The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group For the bookshelf: Windows 98 Annoyances Bernadette Houghton bernieh@iaccess.com.au

You may be familiar with the Windows 95 or Windows 98 Annoyances Web pages. The designer of these sites, David A Karp, has now written Windows 98 Annoyances in book form. If you're an intermediate or power computer user, you'll probably find it a useful tool.

As you might guess from the book's name, Karp tells you how to get rid of many of Windows 98's irritating features. You'll learn such things as how to suppress password logon screens, how to manipulate files without encountering an endless queue of confirmation messages, and how to protect your file associations from rude programs that overwrite them without permission. Karp has written a fairly detailed chapter on the Windows Registry, and in fact many of the solutions in the book involve manipulating the Registry. It also contains some very practical information on topics such as optimising your system's performance, trouble-shooting hardware and software problems, and suggests cost-effective strategies for upgrading your system.

You can read the book from cover to cover, or just dip into those chapters that interest you. At the same time, if you're looking for a quick answer to a quick question, you'll probably find you're getting rather more information than you bargained for. This book has tips a-plenty, but they're mostly not the quick variety, interspersed as they are with explanations, alternative solutions and various bits and pieces of related information. There is a good 16-page index (and I do like a good index). Also included is a CD-ROM containing a 30-day trial version of O'Reilly Utilities: Quick Solutions for Windows 98 Annoyances, which you can also download from the Web at http://www.oreilly.com.

If you're after a book of quick tips and tricks, there are plenty of other books which will probably suit you better. However, if you enjoy tinkering with your computer and also want to learn more about how Windows works, you'll find Windows 98 Annoyances a handy reference.

Reprinted from the February 1999 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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