User administration can be a challenging pastime, especially on a growing network that supports a variety of users. Often it is a case of learning how to make the best use of the tools available and understanding and using the appropriate network operating system functions in order to control unruly users. A single chapter in a large book is not always the best source of information - hence this book.

The value you would derive from the purchase of this book depends on your circumstances. System administrators who have come to NT from another Operating System may benefit from the coverage given to NT specific things like access control lists, groups and domains. Overall the book does cover user administration comprehensively and if you have a diversity of user types, a large number of users or manage multiple NT nodes then the book would benefit you.

This book extensively uses Perl as a scripting language. This in itself is not a bad thing but Perl on NT is still quite a young and evolving language. For example, there is a difference in the way some versions of Perl implement win32 functions and this would affect the chapter on the NT registry for example. However, if you have a UNIX background and/or are a Perl addict then the use of Perl in the book could be considered an advantage. On the subject of scripts, the book does not mention that the code examples are available for download from:http://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/~tdr20/ora/.

In summary the chapters cover the following; a small introduction to Perl and the win32 additions, user strategies, NT groups and security, managing users through scripts, understanding domains, NT internals, controlling user access and auditing (with and without Perl). Overall, this is a good book if its subject is relevant to you.