This is not only a book review, but a review of a reference book, so please forgive my lack of excitement. Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell is designed for a knowledgeable NT 4.0 administrator looking for some help adjusting to the Windows 2000 administration tools and environment.
Although a significant portion is useful for 2000 Pros, most of the information falls on the server side of the 2000 family. On a side note, if you are interested in how domains, active directory, and permissions work in 2000, then it may also be of some use. But, you may find the information lacking if you are looking for a complete description.
Chapter one is a top level overview on what new features 2000 offers and also the personal likes and gripes of the new operating system. One with which I agree whole heartedly is the Personalized Menus. I can't stand those things. If you can't either then you can turn them off by selecting Start à Settings à Taskbar & Start menu à General à deselect Use Personalized Menus .
Chapter two is a Quick Start guide to where the administrative tools are and what they are used for. Also included are some "potpourri" as the author describes it. It's nothing more that some main topics with a brief description and tips on the subject.
Chapter three is an alphabetical list of concepts. The format is sort of a dictionary/encyclopedia hybrid. Some concepts are neatly covered in one sentence, such as, Account Operators. Others, such as, Active Directory span several pages.
Chapter four covers tasks, such as, backup and restore. These constitute the key steps in performing the operation while still leaving many decisions to the administrator.
Chapter five explains in great detail all of the many consoles in 2000.
Chapter six lists the utilities, such as, Add/Remove Hardware and Printers -- basically everything in the Start Menu that could be considered utilitarian.
Chapter seven goes over command line interface (CLI) commands.
I found the book to be quite well organized. The formatting made scanning the pages for information very easy. The author was especially thorough in covering all the most common items that most administrators would ever need. If you can't find the information you're looking for within it's 780 pages then your only other option is the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit which is almost 8,000 pages long!
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