Windows 8 Administration Pocket Consultant 1st Edition

Professionally well written with clearly defined chapters with a concise language style. An "Under the Hood" manual for configuring, troubleshooting & learning the more complex tasks of Windows 8. However to learn how to use the Metro UI, there are other books that cover that topic. I'd give it 5 stars, except this is really the "Administrators Guide", that used to be supplied for free when purchasing a boxed version on Windows....in days long past!

I just received this book with great anticipation. I was very disappointed. Windows 8 is a major release, one of the most significant in Windows history, and includes significant new capabilities. Not the least of these is the new Metro environment for tablets or multi-touch devices. Searching the index for any of these terms yields virtually nothing. Some of the other most important Windows 8 capabilities (to me) are completely missing from this book. It may be a matter of expectations. However, the intended audience includes "accomplished users who are intending to configure and maintain Windows 8". I am basically a home user and have been working with Windows for several years. I consider myself at an intermediate level of expertise. I am my own system administrator and I intend to configure and maintain Windows 8. I have been reading about very interesting capabilities in Windows 8 and just installed it on two machines in my home. I was looking for comprehensive documentation on how to get the most out of the new features and capabilities offered by Windows 8. I view this book as a warmed over Windows 7--Windows XP book that reflects little to no effort to present the exciting new Windows 8 features.For example, I want to use one of my systems as a server for robust centralized file storage for documents and multimedia files. I would also like to simplify and improve my backup for the 5 or 6 systems on my home network. And I want to use a Windows 8 machine to stream movies, video and music to my Xbox. Finally, I would like to be able to access my files when I am on vacation and traveling. So I expected a whole section on how to configure Storage Spaces and about thin provisioning and resiliency. Pocket Consultant includes nothing on storage spaces and does not even contain an index entry for the topic. Storage spaces should make striping and disk quotas, which are covered in great detail, obsolete for most home users.I had hoped for an in depth explanation on how to best use new backup capabilities but there is no chapter on backup per se and you have to stumble on 'file history'.The book provides no information on multimedia streaming much less any guide to configuration. There are several pages on how to configure modems for dial-up remote access, but there is only one brief mention of Skydrive. Remote Fetch is conspicuously absent. Skydrive is powerful and very useful and becomes more so via Windows 8.I had hoped for a "best practices" approach that would guide me through implementation of the major new Windows 8 features. The author did not bother to cover many of the most attractive and significant capabilities that make Windows 8 worth the move. Perhaps this book will prove useful as a reference for more mundane Windows features in the future, but it is no help to me in configuring my systems and maximizing the power of Windows 8. I ordered and received and am perusing "Windows 8 Secrets" by Paul Thurrott. This is the book to buy.

I am an IT professional who likes to have a book to read and refer to. In an age of digital copies it is sometimes nice to have a book to highlight and mark pages. This is a good sized book for portability. The topics are covered well and offers step by step instruction as well as detailed descriptions of what you are doing.

Great companion to learning the in's and out's of Windows 8.x from the Administrative side of things. Very informative in some of the features and programs with in Windows 8.x. If you are a more advanced user and want to get the most out of Windows8.x then this is what you need.

There is nothing pocket about it, but it's helpful in many situations. It saves time when it's hard to troubleshoot something new.

Quite hte learnng curve for indows 8 and this book makes it so much easier to learn the proceedures. I recommend it.

I was pressured into ordering this from a fellow geek friend. Wish I hadn't as it is old fashioned in its approach and it is much easier to "google" a specific thing I want to know than search through the book. Times have changed and this type of manual just isn't what people today want to use to learn new information.

I have found this very useful in troubleshooting or figuring out how to try to meet a customers request (if it's even remotely feasible).

Windows 8 is a complex beast and includes much that was carried forward from Windows 7 but also much which is new and is often approached quite differently from whatever preceded it. The changes are widespread and include its new Start Screen and the Apps on it, dispersal of the contents of the old Start Menu which no longer exists, new entries to several menus and applets and more. For support personnel and for those who support other users on a more informal basis, the changes are sufficient to cause a few headaches.Windows 8 Administration Pocket Consultant is an attempt to provide most of the answers to whatever questions users may raise and it is from Microsoft's publishing division. Much of the information within its many pages is substantially unique and not necessarily repeated in other companion titles by the same publisher, or for that matter, others. It certainly includes much which is missing from another major publisher's title, one which is generally and generically considered as the most definitive and complete for whichever program or package is referred within its titles. Consequently, the book may well serve the more advanced user who will need to solve some of the less obvious questions missed by most alternative titles which are generally directed at a mid- to low-level audience, many of whom will be using Windows 8 on a new computer. It may be too advanced for the average user as it requires access to elements of Windows where many will feel ill at ease or fear to tread.Because of its unique approach and contents, this is a book which many will need although few will choose to purchase, probably because they may believe it to be too complex. However, it is the 'Pocket Consultant', which suggests that it may be permanently or frequently carried although probably in a briefcase as it is larger than pocket-sized, and has a degree of brevity and superficiality which may be absent from the Desktop Edition should one either exist or become available at a later date. I may buy this as an interim solution until or when the Desktop version is eventually published. It could be an invaluable purchase.It is a textual book and there are no pretty pictures. It is a book for the technically minded and experienced and it is they who are its prime target. Not all problems, or their solutions, require a high level of technical competence and the book assumes a degree of familiarity with most of the bells and whistles of the system, not necessarily for Windows 8 as it is new to everyone but certainly one or more earlier versions.

Have always rated Stanek, this book is no different, if you need to know about Windows 8 from an admin point of view, its worth it.

Ii is an essential piece of kit for any operating system.

THis arrived on cue. Well packed. I bought this to help get up to speed with Microsofts latest offering. THe author of this is well know to the industry so well recommended. Cheers!

Windows 8 AdministrationI have only read a couple of chapters. This book had met my expectation up to now.