April 2006,
Windows Administration at the Command Line, SybexThis is a complete list of all of the books that I currently support, including works in progress. As you can see, it's quite a list. I try to keep track of every book and always look forward to hearing from readers no matter how old the book may be. Please feel free to contact me at JMueller@mwt.net.
I've been writing magazine articles and books for 20+ years now. People still write me about books that I wrote many years ago. I'd love to support every book that I've written, but it often becomes impossible to do so. As books go out of print and I run out of personal copies, trying to fulfill reader requests becomes very difficult. I often end up running to the archives to see if I can locate a particular piece of information about a book. Source code is even more difficult to support because the environment in which I produced the source code no longer exists. Consequently, it was with a great deal of thought that I finally decided to stop supporting some of my books. You can find a list of these unsupported offerings on the Unsupported Book page. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience that the lack of support may cause.
April 2006,
Windows Administration at the Command Line, SybexMany people are unaware of the vast resources that Microsoft provides at the command line. This book can help anyone realize the potential of the command line to provide better access to system resources, monitor both local and remote machines, and automate a wealth of tasks. The goal of this book is to document every utility provided as part of Windows; even those that Microsoft doesn't document. Within this book you'll find:
This book also discusses a few other products that relate to Windows, but aren't included with the intial Windows release. One of the most important topics is how you can add the .NET Framework to your toolbox without buying Visual Studio. Few people realize that Microsoft provides an amazing array of tools and utilities with the .NET Framework. For example, you can create a .NET application using nothing more than Notepad. The utilities also help you manage the .NET environment. In some cases, you need to use these tools to add .NET support to other products such as SQL Server and IIS.
Two chapters in this book discuss the newest version of Windows, Vista. In one chapter you'll find a listing of the Vista utilities and an overview of Vista changes. This is beta information, so you'll need to view the material in that light. I plan to provide an updated version of the book with the release Vista information when the product becomes available. The second chapter contains an overview of Monad, the new command line prompt for Vista. You can obtain a copy of Monad for Windows XP and Windows 2003 systems as well. This book shows you how to create both scripts and Cmdlets for Monad. Again, I plan to update this information to match the released producted are part of a book update.
January 2006,
Mastering Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, SybexVisual Web Developer Express is one of a number of new scaled down programming products that Microsoft introduced. This book discusses all of the requirements for using this product, provides detailed descriptions of all product features, and includes a wealth of code that demonstrates various Web site development scenarios. I've designed this book to meet the needs of several groups: small-to-medium sized businesses, experimenters, developers who simply want to see what ASP.NET 2.0 offers, and anyone who has never really worked with Visual Studio before. This book relies on a vast array of small examples to demonstrate ASP.NET 2.0 functionality. Here are the features you'll find inside:
The book includes sections of accessibility, database management, building controls and components, and designing downloadable application. In some sections, the book also discusses how to work with other products, such as Visual C# Express, so you knows how to combine Express products to create a comprehensive development suite.
December 2005,
Mastering Web Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, SybexVisual Studio 2005 includes an incredible array of new features for Web site development. In fact, Web site development is so different that many developers will be shocked to see just how easy their task has become. All of this new functionality is encapsulated within a new feature called Visual Web Developer (not to be confused with Visual Web Developer Express). Even though Microsoft hasn't marketed this new feature very much, it appears as part of the About dialog box, and you can also see it when you perform a custom installation. However, the most visible change is that you now use the File | New | Web Site command instead of the more familiar File | New | Project command found in earlier versions of the product to create a new Web site. Visual Web Developer is part of Visual Studio 2005 and you use it to create Web sites. Web Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 includes the following features:
This book concentrates on large-scale development. I designed the examples specifically for the enterprise envionrment. Consequently, you won't have to worry about fitting small examples designed for a small business to your enterprise application. These examples get right into the enterprise environment; they're ready for your particular enterprise needs. You'll build the ABC Incorporated Web site as the book progresses to discover how to use various Web development features to create a Web site in the enterprise environment. The sample Web site demonstrates all of the new features that Visual Studio provides a setting that mimics many large Web sites today.
In addition to building a large Web site, the book demonstrates how to perform large development team tasks including source code management. You'll find a section on debugging techniques and even learn how to overcome accessibility issues. The whole idea of these sections is to improve team productivity and reduce confusion that can result in application errors. What you get as a result is a team that functions better together and applications that meet delivery schedule requirements.
