I only have room for a brief coverage of this book. O'Reilly have a (deservedly) high reputation for books about Unix (but, as far as this reviewer is concerned, a poor one for books on C and C++). They have also published a number of books on Windows and Windows applications. They have a small but growing series of 'Annoyances' titles. This is the latest and tackles Windows XP. It is sub-titled 'Tips, Secrets and Solutions.'

One of the curiosities of this book as the way that the author sometimes drifts from XP into areas that are useful but do not, in my opinion, belong in this book. For example, on page 199 we have a section on the correct placement of your monitor.

If you are computer literate, are reasonably familiar with MS Windows and want a book to help with the idiosyncrasies that keep biting you when using Windows XP, I think this is a good book to have close to hand. If you have a copy you will soon learn to see what it has to say when something is annoying you rather than thrashing around and doing further damage.