CIG Windows NT: Introduction

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows NT Workstation 4.0

Introduction

It was a morning pretty much like any other. The alarm clock went off way too early and those 9 minutes of procrastinatory bliss between slaps of the snooze button seemed more like 9 seconds. (Why 9 minutes, for crying out loud? Why not 10 minutes? Who decides these things?) You performed your usual ablutions, packed the kids off to school, and got yourself nicely hopped up with a couple of cups of industrial strength java. (Ah, you can't beat that caffeine-induced high: it's like you can conquer the world and still have time left over to watch Seinfeld.)

Suitably girded for battle, you waltzed into the office and, whoa, something was different. Perhaps it was a new computer. Or perhaps it was your old computer that looked, well, strange. Either way, you were faced with a new challenge: something called Windows NT. NT? What was that all about?

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, you probably want to get this newfangled technology figured out as quickly as possible so you can continue your climb up the corporate ladder. This book can help because, although you may not know what Windows NT is all about, you probably do know a few "NT" things yourself:

No Time—We live in hectic, hurry-scurry, times, where our lives seem permanently stuck on the spin cycle and where "sleep" is just another item on our to-do lists. So, few of us can afford the luxury of sitting down to read a thousand pages of arcane and mostly useless techno-blather. In this book, I'll get to the point quickly so you can get on with your life.
Nerdless Temperament—Nerds, geeks, and other digital dogmatists treat their technology with an unrelenting, dry-as-dust earnestness. These furrowed-brow types wouldn't be caught dead reading this book, because we'll actually try to have a little fun at NT's expense.
Nix Theory—Search as you may, but you won't find any long-winded theoretical discussions in this book. Sure, you'll get a little background from time to time, but only enough to put the topic at hand into some sort of perspective. My goal at all times will be to keep head-scratching to a minimum by reducing NT to its simplest terms.
Need Tips!—Windows NT likes to muddy the computing waters by giving you umpteen different ways to perform the same task. Some books seem heck-bent on confusing their readers because they enjoy listing all of these methods and then saying "Here, you choose one." A better approach, and the one I'll use in this book, is to tell you which methods are the easiest so you can get up to speed on a particular subject quickly.

If you're no fool, but Windows NT makes you feel like one, welcome to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows NT Workstation 4.0! This is a book for people who aren't (and don't even want to be) computer wizards. This is a book for people who have a job to do (a job that includes working with Windows NT) and just want to get it done as quickly and painlessly as possible. I'll present all the information in short, easy-to-digest chunks that you can quickly skim through to find just the information you want.

What You're About to Get Yourself Into

With Windows NT, it seems, anything can happen (and often does). So my best advice as you cross over into NT territory is to expect (you guessed it) the unexpected. However, the last thing you need is to be thrown a few curve balls by the book that's supposed to be your trusted guide in this newfound land. So, to get you better prepared for the journey to come, let's bone up on some of the flora and fauna you'll be seeing along the way. First, the itinerary. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is organized into five semi-sensible sections. To help you find what you need fast, here's a summary of what you'll find in each section:

Part 1: New Technology: A First Look at Windows NT

Ninety percent of learning Windows NT involves learning a few simple techniques that can be applied to almost any Windows NT program. These universal skills are the ones you'll be using day in and day out, and they're the subject of Part 1. You'll learn how to start Windows NT, how to crank up programs and commands, how to deal with menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes, and how to get through fundamental tasks such as opening and saving files, and printing.

Part 2: Navigation Training: Exploring Your Computer with Windows NT

My Computer and Explorer are the Windows NT tools that give you an easy, graphical way to work with your computer's files, folders, and floppy disks. The three chapters in this section explain the basic features of both My Computer and Explorer.

Part 3: Necessary Techniques: Working with Windows NT Programs

This section of the book covers a hodgepodge of topics that'll help you get the most out of your Windows NT investment. The first few chapters concentrate on the various freebie programs that are part of the Windows NT package. I'll discuss WordPad (a word processor), Paint (a drawing and painting program), and lots more. Then I'll show you how to share info between applications, use Windows NT's multimedia programs, and work with fonts.

