Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Server ... (ISBN 0789721228)

A readable technical introduction to Windows 2000:
This book seems to be targeted at Network Architects who are designing LANS or WANS, UNIX users who are interested in what Server 2000 has to offer and others who are interested in this area. As always with QUE books there is a list near the front of who they consider the potential audience to be. It is fairly advanced and does concentrate on the Server and networking side of Windows 2000. Windows 2000 does require planning before rolling out but for those who do especially in larger more complex networks there are some very nice management paybacks. Personally I use operating systems but need to know what to recommend and why to clients who are putting in new systems. For me this Que book was useful in that it gave me the major relevant differences between Windows NT 4.0 and Server 2000. The parts I found of most interest where the security polices which were quite well explained, and Active Directory for me the most important part of Windows 2000. It gathers up information that readers require to get through the Microsoft CSE exams in a page or so at the end of each chapter so for those of us who really are interested in the concepts rather than the keystrokes to pass the exam can simply skip them. There is a detailed discussion about RAID, file encryption and compression which may change the way you set up the hard drives on a fast server. You should be aware though that the security included in Windows 2000 is not the ultimate level and there are a number of issues outside the scope of this book for those who have high security requirements. I was pleased to see a discussion of backup, one area that is often overlooked. The book is designed to highlight the new features from Windows NT 4.0, it contains relevant web page links, and cautions where an action might lead to unexpected or unpredictable results. I found the tips from the author which describe shortcuts and alternative approaches useful especially as they seem to be based on experience. In summary a useful book to get an overview of Windows 2000, other books are required to delve into each topic in depth.