2012/04/30

Troubleshooting Windows® 7 Inside Out By Mike Halsey; O'Reilly Media

Mike Halsey details Windows 7 in depth in Troubleshooting Windows® 7 Inside Out by discussing everything from the basics to the intricacies of virtualization. 
Halsey did a good job explaining a lot of the issues in a very easy to understand method, but sometimes critical details are not discussed. Partitioning is explained in depth and is explained very well, but partitions should be created relative to the size of the Hard Drive and is completely determined by how the user will be utilizing the space on the disk. I agree with his thoughts on shareware and to steer clear of it, but there are many great open source options out there under the GNU GPL that could give the user something free to accomplish their needs. A great example would be LibreOffice, a completely free alternative to Microsoft Office.
I really liked that Halsey included some Linux based tools for recovering from disaster when it hits. There have been many times when I have used Ubuntu or some other flavor or Linux to resolve an issue. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone wanting an in-depth view into dealing with some of the common and even some of the not so common issues faced when working in a Windows 7 environment. There is a lot of good information, but it may not be easy to find since the index isn't very detailed. Additionally, if you want details on how to do something covered in the book, it is a good idea to read the entire chapter for the extra bits of information in the INSIDE OUT snippets.