This complete guide to using a PC starts out simply enough that a novice user can gain a lot of useful knowledge from it, and builds on that to the point of being an excellent resource for just about every user of IBM-compatible PCs. The famous power user, however, will probably not find the book worth the price; she or he already knows almost everything in it. The one thing it can give a power user is time: instead of answering all those questions from those with less experience, she or he can just say “Go read that book” and expect that just about every question will be answered--correctly--within its pages.

Chapter 1, “Personal Computers--A Basic Guide,” is a brief foray into what computers are, the components of a standard PC (CPU, disks, memory, and displays), peripherals (printers and modems), and software. Chapter 2, “Systems Overview: Choosing a Computer,” covers types of PC-compatibles and how to buy a computer (life cycles, costs, configurations, and peripherals). Chapter 3, “Unpacking and Setting Up,” explains how to get the PC out of the box and onto the table and how to check that it is all there. Chapter4, “Setting It Up and Turning It On,” shows the reader how to get a PC hooked up (power and signal cables), tested, and working without burning anything (or anyone) up. This chapter is especially important, given that mail-order PCs do not come with a service rep in the box to help you do this job.

Chapter 5, “Operating Fundamentals,” covers how to handle and use floppies, what to expect when the computer starts running, an introduction to DOS commands, installing purchased software, and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Chapter 6, “Operating Systems and Environments,” discusses what DOS contains, how it uses memory, graphic user interfaces (such as Windows and GEM), and what it means to overlay an environment onto DOS.

Chapter 7, “Applications Programs: Getting Your Work Done,” addresses types of applications programs (including spreadsheets, word processors, communications programs, database managers, financial managers, graphics, desktop publishing, and DOS shells), integrated software, and shareware. Chapter 8, “Utilities--Computer Housekeepers,” describes file managers, menu/command line enhancers, disk caches, disk and file maintenance utilities, and security.

Chapter 9, “Working with DOS--the Basics,” is an introduction to how DOS works, including advanced DOS command line techniques, filenames, and extensions. Chapter 10, “DOS and the Hard Disk,” shows how to organize a hard disk. It covers directory trees and their design and commands to manipulate trees. Chapter 11,  “Advanced  DOS Techniques and Batch Files,” presents CONFIG.SYS, advanced AUTOEXEC.BAT topics, backup and restore, ANSI.SYS, and batch commands. Chapter 12, “DOS command Reference,” is a fairly good reference manual to the DOS command set.

Chapter 13, “Introduction to BASIC,” explains what  BASIC  is all about and compares GW-BASIC to Quick BASIC. Chapter 14, “BASIC Reference,” lists BASIC statements and functions, with one-line summaries of each item’s purpose.

Chapter 15, “Inside Your Computer,” describes what you see when you open it up, including CPU and math chips, ROM and RAM, motherboards and expansion slots, and bus types. Chapter 16, “Understanding Your Hard Disk,” explains how it works. The authors cover sectors, controllers, protocols (such as IDE, SCSI, and EDSI), how to buy a hard disk, how to install it, how to format it, and how and whether to partition it.

Chapter 17, “Getting the Most from Your System,” covers using RAM effectively, adding new utilities and commands, making the hard disk work better, fine-tuning for speed, and hardware enhancements. Chapter 18, “Troubleshooting, Service, and Repair,” discusses how to tell when you really need a service call, what you can do for yourself, how to find competent service, some of the most frequent problems, and what to do about them.

On top of all that, the book has six appendices: a glossary, the use of the keyboard, hard drive “geometry,” DOS error messages, ASCII codes, and how and where to buy a computer. The book also has frequent “READ.ME” boxes, with summaries of the important points covered in the main text--an excellent way of pointing out and reinforcing the most important things.

Should you buy this book? If you are just starting out and need a single point of guidance as to what PCs and DOS are all about, then yes; I have not seen better. If you are a competent to advanced user and would like a reference book that covers nearly everything, then again the answer is probably yes. If you are a power user, though, then the answer is probably no--unless, of course, you want a handy book to plop into a questioner’s lap so he or she can look up the answer.