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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: Although this reference has been replaced by a new version, this is a great reference for all those "what's the standard" question that arise in development shops. Gives software engineers and quality assurance a yard stick to avoid really "bad" design. If you're still testing or designing for Win 95 - Win NT, this is the book! The new version covers the Win 2000 and ME interfaces but this definitely one to keep on the bookshelf at all times.
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Summary: Mandatory for Windows design, but low information density.
Review: Four stars only because this book is mandatory on any Windows programmers bookshelf, not because it is an especially well-written book. Otherwise, I would rate it two stars.This book is the bible for designing Windows applications with a consistent, predictable user interface design. It defines the standard for menus, content, appearance, etc., of MS Windows applications. Unfortunately, this book is three times the size of its predecessor without any additional level of detail (however, the previous version stopped prior to the new Win 95 interface, which this book defines). Adherence to the standards outlined in this book (whether designers read it or simply absorbed it from other programs by osmosis) are the reason for the consistency between applications and ease of navigating unfamiliar Windows applications. This book describes mandatory and optional standard menus and dialog boxes, mouse behavior, mouse- and keyboard-based selection behaviors, navigation behavior, and dozens of other topics encountered by almost all user-interface designers. Other good books covering similar material include: IBM, "Object-Oriented Interface Design: IBM Common User Access Guidelines", 1992, Que. Out of print, but worth reading for "why" the Windows guidelines are good for usability. Alan Cooper, "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design", 1995, IDG Books, Foster City, California.
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Summary: It's a reference book, not vacation reading.
Review: If you're designing a UI or writing code for one, you need this book as a reference. Sure, you might know all this stuff, but when you're specifying the title bar for that new application window, it's good to be able to check whether the text is supposed to be "application - document" or "document - application". It has other useful things, like guidelines for capitalization, guidelines for writing help, etc. Every development organization should have one so that users don't have to relearn the basics of interacting with software over and over. Whether or not you like Windows, you'll do your users a service if you design the basics according to the guidelines. Then you can be creative with the rest.
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Summary: Interface design advice from Microsoft?
Review: If you're into following guidelines, this book will suit you. However, since Microsoft isn't especially good at following them, especially their own, take this with a grain of salt. They're the last ones to be giving interface design advice. This book is intended as a reference to programmers who don't want to take the time to familiarize themselves with Windows. I'd suggest spending some time with Windows, and then designing something good. Forget the book.
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Summary: Obsolete Standard
Review: The book was very good - back in 1995. Now, in 2002, it is obsolete and misleading. I am surprised to see it offered by Amazon. It is like selling yesteryear's newspaper.
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Summary: Excellent Reference for Windows UI Guidelines
Review: This book came out just before Windows 95 became available in 1995. It has been the definitive reference book for UI guidelines for 32bit Windows applications, until now. With Windows 2000 recently released, a new book (which is really an update of this book) entitled "Microsoft Windows User Experience" has been published.
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Summary: Update available!
Review: This book is good but even better is the new 1999 book under the title: Windows User Experience - official guidlines for user interface developers and designers. The new book is updated and has content on Windows 2000! Highly recomended for anyone who wants to build quality applications. Similar content to this book but updated with new info.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly drivel with nuggets of useful information
Review: This book outlines the Windows 95 and NT 4 interface guidelines. For most Win32 programmers there is nothing new here. Every now and again you will find something that you didn't know. The real gems in this book are the 'references to other topics' in the margins of the book. These are very useful for those of us that don't write using a framework (like MFC), or would like to implement framework like functionality ourselves. This book is also very good for 16 bit Windows, Unix & Mac programmers getting up to speed on Win32 interface details
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Summary: Well Worded
Review: This book should be required reading for everyone. Why? Because it is well worded. I've seen people who have been in the software business for years that couldn't put the workings of a user interface into words if their life depended on it. If people articulated as clearly in words as this book does, my work life would be so much simpler.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This is a good book to add to your library if you're looking for MS windows GUI standards. It does a fine job of documenting the standards that are for the most part (not always) implemented by Microsoft. Perhaps, it should be required reading for Microsoft GUI developers, since they could derive some benefit from it as well. This book needs to be brought up to date to include WIN2K embelishments (but, it's probably still 80-90% applicable).
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