The world of computers has changed in the last few years. We used to have lots of programs like Stac and WordPerfect. There were so many of them that we had a hard time keeping up. At that time, I used to buy lots of books.

My new computer has Windows 98 installed ,so it seemed sensible to go to the library and see what books were available. One of these is Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Windows 98. Most books now are very thick, and this one is about an inch and three quarters thick. Much of the "new" books consist of word for word repetition of what is in the on line manuals. None of the manufacturers likes to give you a book of instructions with the program as they used to. No doubt this saves them money.

Now for the book. I was not sure what Microsoft's reference to Active Desktop really meant. Norton points out that you may use the Win 95 static desktop, or you may opt for an Active Desktop by using the "View as Web Page" option. After you set "View as Web Page", go to a blank space on your desktop. Right click, click on Active Desktop. You will see three options, View as Web Page, Customize my Desktop, and Update Now. Click Customize my Desktop, then Web. An Active Desktop allows you to have a stock ticker or some such thing on your desktop. The ticker can update as often as you wish. Or each morning you may have the newspaper of your choice appear when you start up. In other words, your desktop can be an "active" thing with some changing data to aggravate you as you work. (You have to add small programs to access the Internet every few minutes, that's what Active Desktop really means.) In the book, Norton goes into detail,.

The book tells you things like "If you go to File | Open in most applications you get the same dialog box. That dialog box is part of the COMMDLG.DLL located in your SYSTEM directory." All through the book Norton gives you little bits of information like this.

Norton suggests that if you are going to install a new operating system, you might like to make not one but two different startup disks. The first is the regular startup disk that the program tells you to make. The second is a DOS startup disk of Norton's makeup, and it may take three floppies. You might like to look this up on page 124 of the book. These disks will get you up and running if you have any serious kind of a crash.

Norton tells you why, when, and how to install FAT 32 support on hard disks larger than 540 MB, and he teaches you about the possible incompatibilities and pitfalls of FAT 32. He also discusses multimedia capabilities with MMX, DirectX, OpenGL and ActiveMovie. These take up too much space for this review. That's the reason for the thick book!

The section on the new Windows 98 Problem Resolution Utilities includes the System File Checker. The System File Checker allows you to do two things - first to scan your system files for errors, and second to extract files from the installation disk. If Windows acts strange because of a corrupted or missing system file, or because a crucial system file has been replaced with an older version by a bad installation program for another program, you may recover from these problems with System File Checker. Go to Start | Programs Accessories | System Tools | System File Checker. (My computer and some others I work on have a slightly different path, maybe yours does also.) Give this a try and see how easy it is to replace the bad file even if it is buried in a CAB file on your installation disk.

In the past three months, I have read about fifteen books, very thick books on Windows 98. This is the best one for the person who needs a little coaching and a lot of reference material!

This book is in the library if you wish to look it over. In it you can find the answer to most of your questions on Windows 98. There are many tips and tricks scattered throughout the book, and it is easy reading. There are 644 pages, and it is published by Sams. The list price is $29.95. u

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