I often am asked to recommend a single, "perfect" book for new NT users/admins. This topic is very tough because a "new" NT user can come from so many different backgrounds, and thus desire different kinds of "new to NT" books, and at varying levels of technical difficulty. On the other hand, I don't think anyone wants a condescending book that patronizes them, like very many "big" comprehensive computer books tend to do. A comprehensive but not condescending title is NT in a Nutshell. It approaches NT from a "hands-on" perspective: NT's many layers of dialogs. This works much better than it might sound, and many experienced users continue to get a lot of value from this book as a reference. To get a feel for it, read the Sample Chapter 5 - RAS and DUN at O'Reilly's web site. One thing you'll notice: the author provides very good, precise information, but is under no illusion that NT is the be-all-that-ends-all of operating systems. He even has an article at O'Reilly's web site called What's Wrong with Windows NT. Advocacy does not belong in computer books, as far as I'm concerned, helping me recommend this book even more. You might as well know what you're up against!

Another book in that caliber, and a somewhat newer book at that (1998 vs Nutshell's 1996), is Frisch's Essential Windows NT System Administation -- another O'Reilly, by the way. It focuses more on administering NT than the Nutshell book -- you're going to get a lot more in the way of security, networking, scripting, and tools. You'll find this one much more useful than Nutshell if you're considerably familiar with the NT interface and commands, and want to move on to optimizing NT. If you're really in need of a "beginner's bible", however, go ahead and get the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Advanced Technical Reference over all the other "bible" [-length] books. If you want something newer (after all, ATR is 2 years old!), and in a question-and-answer format, try The No B.S. Guide to Windows NT.

Obviously, I like the "little" books better than the huge doorstops that attempt to cover everything for everyone. I guess the Resource Kit is an obvious exception, but mainly because the included CD has so many tools which should probably be considered part of the operating system (which are well covered in the Essential Windows NT System Administration, mentioned above). However, what few books, even the Resource Kit, fail to cover well is the NT command line and command line scripting -- something that you'll find is imperative to administering NT. You can futz around enough to get the hang of it, and pick up bits and pieces from tips sites and various NT books, but only recently have we had a comprehensive book devoted just to the command line and scripting in NT: Windows NT Shell Scripting. I find that this is the most useful book I've read about NT, period. (I've enjoyed other NT books, most especially ones about NT architecture, but have gotten the most use out of this one). If you want to get a feel for the quality of the scripts, visit the companion site.

A nice companion to a general NT book is Windows NT Security. Like all security books, it's not going to cover the latest security holes in NT, but it'll give you practical advice in a readable format about securing NT (and not just on the enterprise level). Likewise, I think a specific book about NT Recovery can prove essential to some, as well (while others can get by with the backup manuals included with their backup programs, I guess!) Windows NT Backup and Recovery is such a thorough guide that you'll come away very comfortable with your knowledge on keeping NT up and your data safe. I will agree with the one negative comment on the book, though: it focues a lot on Octopus! There's one more Recovery book on the market which I haven't read, which you may want to check out: Windows NT Backup and Restore (just came out this Summer).

Sean Daily's Optimizing Windows NT (1998) is going to take the cake (now that I've read it!) for the "NT Internals" book, although maybe that wasn't the intention of the book. If you really want to understand how NT works, and how best to tweak it, here's your book. In my thinking, it far outpaces Inside Windows NT (Second Edition), though that may seem like comparing apples to oranges. I enjoyed the first (totally outdated) edition of Inside Windows NT, by Helen Custer, but in retrospect there wasn't much else available then, and I suppose I could have been thrilled to have any technical information about NT at the time. But Sean Daily has written a truly excellent advanced-level book in Optimizing Windows NT, and if you really want an internals book and/or one that shows you how to understand specific tweaks (that is, you can skip the architecture and get right to the good stuff if you want), then this is worth its weight in gold. I think the biggest bummer for Inside Windows NT 2nd Ed was that the security section was null/void: "that's not what this book is about." Well, I guess honesty is good (it's better than including a little blurb about security that you can get out of any general-purpose book), but security is such an integral part of NT that it seems pretty amazing that a book designed for NT developers (for which this book doesn't really fit that bill, anyway) entirely dismisses security.

New Cool Book Of note: O'Reilly has a new book, Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration, that's not yet available at Amazon, but you can order it directly from O'Reilly's site. Looks interesting! They've got two draft chapters online, Using DHCP and Troubleshooting TPC/IP, if you want to check it out. Classic Old Book If you want a good read on "The Making Of Windows NT, you can't go wrong with "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft". Regardless of what anyone else says, it reads like an action-adventure much more than a documentary, and though it's more business-oriented than computer, you come away with a good feel of what went into the OS. Search AMAZON'S Catalog: