Part Four, "The Media Center," introduces you to all things photo, movies and media. You start off with the Windows Live Photo Gallery where you can upload and tweak your images before you share them with the world. Next is Windows Media Player where you can listen to all of your favorite tunes. Then it is on to Windows Media center where you can play back videos or even watch TV if you have a tuner card.
Part Five, "Hardware and Peripherals," gets you up to speed on faxing, printing and scanning as well as working with other external gadgets. He also explains about Windows 7 features for laptops, tablets and interfacing with Netbooks and Touchscreens.
Part Six, "PC Health," examines maintenance and speed issues while working with Windows 7. Here you will learn how to maintain your hard drives, perform backups, restore your system, as well as troubleshooting your computer.
Part Seven, "The Windows 7 Network," guides you through setting up user accounts, creating networks, domains and network sharing, as well as other topics aimed at building a system of interconnected PCs. There is also a chapter on remote control of your PC so that even when you are away from your computer, you can still maintain access to your system.
Part Eight contains the appendices. The first one guides you through installing Windows 7. He talks about what you need to do before you begin, dual booting and easy transfer. Appendix B, talks about the registry and working with regedit. Appendix C — entitled “Where’d it Go?" — describes what happened to many of the items that were removed or changed significantly. The final chapter is a master keyboard shortcut list.
Windows 7: The Missing Manual is really what a manual should be. I thought highly of the Vista version even though I never bought into the operating system ,and I think so of this one. You really have a complete manual that should have been in the box.
It contains enough detail that if there are features that are missing from a particular version, you are made aware, and it is detailed enough that those coming from both XP and Vista have information that will ease the transition.
If you are moving to Windows 7 — and I think you should — then you should positively, absolutely check out Windows 7: The Missing Manual. This is what I would call the missing manual. Unlike a manual, it is not boring, not a reference manual, and is meant to be read like a book. If you have Windows 7, then you should have Windows 7: The Missing Manual.
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