Boot Up

This is a beginners' guide to computing which has been compiled from answers to real-life 'frequently asked questions' which appear in the popular weekly IT pages of The Daily Telegraph.

It starts from advice on buying a computer and the selection of peripherals such as printers and modems, then takes you through topics such as altering the appearance of your desktop, tweaking your system to improve performance, backing up files, anti-virus protectors, and a particularly good introduction to using the PC to access the Internet.




En route there are answer to queries such as 'Can I plug my PC into my television ?' and 'What is the Turbo button for?' Each section starts with a mini-lecture which puts the chapter topic into a historical perspective. This is a useful way of explaining why computers still behave in the often baffling manner they do. I found this approach reassuring, because it explains the reasons for problems we all get from time to time, and it alerts us to ones we have yet to encounter.

The latter parts of the book deal with scanners, digital cameras, fax machines, then maximising the performance and getting the best out of Windows.

He also throws in very useful tips, such as how to make an emergency start-up disk; how to scan and defrag your hard disk to improve performance; and why it is better to uninstall programs rather than just deleting them.

It's unashamedly oriented to PCs and Windows, so Apple-Mac users need not apply. But overall, this is an excellent book for beginners.