August 2005,
The Savvy Guide to Home Security, SamsYour home is your castle and you want to feel safe while you're in it. Although The Savvy Guide to Home Security can't provide you with a personal guard to stand at the front and back doors, it does provide the next best thing, knowledge. This hardware-specific book discusses a number of home security requirements. For example, it not only discusses the requirement to monitor external and internal access points, but the need to address personal needs such as installing a call switch for those with special needs. The following list tells you about just a few of the critical topics that this book discusses.
One of the best features of this book is that you don't have to take my word for anything. Inside you'll find interviews of experts in all areas of home security; everything from an insurance agent who tells you how security systems will affect your insurance to a police officer who has seen it all when it comes to home security. In between you'll find experts who tell you about installation and what the crooks are actually thinking about. You'll even find an interview with a small business owner and the security goals that this business pursued.
January 2005,
Windows XP Power Optimization, SybexIf your copy of Windows is starting slow and causing you more pain than you might think its worth, then this book has the answers you need. Microsoft Windows XP Power Optimization covers a wealth of optimization tips, tricks, and techniques; everything from cleaning needless files off the hard drive to tweaking the registry to obtain better performance. In fact, here is a list of just a few of the new things you'll learn by reading this book:
The book focuses on optimization goals, rather than including bland techniques that lack a usage basis. One of the book's goals is to ensure that you understand both the benefit and the tradeoff of using a particular technique. For example, making a system more secure might affect performance, reliability, stability, or usability. The emphasis is helping the you decide how best to optimize a system to meet specific needs and requirements, rather than take a one size fits all approach.
FrontPage 2003 offers features and functionality not found in earlier versions. The purpose of this book is to provide the you with an in depth tutorial of FrontPage 2003. The book begins with the basics, such as how to use the interface and moves on to complex topics, such as writing VBA code and creating FrontPage extensions using Visual Studio .NET. In fact, this is actually nine books under one cover. The books in this book include:
These books offer something for everyone and you don't have to read them in any particular order. In fact, you can skip any of the books that contain content you don't need right now and go back to them later. Inside these books you'll find information on using the various design features efficiently and how to decipher the statistics that FrontPage 2003 provides for your Web site. The book even discusses techniques for moving existing Web sites to FrontPage 2003. This is a big book and one little section can't cover everything it contains. I encourage you to contact me for additional information or view the table of contents for this book on Amazon (click the Search Inside this Book link).
eBay is the premier online auction site, yet it's more than just an auction site. For many people, eBay provides a kind of community. Not only do people buy and sell things on eBay, but they discuss common interests. The whole idea behind eBay is to provide a means of communication. Even though eBay doesn't actually get involved in the online auctions, they do provide the conduit that people use to conduct business—the means by which they buy and sell products, and provide feedback on those products. In short, eBay is an extension of the marketplace of old, where people buy and sell items both new and used for the best price they can get. Likewise, buyers often get deals on items they need. Bartering in the form of an auction represents a new way to do something that is quite old.
This book helps you discover eBay in a new way—through Web services. You'll discover techniques for listing items, checking item status, re-listing items when they fail to sell the first time, and perform a wealth of sales-oriented tasks. However, this book isn't just designed for sellers—it provides a lot of information for buyers too. You'll discover techniques for finding items faster, easier, and more reliably. Both groups will learn that it's possible to manage some aspects of their accounts from a remote location—that the desktop need not be a limitation to communication. It's quite easy to interact with eBay using mobile devices such as a PocketPC or Palm. In short, this is the book you need if you want to do things faster and more reliably, without giving up the good communication experiences that eBay can provide.
You don't have to be a proficient developer to use this book. Several of the examples show how to interact with eBay Web Services with very little code using nothing more than a browser and simple text editor. However, you'll get better results if you at least know how to use Web technologies such as XSLT. In fact, the browser chapter of this book concentrate on techniques for getting more information out of a single download by using multiple XSLT pages. The book also contains examples in VBA, Visual Basic 6, Visual C++ 6, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C# .NET, PHP, and Java. The book doesn't assume that you're going to use a specific platform either. It contains examples written for the desktop, the Web, and mobile devices such as PDAs and cellular telephones. You'll also discover how to use database managers such as Access, MySQL, and SQL Server to improve listing upload times and the longevity of the information you acquire using the search techniques in the book.
