Rating: 
Summary: Basic programming of the core OS - Windows next
Review: A good ride through handling NT at the API level. I'm not Windows experienced,and don't intend to be for a while yet so this book suited. Would have liked to have seen a tad more on NT security which remains a challenge; gotta say at least I understand a PC registry now. I'm used to messing around the OS at this level as I did Linux and GC++ as a tenderfoot. I'd say this was a good guide to BillG's platform for world domination !
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent non-GUI Win32 starter for C++ savvy programmers
Review: As of January this year I was experienced in C++, but had zero windows programming experience. After some looking around, I chose this book as a place to start. I was very pleased to find that the book was extremely well structured, and was particularly impressed with the sections on Dlls and Threads, with which I had zero experience. I enjoy the Wrox style of writing, which involves a minimum of annoying screen captures and detailed theory followed by "try it out" code sections. Do yourslef a favour and download the code from the Wrox site, though. No it doesn't do GUI win32, nor does it do MFC, but as a person coming from console-based C++ applications, it was a perfect bridge between pure C++ and the enormous world of Microsoft technologies. I also enjoyed the sections on RPC and IDL, which have stood me in good stead in my research into COM (which is, of course, based on RPC). To summarise, this book is excellent for: - an experienced C++ programmer - starting NON-GUI Win32 & windows programming - a pre-cursor to learning MFC (after 2 months of MFC, I see that most of the classes are wrappers to win32, so one should learn win32 first) It can probably be argued that the non-GUI aspects of Windows programming are a better place to start for a beginner than the GUI ones. If you want to look at Win32 GUI programming, buy a separate book, like Charles Petzold's "Programming Windows"
Rating:
Summary: Delivers the Goods
Review: Beginning Windows NT Programming is a good place to start learning how to program Win NT with the Win32 API. The author has a pleasant writing style, which makes it easier to approach this subject. I like the chapter on Threads and Processes. Some books just provide Pseudo code on the Monitor construct and Semaphore usage, however this book shows you how to build a simple wrapper class (easy to understand) using the Win32 API. There are other interesting chapters on file management, DLL's, Security and Services. This is a good book, it lays a foundation for further study on this topic. PS: No GUI or Advanced topics here.
Rating:
Summary: Delivers the Goods
Review: Beginning Windows NT Programming is a good place to start learning how to program Win NT with the Win32 API. The author has a pleasant writing style, which makes it easier to approach this subject. I like the chapter on Threads and Processes. Some books just provide Pseudo code on the Monitor construct and Semaphore usage, however this book shows you how to build a simple wrapper class (easy to understand) using the Win32 API. There are other interesting chapters on file management, DLL's, Security and Services. This is a good book, it lays a foundation for further study on this topic. PS: No GUI or Advanced topics here.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Windows NT
Review: Great book to take C/C++ programmers through an introduction to NT system programming. Its great to find a book that doesn't rehash the NT GUI programming. Good focus on practical topics. Every discussion is highlighted by small, clear, direct examples. All the sample programs I tried work!(can't say that for a lot of books!) If you need to know NT - but this book.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Windows NT
Review: Great book to take C/C++ programmers through an introduction to NT system programming. Its great to find a book that doesn't rehash the NT GUI programming. Good focus on practical topics. Every discussion is highlighted by small, clear, direct examples. All the sample programs I tried work!(can't say that for a lot of books!) If you need to know NT - but this book.
Rating:
Summary: Teaches me a lot
Review: I was looking for a book that really teaches about Windows NT System Programming, and I was lucky to find this one. Most of the Windows programming books will teach you MFC and maybe a little of system call (which is usually of negligible usefulness). This one exposes the inner working of Windows system. Many of the system calls in this book can also be used for Windows 9x despite the name Windows NT (cool!). The style is easy to follow. Perfect for people with C++ knowledge, and Unix programmers who want to learn Windows system programming.
Rating:
Summary: This was what I was looking for
Review: I was looking for a book that would introduce me to NT programming without going through the usual GUI garbage that has been handled by a thousand books (and which I frankly think should be programmed in VB, not C++). This book does just that. It is clearly written, covers topics such as thread synchronization, SEH, security, memory usage, NT services, event logging, consoles and more. I especially liked the chapter on NT services. So why only four stars instead of five? The last chapter on IPC and networking was conceptually good but poorly executed. I suspect that the publishing deadline drew near and the author ran out of time. Or perhaps the chapter was an afterthought, thrown in at the last minute, without much preparation or planning. The author makes no apologies for its quality, though he does make several references to other books which cover the topic, IPC and networking, better.
Rating:
Summary: Structured well, very readable
Review: My primary aim in reading this book was to get insight into NT internals from the programmer's perspective. The two books I had referred earlier were: 1) Inside NT 2nd Ed- entirely theoritical; comprehensive but not well written. An OS internals book ,devoid of any programming examples, should have well a structured framework for the explanations so that the concepts/facts do not appear confusing. Needs structured prose, so to speak. 2) Advanced Windows Programming - comprehensive and does a good job at conveying the progamming side as it relates to internals; but is not well organized and tends to be a jumbled collection of facts without a firm overview- especially the memory management part (as an example, the author spends great deal of time explaining virtualmalloc(), globalmalloc(), but never presents scenarios where one might be more useful to use than just plain malloc() ). Beginning NT programming is well structured, easy to follow and provides an excellent overview . Its exactly what the above mentioned books are not. It is not a comprehensive reference on Win32 - but you really need an API manual for that.
Rating:
Summary: Structured well, very readable
Review: My primary aim in reading this book was to get insight into NT internals from the programmer's perspective. The two books I had referred earlier were: 1) Inside NT 2nd Ed- entirely theoritical; comprehensive but not well written. An OS internals book ,devoid of any programming examples, should have well a structured framework for the explanations so that the concepts/facts do not appear confusing. Needs structured prose, so to speak. 2) Advanced Windows Programming - comprehensive and does a good job at conveying the progamming side as it relates to internals; but is not well organized and tends to be a jumbled collection of facts without a firm overview- especially the memory management part (as an example, the author spends great deal of time explaining virtualmalloc(), globalmalloc(), but never presents scenarios where one might be more useful to use than just plain malloc() ). Beginning NT programming is well structured, easy to follow and provides an excellent overview . Its exactly what the above mentioned books are not. It is not a comprehensive reference on Win32 - but you really need an API manual for that.
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