Part 4: Nice Touches: Customizing Windows NT

The chapters in Part 4 prove that, yes, you can have Windows NT your way. The program comes with a fistful of customization options that enable you to give Windows NT a complete makeover. In particular, I'll show you how to change the colors and background pattern of the NT screen, set up a screen saver, customize the mouse and keyboard, and add new software to your system.

Part 5: Net Trailblazing: Windows NT Communications

We live in a wired world, so it's no surprise that Windows NT includes lots of features for the modem- and network-hounds in the crowd. Part 5 presents five chapters that take you through all of the communications doodads in Windows NT. I'll begin by showing you how to set up your modem and use it to dial your phone and connect with online services. You'll also learn how to get your computer connected to a network, how to reach a network remotely, and how to use NT to get on the Internet. To close, I'll take you on a tour of the Microsoft Exchange program's e-mail capabilities.

To make the instructions easier to read, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows 95 uses the following conventions:

Text that you're supposed to type appears in bold.
Text that appears on your screen and text you select also appear in bold.
As you'll see, Windows NT uses quite a few keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts almost invariably require you to hold down one key and press another. For example, one shortcut you may use a lot requires you to hold down the Ctrl key, press the Esc key, and then release Ctrl. To avoid writing out a mouthful like that over and over, we needed an easier way to express these key combinations (a sort of "shortcut shorthand," if you will). So key combinations appear with a plus sign (+) in the middle, as in Ctrl+Esc.
To help differentiate some of NT's verbose dialog box control names from the regular book text, the control names appear in a special font, like this: In the Jump dialog box, enter a number on the How high? text box.

Also, look for the following features that point out important information:

Check This Out...
These boxes contain notes, tips, warnings, and asides about Windows 95 that are interesting and useful (at least theoretically!).

Technical Twaddle
These "geek boxes" contain technical information you can use to impress your friends (and then forget five minutes later). But really, you may find these fascinating if you're a closet geek wannabe, or if your interested in background information and technical details that will help you feel more like an "insider" in the computer world.

Acknowledgments and Other Tips O' the Hat

Although a small army of dedicated men and women had a hand in making this book (you'll find a complete list near the front), there are a few I'd like to point out in particular. Martha O'Sullivan asked me to write it (she is, therefore, the one to blame for the whole thing); John Gosney made sure the layout made sense and provided many valuable ideas about structure and content; Mark Enochs made sure that I crossed my i's and dotted my t's, and shepherded the project through the production process; the good folks at Discovery Computing made sure that the book was accurate; and Garrett Pease helped to write the Backup material. Thanks to all of you for a job well done.

About the Perpetrator of This Book

Paul McFedries has worked with computers in one form or another since 1975, has a degree in mathematics, and can swap out a hard drive in seconds flat, yet still, inexplicably, has a life. He is the author or co-author of more than two dozen computer books, that have sold over 900,000 copies worldwide. His titles include the Que books The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows 95 and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating an HTML Web Page, and the Sams books Paul McFedries' Windows 95 Unleashed and Excel for Windows 95 Unleashed.

When asked what made him an expert on Windows NT, McFedries responded:

"If NT crashes, I know how to get it started again with a well-aimed kick."
"My mouse skills are terrifyingly advanced."
"I'm a close, personal friend of a guy who almost went to the same high school as a woman who has the same last name as Bill Gates."

Although primarily a freelance writer by day, at night McFedries wears other hats, including video editor, animator, Webmaster, brewmaster, bread baker, cruciverbalist (that's puzzle maker, to you), and neologist. He has no cats and his favorite hobbies are riding his motorcycle, taking naps, and talking about himself in the third person.

He can be reached via the Internet (compliments only, please) by sending an e-mail missive to paul@mcfedries.com, or by dropping by his Web site at the following address:

http://www.mcfedries.com/

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