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 animal on the cover of Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, Second Edition is a Surinam toad (also known as Pipa Pipa). Surinam toads are entirely aquatic, never venturing onto land from the dark, muddy South American rivers where they dwell. Adapted to life in a constantly murky environment, the eyes of the Surinam toad are little more than small dark spots on its evenly brown body. Adult toads are about six inches long with a broad, flat, almost rectangular appearance. They have large, heavily webbed hind feet and small sensory feelers on their front feet and around their mouths. They use these feelers to aid in the search for food along the muddy river bottom. Once a morsel is located, the toad uses its front feet to stir up the water and swish the food into its gaping, tongueless mouth. It will consume anything it can swallow, dead or alive.

Surinam toads are remarkable even among the several other similar species of aquatic frogs. Rather than depositing her eggs in a secluded location and leaving their fate to chance, the female toad relies on the male to direct the fertilized eggs onto the softened skin of her back. Over the course of several hours the skin swells and completely envelops the eggs. Here the young remain for several months until metamorphosis is complete, emerging as tiny, fully developed toads. Sanders Kleinfeld was the production editor and proofreader for Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, Second Edition. Genevieve d'Entremont and Colleen Gorman provided quality control. Julie Hawks wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted 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 Myriad 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 MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Sarah Sherman.