM. You have to
go back to the CD and add it later.
Example No. 5: Norton proclaims himself "so happy to see CD-burning support build into Windows XP." But that's
all he says about it and you'll have a heckuva time trying to find it and make it work - even through Microsoft's
Knowledge Base.
In the overall, there's a lot of information here, but much of what you may need is missing. Perhaps it all can't be
contained in the 731 pages that Norton provides. My experience is that it takes more than 1200 pages from a different
publisher. Given a choice, I'd have spent the $44.99 on new software for my tape or CD-RW drives.
Norton, Peter, and John Paul Mueller. Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Microsoft Windows XP. by Peter Norton
and John Paul Mueller. (2002). SAMS. 731 pages. $45.