PC Training & Consulting Weblog

By Andrew Webb
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

With a scant six months left before Microsoft unleashed its long-awaited Windows Vista operating system on the public, Wiley Publishing was in a bind.

The author tapped to write a guidebook for Vista had backed out, and Wiley, which publishes computer software guidebooks with PC Magazine, couldn’t ignore one of the industry’s most important milestones since Windows 95.

So in August, it asked a University of New Mexico instructor and prolific blogger if he could parlay his 20 years of teaching experience into 450 pages on setting up, navigating and maximizing the potential of Microsoft’s first operating system upgrade in five years.

Oh, and he would have eight tidy weeks to do it.

“I asked for five days to think about it,” says Mark Justice Hinton, whose wife, local probate judge Merri Rudd, is a columnist for the Journal.

Hinton, a poet and photographer who was originally to be one of several technical editors on the project, had never written a book before.

“I was terrified— I kept asking myself, ‘Could I actually write a book?’ ” he says. “I went through all the classic stages of denial.”

Then he sat down and started typing.

“Once I agreed to do it, I just wrote, for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for eight weeks,” Hinton says. “It was the only thing I could do (besides) walk the dog.”

Hinton has taught computer classes for the UNM Department of Continuing Education since 1988, and operated his Albuquerque business, PC Training and Consulting, since 1984.

As a result, his work has literally followed Microsft’s arc. He has instructed users on Microsoft’s 1980s Disk Operating System, or DOS platform and its related software, the now ubiquitous Windows, Web design with HTML, and myriad other systems.

Hinton is an unrepentant fan of Microsoft’s oft-criticized Windows, on which the lion’s share of the world’s computers and networks depends.

“I love it,” he says of the new Vista system.

Windows Vista was officially released Jan. 30. Its release was the result of six years of development and massive beta testing in which versions of the system were sent, beginning in late 2005, to thousands of computer users.

Microsoft used feedback from beta testers to work out the bugs in the system, which it code-named “Longhorn” during development.

Vista comes in six editions aimed at home and business users.

As computers with the last Windows version, XP, are phased out, new PCs sold by retailers will have Vista installed; and the new operating system may also be purchased and installed on existing Windows computers, provided they meet Vista’s system requirements.

Because Windows is almost omnipresent, Vista’s creation and unveiling have been closely watched by the industry.

Some have criticized Vista’s lengthy development time and toughened copyright protection functions. But its flashy new user interface, visual style, improved search functions and other changes have received considerable praise.

Other well-received new features include advanced screen capture snipping, a sidebar that allows the placement of “gadgets” such as weather displays, and what Microsoft boasts of as vastly improved security.

“I think it’s clear Microsoft has responded to a lot of the user input,” Hinton says. “They tried to make things simpler. The buried stuff is now on the surface. Searching is one of the areas where they really beefed things up.”

Vista also allows user “tagging” of saved items, which is useful for sorting or searching later.

Commonly associated with recent advances in Internet technology, “tags” allow users to personally define and categorize their own creations, such as photos, instead of shoehorning them into existing classifications.

“I believe this is an area we’re just going to see get bigger and bigger,” Hinton says.

Hinton says his book, “Windows Vista Solutions,” is aimed at intermediate PC users and enthusiasts— like the so-called “power users” who seek to maximize the performance of their computers with keystroke shortcuts and advanced software functions.

To write the book, Hinton, with help from UNM, received early copies of the Vista operating system to experiment with and carefully followed Internet discussions by other beta users.

The book follows a pattern used for others in the PC Magazine-branded series published by New Jersey-based Wiley, which also publishes the “For Dummies” guidebooks, Cliffs Notes and Betty Crocker cookbooks.

It begins with a basic overview and discussion of which, if any, version of Vista would be appropriate for your computer. Written in a witty, familiar tone that mirrors Hinton’s other online projects, “Windows Vista Solutions” delves in later chapters into advanced features and troubleshooting.

The book was released Feb. 14 and is available at most bookstores.

Its sales rank on Amazon, which has ranged from as low as No. 350,000 to as high as No. 1,600, have been a lingering source of angst, Hinton says.

“I’m still waiting for the first review,” he says nervously. “That will either make me or break me.”

As early adopters learn more tricks and close loopholes with Windows Vista, Hinton plans to publish addenda on his blog, at www.mjhinton.com/vista/. “I want them to know I haven’t abandoned them,” he says. [Thursday, May 17, 2007]

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