Windows Me, the hotly anticipated successor to Windows 98, comes with dozens of important new features. They include a home-networking Wizard; Movie Maker, for creating digital sounds and movies; and self-healing, self-updating software components. But one major failing of Windows remains unaddressed in the Me edition: it comes without a single page of printed instructions.

In Windows Me: The Missing Manual, author David Pogue provides the friendly, authoritative book that should have been in the box. It's the ideal user's guide for the world's most popular operating system.

The book begins at the beginning: with a tour of the Desktop, the enhanced Start menu, and instructions for customizing the Taskbar and toolbars. There's a special focus on organizing files, folders, and windows for maximum efficiency and minimum clutter.

More advanced chapters explore each control panel and built-in application; walk readers through every conceivable kind of configuration (for Internet use, for peripheral equipment, and so on); and guide them in setting up a small network--an essential skill in today's home or small office--including how to share a single Internet connection among several PCs. The book even shows readers how to access one of today's hottest PC features: listening to live radio, or watching live TV, from all over the world, via the Internet.

Special appendixes cover more technical ground: the various DOS applications that govern the startup and shutdown process, instructions for installing and updating Windows, and so on.

Windows Me: The Missing Manual is a one-stop reference for the professional and consumer Windows user. In keeping with the high standards of the Missing Manual line, the book features superb writing, offers special features for both absolute novices and power users, and covers its topic completely. If Microsoft could close its eyes and wish for the perfect user's guide for its flagship product, Windows Me: The Missing Manual would magically appear.