Platinum Edition Using® Microsoft® Windows® XP

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing or considering the purchase of Platinum Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP.

When we published our first Windows book about 15 years ago, our publisher didn't even think the book would sell well enough to print more than 5,000 copies. I remember asking a stock broker to purchase some Microsoft stock for me back in 1995, and he asked me who Microsoft was, and what they did. Who could have imagined that a decade and a half later, anyone who hoped to get hired for even a basic IT job would have to be highly conversant in networking Windows-based PCs or that an MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer) certificate could prove as lucrative as a medical or law degree, or that a typical Windows OS would be assembled ...