Mastering Windows 2000 Server, 2nd Ed

Book by Anderson, Christa, Smith, Brian M., Toombs, Doug, Minasi, Mark

Mark Minasi rocks the casbah as far as Microsoft's enterprise operating systems are concerned--his books have been bestsellers for a long time, and deservedly so. Minasi's latest offering, Mastering Windows 2000 Server, upholds his tradition of technical accuracy and thoroughness, presented in a shell of pedagogical soundness. This heavy, hardback volume goes far beyond the usual feature-by-feature documentation. In addition to the how-to material, the book includes details (roughly, oh, a zillion of them) that clearly derive from experimentation and an exhaustive study of Microsoft's support databases.

A typical example of Mastering's thoroughness (for which Minasi's three coauthors deserve credit, too) is its explanation of how to restrict access to programs on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 clients. (They're covered in these pages on the logic that homogeneous Windows 2000 networks are rare.) In that section, you'll find not only instructions for locking down programs via the Registry, but also a discussion of ways to get around Registry restrictions (via Cmd.exe, macro languages, and so on)--almost everything gets that kind of attention. And administrators will appreciate being able to locate the information that they want (in the depth in which they want it) with just a quick index scan. Users of the Macintosh and Novell clients: look here for the help that you need in getting machines to interoperate properly. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and its applications in organizational networks
• All aspects of the operating system and its connectivity
• Hardware
• Groups and users
• Folder sharing
• All sorts of networking subjects
• Heterogeneous networks
• Windows Terminal Services
• Internet services