One of the main points of this book is to make the eBay experience easier and better. You'll discover techniques for automatically obtaining information that you can't get very easily using the manual interface. If you've ever tried to figure out which seller offered the best shipping terms or payment options, then you know the manual interface isn't the easiest way to go. The examples in this book show methods you can use to make this process easier.
Google is one of the most used search engines online. The fact that Google provides some of most precise searches is part of the reason for this success. However, Google also sports a great user interface and multiple ways to filter and sort information so you see precisely what you want. So why do you need a Web service? The fact of the matter is that no matter how nice the interface is, using Google is still a manual process that you must conduction the Google Web site. Google Web Services helps you improve on an already great product by performing many tasks automatically and with greater precision.
This book helps you understand how to use Google Web Services to automate searches. It doesn't really matter what you need to find, using Google Web Services can make the process faster by creating an environment where you can perform multiple searches quickly. In addition, Google Web Services makes it possible to perform some tasks that required special software in the past, such as performing a site search or adding search capabilities to your personal Web site. Here are some of the exciting things you'll discover:
You don't have to be a proficient developer to use this book. Several of the examples show how to interact with Google Web Services using JavaScript in a Web page. However, you'll get better results if you at least know how to use Web technologies such as XSLT. The book also contains examples in VBA, Visual Basic 6, Visual C++ 6, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C# .NET, PHP, and Java. The book doesn't assume that you're going to use a specific platform either. It contains examples written for the desktop, the Web, and mobile devices such as PDAs and cellular telephones. You'll also discover how to use database managers such as Access, MySQL, and SQL Server to improve application search times.
As part of the book discussion, you'll also discover new search techniques you can use with Google through the Web service or using the manual interface. For example, the book discusses ways to perform a search that leaves pornography out. You'll also discover ways to make your appplications more accessible and ease the learning curve for users who need to perform power searches, but don't have the skills required to implement them.
Amazon is one of the most successful vendors on the Internet for one reason; the company continues to innovate in ways that many vendors can only dream about. Web services is a relatively new technology that helps people access data and services provided by a company using generic query or programming techniques. It has seen little practical use until recently. Amazon Web Services helps you access the vast Amazon database for any required need.
This book assumes that you need access to Amazon products or services. It doesn't matter if you need to research items, perform data manipulation of product statistics, offer products for sale, or purchase products for a company. The point of this book is to help you access Amazon through Amazon Web Services using the easiest and fastest methods possible. In addition, this book helps you mine the data—to create your own interpretation of the facts that Amazon provides. Here are some of the exciting things you'll discover:
You don't have to be a proficient developer to use this book. Several of the examples show how to interact with Amazon Web Services without using any code at all; you just need a browser. However, you'll get better results if you at least know how to use Web technologies such as XSLT. The book also contains examples in VBA, Visual Basic 6, Visual C++ 6, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C# .NET, PHP, and Java. The book doesn't assume that you're going to use a specific platform either. It contains examples written for the desktop, the Web, and mobile devices such as PDAs and cellular telephones.
This book isn't just about technique, it's also about strategy. It helps you understand concepts such as how to position your application so it receives maximum use. The book considers data storage techniques using Access, MySQL, and SQL Server. It helps you discover the benefits of user-oriented programming using everything from application hints to accessible development techniques. In short, unlike many books, this one helps you create complete solutions that anyone can use.
This book shows you how to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in various environments. This is a typical Dummies book starts with the basics and moves on to complex topics. The latest version of VBA can create XML documents, so part of the book shows how to perform this task. The book ends by showing how to use VBA to create special applications for Word, Excel, Access, and FrontPage. A special chapter shows how to create interoperable applications where one application will call upon another to perform specific services.
This is the first version of this book that I've written. Most of the reviews that you see on the Amazon Web site refer to previous editions of the book—editions that I didn't write. Whenever you see the text This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title after one of the comments, you know that it refers to a previous edition of the book.
Security is a very large topic, so I decided to focus on .NET security specifically in this book. The beginning of the book discusses common exploits and how to avoid them. The book emphasizes the use of code access and role-based security to meet most security needs. After the book introduces the .NET security tools, it moves on to desktop application development. The next section discusses security measures for LAN technologies such as DCOM and COM+. The book progresses to Web services and mobile application development after that. Finally, the book discusses how to overcome limitations in the .NET Framework by using PInvoke to access the Win32 API directly.
