Your Guide to Easy and Secure Windows Vista Networking is a complete beginner’s guide to creating, configuring, administering, and using a small network using Windows Vista computers. Inside you’ll find comprehensive coverage of networking hardware, including Ethernet (wired) hardware (from NICs to cables to switches to routers) and wireless Hardware–from wireless NICs to access points to range extenders.

We include handy “buyer’s guides” that tell you how to make smart choices when purchasing network hardware. With hardware in hand, we then show you how to roll up your shirtsleeves and put everything together, including configuring a router, laying cable, and connecting the devices. Next, we then show you how to wrangle with Windows Vista’s networking features. These techniques include using the Network and Sharing Center, managing wired and wireless connections, accessing shared network resources, sharing local resources on the network, and working with network files offline. And if you are a music and video aficionado, we’ve got you covered with a special chapter that shows you just how to set up a networked Vista PC as your digital media hub!

Get on the fast track to becoming a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist with this affordable, portable study tool. Inside, Microsoft Certified Trainer Brian Culp will guide you on your career path, providing expert tips and sound advice along the way. With an intensive focus on only what you need to know to pass MCTS Exam 70-620, this certification passport is your ticket to success on exam day.

Featuring:
Itineraries–List of official exam objectives covered
ETAs–Amount of time needed to complete each lesson
Travel Advisories–Expert advice on critical topics
Local Lingo–Concise definitions of key terms and concepts
Travel Assistance–Recommended resources for more information
Exam Tips–Common exam pitfalls and solutions
Checkpoints–End-of-chapter questions, answers, and explanations
Career Flight Path–Career options mapped out to maximize the return from your IT journey

If you are a support professional who sets up, maintains, and troubleshoots desktop applications on Windows Vista, now you can build your skills and prepare for exam 70-623, MCITP: Supporting and Troubleshooting Applications on a Windows Vista Client for Consumer Support Technicians, the required exam for achieving certification as an MCITP: Consumer Support Technician. Inside this comprehensive study guide you’ll find full coverage of all exam objectives, practical hands-on exercises, real-world scenarios, challenging review questions, and more. Includes a CD with advanced testing software and electronic flashcards.

For Windows developers, few tasks are more challenging than debugging—-or more crucial. Reliable and realistic information about Windows debugging has always been scarce. Now, with over 15 years of experience two of Microsoft’s system-level developers present a thorough and practical guide to Windows debugging ever written.

Mario Hewardt and Daniel Pravat cover debugging throughout the entire application lifecycle and show how to make the most of the tools currently available—-including Microsoft’s powerful native debuggers and third-party solutions.

To help you find real solutions fast, this book is organized around real-world debugging scenarios. Hewardt and Pravat use detailed code examples to illuminate the complex debugging challenges professional developers actually face. From core Windows operating system concepts to security, Windows® Vista™ and 64-bit debugging, they address emerging topics head-on—and nothing is ever oversimplified or glossed over!

"I highly recommend this book, the ‘Vista Manual That Microsoft Never Wrote,' since it has everything about Vista that you need, and nothing you don't." –Stu Sjouwerman, Editor, WServerNews, wservernews.com; Founder, Sunbelt Software

From the Back Cover
Your Hands-On Microsoft Windows Vista Administration Guide

Set up and manage Windows Vista in the enterprise using the detailed information contained in this authoritative resource. Microsoft Windows Vista Administration shows you how to leverage Vista's powerful new productivity, security, and management tools to give your business the competitive edge. Inside, you'll learn to design and implement Windows Vista installation and migration plans, create network connections, configure Internet services, and utilize Vista's remote access features. You'll also learn to secure your Windows Vista environment, proactively prevent performance problems, and tune Vista PCs.

