Microsoft Windows Registry Guide, Second Edition

Microsoft Windows Registry Guide, Second Edition

Get the in-depth information you need to modify—and seamlessly manage—the Windows registry. Written for IT professionals and power users, this vital resource reveals little-known registry techniques, tricks, tips, and secrets to make your job easier. Understand the inner workings of the Windows operating system—and use the registry to get Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP to run the way you want, on a single desktop or across the network. You’ll learn how to pinpoint registry settings and script registry changes, deal with registry permissions, use Windows Installer, and map Tweak UI settings. Also, find best practices for how to back up, restore, and maintain registry settings with confidence. The CD includes 100 registry files for customizing operating system appearance and behavior, and the complete eBook. You’ll learn how to:

- Apply best practices to back up, restore, manage, and modify the registry

- Customize group and system policies to manage multiple PCs and users remotely

- Track down registry settings and script changes

- Optimize server services, including network connections and authentication

- Deploy user profiles and Microsoft Office program settings

- Configure security services, including Windows Firewall, templates, and service pack features

- Troubleshoot the registry—resolving common problems and corruption issues

USB Design by Example: A Practical Guide to Building I/O Devices (2nd Edition)

USB Design by Example: A Practical Guide to Building I/O Devices (2nd Edition)
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) specification is a boon for users in that it makes the process of connecting peripherals to computers effortless, in most cases. As is often the case with user-friendliness, though, the cosmetic ease comes about as a result of behind-the-scenes complexity. USB Design by Example explains what USB means to hardware developers, taking an approach that combines academic elucidation of the official specification with some experimental setups. Though not everything a hardware developer could wish for, John Hyde's explanations represent a valuable supplement to the notably obtuse specification documents.

This book does a good job of explaining USB input/output from both the hardware and software perspectives. You'll find both driver code and pinout diagrams here. All the software information has to do with the IBM-compatible PC platform and the Windows 98 operating system, so Macintosh developers will have to look elsewhere. Some of Hyde's explanations of how various hardware companies solved USB problems--Symbol Technologies' use of a keyboard emulator for its barcode scanners, for example--are intriguing, but more information (in the form of circuit diagrams, preferably) would be better. The clear explanation of what happens when a new device is plugged into a live USB bus is very intriguing, though. Overall, peripheral developers will find this book useful, but not encyclopedic. --David Wall

Topics covered: Universal Serial Bus (USB) architecture, packet contents, device detection, drivers and run-time software, and bridging older connection specifications (RS-232, parallel, SCSI and I2C) to USB.

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart - Okay, all you VB6 developers--time's up. As of March 2005, Microsoft no longer supports this version of Visual Basic. And you can't blame them. Three years ago, they introduced the .NET Framework--an elegant, powerful platform--along with the new component-based VB.NET language. But roughly five million of you decided to stick with VB6, mostly to maintain legacy Windows and COM projects.

Now, with the upcoming release of VB 2005, Microsoft has several attractive reasons to upgrade that you'll find hard to resist, including the return of some VB6 features. And we have the perfect book to help you make the conversion: Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart. Now, you can test-drive the beta version of VB 2005 with three hands-on projects that enable you to learn the syntax of this new language quickly.

VB 2005 not only lets you convert the bulk of your existing VB6 code, but offers several familiar features, such as compile-and-run debugging, new MyClasses that simplify use of .NET libraries and frameworks, lots of IDE support for Windows, web and mobile GUI development, and data access controls that closely resemble what you use now. The real plus is that you'll be using these features with the .NET platform, which is more secure, less complex than COM, and offers OneClick deployment.

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart lets you get the feel of this platform for building smart/rich Windows Forms clients, ASP.NET web applications, and web services. Author Wei-Meng Lee, a Microsoft .NET MVP, veteran O'Reilly author and frequent contributor to the O'Reilly Network, has put together three useful test-drive projects, complete with code samples, that let you develop:

* A personal library Windows application
* A Web-based shopping cart application
* A stock enquiry Web Service

Our jumpstart guide is the quick, painless way to migrate from VB6 to VB 2005, and the perfect training manual for moving your organization to the more robust, dynamic and secure world of .NET.