Tue 17 Apr 2007
Microsoft’s Resource Kits for Windows are quite famous. I just saw that the Windows Vista Resource Kit has been published now. The book has about 1,500 pages and costs $37.79 at Amazon.
I guess, I will buy it mostly for nostalgic reasons. Microsoft usually publishes the most important parts online, anyway. For example, the text for the Windows XP Professional Resource Kit can be accessed at Technet. The Resource Kit tools for Windows Server 2003 can be downloaded, too.
In my view, a printed reference book with 1500 pages doesn’t make much sense, anymore. Nobody has really time to read it and searching for information in a pbook is just too time consuming. That’s why we prefer to buy IT publications as ebooks. I am a big fan of Safari Books Online. You can buy books from all important IT book publishers at Safari. They offer full text search across all books you have in your repository. Another big advantage is that you have access to all your books wherever you are.
They also have books from Microsoft Press. Unfortunately, the Windows Vista Resource Kit is not yet available. I hope they will offer it soon.
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The ebook is included if you purchase Windows Vista Resource Kit, AFAIK at least.
Is there also full text search tool included or did they just copy the plain html files on the CD?
The ebook that comes with the book is in .pdf format.
One more thing, I forgot to ask before is.
I’m currently considering a Vista book purchase and am having a hard time deciding which one to get. I’m considering MS Press Windows Vista Administrators Pocket Consultant, MS Press Windows Vista Inside Out Jan 2007 and now the Resource Kit. I really don’t have the time to read two or even all three (I’ve eliminated quite a few others).
Any suggestions?
PDF is cool. I wonder why they don’t just sell the PDF file and forget about the pbook. The Resource Kit has about 1500 pages and is probably the most comprehensive one. Do you really intend to read them all? I usually prefer learning by doing and use books as reference only. Most of the books, I’ve seen, contain lots of common stuff. If you are already familiar with Windows XP, you will spend a lot of time with reading things you already know. For example, I bought “Windows Vista Secrets� by Brian Livingston and Paul Thurrott and I regret it. I have read the first 100 pages and didn’t find any “secret�.
I’m more of a starter in IT and would like to take the opportunity presented by Vista to give my career a bit of a boost. I could most probably give my users the proper support with Vista as it is, but would like to learn just a bit more.
I know XP quite well and am aware that I’ll be reading a lot of things I’m well acquainted with. That is why I’m trying to figure out which book will give me the most in depth knowledge. I just might take the 70-620 (want something to backup the skills I have, once I’m done with tier one I’ll go from there) and am curious to know if I need to read one of the before mentioned books before dealing with something like: “MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-620): Configuring Windows Vista(TM) Client”.
I’ve read reviews of “Windows Vista Secrets” and eliminated it at once, since it seems to provide basic knowledge of the OS, which I already have.
Any suggestions either way are more then welcome.