About the Book:

BASICS of Windows: The Easy Guide to Vista & XP is unlike any book currently on the market. It's not meant to be a complete reference guide, so if you're looking for a book that instructs you in reformatting your hard drive or gives step-by-step instructions for setting up a network for all the computers in your home, this book isn't for you.

This book was designed with today's fast pace in mind. It's for people who want to know the basics of using their PCs so they can do what they need to do without wasting time and incurring frustrations. It was designed to help you build confidence by teaching you the basics as well as how to use those basics to figure out the things you don't know.

FEATURES:

• Concise and easy to read.  The size of the text is normal, not tiny, so you'll have no trouble reading it. And you won't find any extraneous facts, drawn-out explanations, or cute analogies to interrupt the flow of information.
• Large, full-color screen shots.  I changed my Windows desktop settings to display everything at a larger size and higher resolution so that I could take large, clear screen shots, then optimized and increased the resolution of those screen shots in Adobe Photoshop. Please note that your screen can only display images at whatever setting your screen resolution is set to. For example, though these images print at 300 dots per inch, which is a high-quality print resolution, you may only be able to view them on screen at 96  or 72 dpi—much lower resolutions. Even so, the large size of the screen shots and print, makes them easy to read.
• Not version-specific.  Almost every book on the market is tailored to a specific version of Windows. This book is not. Why?  Because the point of the book is that if you have the basic skills, you can use any version of Windows. Even when there are differences between versions, there are so many ways to perform the same task that all you need is the confidence to explore, and you'll find the way that's right for you.
• Contains simple exercises. Placed at the end of each part, the exercises allow you to test your knowledge and build confidence in your ability to apply what you've learned.
• Questions & Answers.  The Q&A sections at the end of each part cover many of the little annoyances that may literally pop up while you're using Windows. By including common problems at the end, I don't have to waste time and space during the chapters covering all the things that can go wrong. Instead, the chapters contain the information needed for basic skills. The Q&A contains info on what to do when things don't work the way they should. If you have a question about using Windows, you can submit it by clicking here. I try to answer at least one question a day in my Basics of Windows blog.

BASICS of Windows: The Easy Guide to Vista & XP has not been released for publication. If you'd like to be notified of the publication status, click here to join the mailing list. Please note that your privacy is highly respected.  We will not give or sell any of your information to a third party. For detailed information on our Privacy policy, please click here.

You can purchase the pdf e-book version of BASICS of Windows: The Easy Guide to Vista & XP, Part 1: Just the Basics for $4.95 or the color print booklet for $6.95 by clicking here. The information in the pdf ebook is presented as listed in the Table of Contents (click on Part 1 Table of Contents under Read Part One on the menu) but is in Portable Document Format (pdf) so that you can store it on your hard drive in e-book format to read or print at your leisure.