The book is organized into ten chapters and numerous Appendices which are intended not only to be references for the reader but also learning tools.  In them he covers everything from the basic computing skills to use of the Registry, tinkering techniques, performance enhancements, troubleshooting, networking, user accounts and administration, scripting and automation, and WinXP installation.  The book can be used by the novice, but it will be better appreciated by the intermediate and advanced computer users who feel comfortable with excursions into the Registry to solve the many cited annoyances.  

Although Microsoft has made many changes to WinXP that enhance its use and operation to make this operating system “user friendly,” it is many of these very enhancements that annoy the author.  For example he cites annoyances as the frequent crash tendency of Windows, the irritating little animations, clutter on the desktop, lack of decent documentation, and performance problems.  He provides tips, tricks, and work-arounds that enable the user to customize the software by working with styles, skins, and themes in addition to numerous undocumented tweaks and settings to eliminate these annoyances.  Karp also provides instruction to find and use Registry patches that will eliminate annoyances such as those who fault the MS’s use of the puppy dog, the new Search tool (which replaced Find in previous operating systems), organization of files and folders, shortcuts, desktop organization, and many of the other innovative WinXP new features and enhancements.

Karp suggests many changes to WinXP operating system that can improve its performance and/or provide troubleshooting solutions to computer problems caused by error messages, crashes, lockups, unexpected results, and corrupted data.  He teaches the reader general troubleshooting techniques to address specific software issues, drivers, and hardware problems with documentation not found in other computer books.  Karp also addresses preventative maintenance measures that are not described in any detail in the “Dummies” books or other more simplistic user manuals designed for the typical computer person.

I believe this book meets and exceeds Karp’s stated objective.  He believes a computer user should not be required to adjust the way he/she thinks in order to complete a task on a computer.  Rather, he/she should learn how to adjust the computer to work in a way that makes sense to him/her. This book is sufficiently detailed with illustrations to enable even the computer novice to customize his/her operating system short of those solutions that involve the Registry.  However, Karp does enlighten readers with Registry information that broadens the user’s knowledge base.  This paperback reference is 564 black and white pages which seemingly identifies every possible change that can be made to WinXP.  For anyone who wishes to stray from the normal operation of WinXP and make this operating system unique to his/her use, then it’s a must have book.