•    Master the Windows Vista user experience, including Windows Aero

•    Manage files and information using Windows Vista programs and Sidebar gadgets

•    Create your own movies, slides shows, and DVDs

•    Rip, manage, and play digital music and videos

•    Protect your computer from Internet or network intruders

•    Explore the Internet, send e-mail and instant message, and publish calendars on the Web

•    Customize, fine-tune, and administer Windows Vista

•    Set up multiple users and parental controls

•    Perform Instant Searches to quickly find files and programs

•    Prepare for the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist exam

Vista is the most radical revamping of Windows since 1995. But along with all the fantastic improvements, there are a couple of things that drive you up the wall. Maybe you're not seeing the performance you expect. Security is better, but boy, is it annoying. And what's with that interface thing that's just in the way? Well, you can fix all that. When you and Steve Sinchak are finished, you'll think Microsoft designed Vista just for you.

How to improve the view

A few of the things you'll learn to do

1. Tweak logon screen settings

2. Build custom Sidebar gadgets

3. Personalize Aero Glass with themes and visual styles

4. Customize Internet Explorer® 7

5. Configure BIOS for maximum boot speed

6. Crank up Windows® Explorer

7. Turn your PC into an HDTV Media Center

8. Fine-tune your firewall

Hands-On Guide to Windows Media is a practical guide that teaches how to distribute audio and video efficiently and effectively over computer networks.

This book enables you to get up and running quickly and focuses on one of the most popular tools in the streaming media universe, Windows Media. This book will help you to understand the unique characteristics and demands of streaming audio and video information over packet-switched networks. Ideal even for non-technical readers.

* Learn how to deliver audio and video products and messages in a way that meets business goals without compromising quality or breaking budgets
* Contains step-by-step examples and codeeasy enough for those of us that are not-so-technical
* Real-world case studies and anecdotes provide examples, illustrate pitfalls, and provide best-practices

If you want to get to know Windows Vista fast but don't want to get bogged down in the details, you need a Visual QuickProject Guide!

• You don't need to know every feature–you just want to get your work done.
• Full-color illustrations show you how to perform each step of your project from start to finish.
• Low priced–why pay for more than you need?
• John Rizzo has been writing about computers for 20 years. His work has appeared in CNET, eWeek.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, PC Magazine, and other publications. John is the author of numerous books, including Customizing Windows XP: Visual QuickProject Guide. He also publishes MacWindows.com, a news and information Web site devoted to helping Mac users get along in a Windows world.

C# 2008 offers powerful new features, and Accelerated C# 2008 is the fastest path to mastering them, and the rest of C#, for both experienced C# programmers moving to C# 2008 and programmers moving to C# from another object-oriented language. Many books introduce C#, but very few also explain how to use it optimally with the .NET common language runtime (CLR). This book teaches both core C# language concepts and how to wisely employ C# idioms and object-oriented design patterns to exploit the power of C# and the CLR.
This book is both a rapid tutorial and a permanent reference. You’ll quickly master C# syntax while learning how the CLR simplifies many programming tasks. You’ll also learn best practices that ensure your code will be efficient, reusable, and robust. Why spend months or years discovering the best ways to design and code C# when this book will show you how to do things the right way, right from the start?

    * Comprehensively and concisely explains both C# 2005 and C# 2008 features
    * Focuses on the language itself and on how to use C# 2008 proficiently for all .NET application development
    * Concentrates on how C# features work and how to best use them for robust, high-performance code.

What you’ll learn
    o How C# works with and exploits the CLR
    o How to use arrays, collections, and iterators
    o How to handle events with delegates and anonymous functions
    o How to design and use generic types and methods
    o How to thread efficiently and robustly
    o How the new C# 2008 anonymous types, lamba expressions, and extension methods work and how to use them

Who is this book for?
If you’re an experienced C# programmer, you need to understand how C# has changed with C# 2008. If you're an experienced object-oriented programmer moving to C#, you want to ramp up quickly in the language while learning the latest features and techniques. In either case, this book is for you. The first three chapters succinctly present C# fundamentals, for those new to or reviewing C#. The rest of the book covers all the major C# features, in great detail, explaining how they work and how best to use them. Whatever your background or need, you'll treasure this book for as long as you code in C# 2008.