PCs — The Missing Manual

But it also tells you how to maintain your own system, and how to get the most out of it. Andy Rathbone starts by looking at what's under the bonnet. This is for people who want to add memory or replace a hard drive. Everything is made simple and clear, because there are lots of photographs showing each stage of a procedure. This section also contains an explanation of the bewildering array of different ports on the back of your computer, and what plugs into them.

The next part deals with your essential peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, and monitor. He includes something I have found incredibly useful - running two monitors off one PC. This enables you to work on one screen whilst the other contains notes, email, or a handy web page.

Then it's the turn of printers and all the latest gizmos such as digital cameras, camcorders, and webcams. It's amazing how each new technology turns punters into specialists. Suddenly we become amateur typographists, desktop compositors, and movie scene editors.

He also covers sound recording - now increasingly popular since the explosion of podcasting. And this is followed by what must be the most popular form of new media technology - downloading music tracks onto an iPod.

After dealing with hard and floppy drives and how to get the most out of them, plus burning CDs and DVDs, he devotes the latter part of the book to your computer and the Internet. This covers everything from getting connected, choosing modems and browsers, and handling email, to browsing the web efficiently and safely.

There are a couple of chapters dedicated to networking and security, and then he ends with a selection of common problems, and solutions to them. This includes recovering from crashes, restoring your system, and if all else fails, how to edit the setup BIOS program and how to save all your data using Knoppix. (Scary stuff.)

Even as what might be called an 'intermediate' computer user, I find these books incredibly useful. They help to reinforce basic knowledge, and at the same time they are packed with tips and tricks which help you to boost your skills and work more efficiently.

© Roy Johnson 2006         [other TECHNICAL books]