This book shows the developer how to create accessible applications that meet the U.S. Governments Section 508 requirements. These applications include the special coding required to implement the IAccessible interface used by assistive technologies such as screen readers, Braille readers, and eye gaze systems. The book discusses the law, desktop application development, and Web development. I wrote all of the Web examples such that they will work with any Web server. The desktop applications rely on Microsoft Windows. Some of the applications demonstrate use of special Windows accessibility features such StickyKeys and MouseKeys.
I wrote this book with Julian Templeman. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate COM and COM+ programming techniques using Visual C++, Visual Basic, and C# as the development languages. Most of the COM examples appear in Visual C++, while most of the COM+ examples appear in C#. Julian concentrated on writing the COM portion of the book, while I concentrated on the COM+ sections. This book also demonstrates COM+ 1.5, which enables the developer to create SOAP application with relative ease. All of the examples rely on managed code using the .NET Framework.
Microsoft originally designed Web Matrix as a training tool for developers who wish to learn about ASP.NET. The tool is the first they have written using C#. This book started out as a simple guide to writing Web applications using Web Matrix. However, during the writing process, I discovered that Web Matrix is infinitely expandable to work with any text file. The resulting book shows how to expand Web Matrix in various ways and to combine it with other free tools to create a fully functional development system. All of the products described in this book are freeware or shareware, which means you learn valuable Web development techniques at absolutely no cost (except for the price of the book).
This book concentrates on using the Win32 API from within the managed environment. All of the examples are written in both Visual Basic .NET and Visual C#. The chapters include information on basic DLL calls, messaging, callback routines, and a variety of other Win32 API programming tasks. Example programs include the console, desktop, media player, special operating system functionality (including Windows XP), hardware access, and DirectX. The book includes special sections on creating MMC Snap-ins and managing security. Some applications use direct Win32 API access, while other applications use wrapper DLLs. A few of the wrapper DLLs rely on Visual C++ code. The book targets the intermediate to advanced developer who requires Win32 API functionality not found in the .NET Framework.
This book contains a variety of C# development projects from relatively simple desktop applications to Web applications. It discusses a range of platforms including the desktop, servers, and mobile devices such as the Pocket PC. The emphasis of the book is on coding, so each of the chapters contains from three to seven pro-gramming examples. The book contains a modicum of theory and procedures, but only enough to make the examples useful. The four database technologies in this book include OLE-DB, ADO, ODBC .NET, and ADO .NET. All of the database examples show how to create multiple data presentations and reports. A few of the examples show how to access the Windows API directly or through wrapper DLLs. One example shows how to create an MMC snap-in; something Microsoft didn't include in the Visual Studio .NET help files. Overall, this is an intermediate to advanced level book for the developer who has some C# programming experience, but isn't a C# expert.
This book is an in depth tutorial showing how to use Windows XP over 21 days. It includes a number of instruc-tional aids, including end of the chapter summaries, hands on exercises, and exercises. Unlike my other Windows XP offerings, this book concentrates on hands on activities and includes no theory. The reader is presented with a series of tasks and methods to complete them. In addition, the book provides troubleshooting and productivity tips. Given the complexity of the book, it's likely that most readers will actually require more than 21 days to complete it, but it is a task a motivated reader with lots of time could accomplish. I tried to make this a reference book as well, but the emphasis is on training.
This book is designed to show developers how to use the new features of Visual C++ .NET. There are five book sections, each of which talks about a different area of development. The first section shows how new technology developments affect standard desktop application development. This section provides details on new graphics formats and new ways of getting tasks completed using the old mundane desktop applications of the past. The second section describes the technologies that Microsoft is currently emphasizing for enterprise database devel-opment including OLE-DB, ADO, and ADO+. In addition, the chapters in this part will look at how these technolo-gies fit within Microsoft's .NET architecture. The third part of the book is actually an introduction to online comput-ing and the .NET architecture, which I talk about in Part IV of the book. I designed this section to provide the reader with a step from the desktop to the Internet. The fourth section provides an in-depth view of the .NET Framework. I plan to include detailed information about the architecture, tools designed to make working with the architecture easier, and new programming methodologies that make .NET superior to older programming meth-ods. The three chapters in this part concentrate on the four areas .NET changes most for the Visual C++ devel-oper: attributed programming, Web Forms, C# compatibility, and .NET Designers. Part V of the book contains topics that didn't fit anywhere else, but are very important to the Visual C++ developer. This includes security, creating administrative tools, help file creation, and application packaging. All of these sections show the devel-oper how to perform tasks that give an application the extra pizzazz it needs to impress a customer.
