Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The tool on the cover of Windows Server Hacks is a squeegee, which dates back to the Middle Ages, when fishermen used a wooden ancestor of this tool called a squilgee to scrape fish entrails off the decks of their boats. In Moby Dick , author Herman Melville writes of the whaler's tool known as a nipper, describing them as "leathern" squilgees cut from the tail of a whale. In Melville's story, not only does this precursor to the squeegee clean whale oil from the deck, but "by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities."

The modern squeegee was born at the turn of the 20th century, when window washers began using a "Chicago squeegee." This heavy steel contraption used two rubber blades, held into place by 12 screws. While easier to use than implements made of wood and whale tails, it was far from perfect. One window cleaner, Ettore Steccone, set out to improve the squeegee, and in 1936 he patented a device called the New Deal. This squeegee, now called the Ettore, is still in wide use by professional window cleaners today. Though Steccone eventually lost his patent, the light weight and distinctive single slit-cut rubber blade of his tool served as a blueprint for all squeegees that followed. Philip Dangler was the production editor and proofreader for Windows Server Hacks . Brian Sawyer was the copyeditor. Marlowe Shaeffer, Mary Brady, and Darren Kelly provided quality control. Johnna VanHoose Dinse wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image of a squeegee is an original photgraph by Hanna Dyer. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond and Helvetica Neue fonts.

David Futato designed the interior layout. Andrew Savikas converted this book to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. This colophon was written by Philip Dangler.