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 2000 Administration in a Nutshell is a Guiana crested eagle (Morphnus guianensis). This large, slender bird is 31 to 35 inches in length and has broad, rounded wings and a long, black tail marked with 3 wide, gray bands. The plumage of the adult includes a gray-black head, gray neck, brown-gray throat and breast, brown-black mantle, and white-tipped wings, back, and tail. Features also include gray or yellow eyes, black markings around the eyes, black beak, and yellow, featherless legs.

The Guiana crested eagle inhabits the lowland tropical forests of Central and South America-usually well away from human settlement. Ornithologists know little about the behavior of this eagle. It is found in the warmest, most humid parts of the jungle, and it tends to stay near the coastline or river edges. It can be spotted during its frequent soaring, though it is usually only visible when it passes over rivers or other breaks in the forest canopy. While perching atop the highest trees, it will stay nearly motionless for hours at a time, only occasionally moving its head. Like its close relative the Harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), the Guiana crested eagle is large enough to feed on live prey such as smaller birds, opossums, and reptiles. The Harpy eagle, though, is still larger and stronger, feeding on monkeys, sloths, and other arboreal and terrestrial mammals. Eagles of this size are too large to kill prey in the air; so they surprise their prey on the ground, often decapitating their victims.

The most noticeable feature of the Guiana crested eagle is the projecting occipital crest on its head. Unlike the Harpy eagle, which has a bifurcated or double crest, the Guiana crested eagle has a single, undivided crest. The crest consists of feathers uniquely colored with a white base, black center, and white tip. As with other birds' display behaviors, the crest—which can be raised and lowered—is thought to be used as a form of communication. Birds often communicate with vocal or visual displays, including colored plumage during breeding season or elaborate movement routines designed to attract potential mates. With birds such as the Guiana crested eagle, however, behavioral displays usually communicate greeting, threat, submission, or distraction. The crest's graded or variable display (it does not have to be completely raised or lowered, but can be somewhere in between) conveys the intensity of the eagle's impending actions. Even though the display of the occipital crest may be difficult to decipher for those studying this bird, the signals it communicates are likely to be unambiguous to others of its species. Jeffrey Holcomb was the production editor and copyeditor forWindows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell. Rachel Wheeler, Madeleine Newell, Claire Cloutier, and Mary Sheehan provided quality control. Gabe Weiss, Deborah Smith, Matt Hutchinson, Mary Sheehan, Linley Dolby, and Molly Shangraw provided production support. Brenda Miller 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.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5.6. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Jeffrey Holcomb.