On the 27th day of October 1998, Microsoft renamed Windows NT Workstation 5.0 to Windows 2000 Professional. This might be a lot easier for authors to type, but it clouds minds. Users frequently think that Windows 2000 Professional is the next version of Windows 98, which is logical because both abuse years as version numbers. After writing Introducing Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (MS Press, 1999), for instance, I received many messages asking if this product was the next version of Windows 98. If you're wondering what the company is naming the follow-up version of Windows 98, it's Windows Millennium. Although that name ought to keep everyone straight, Microsoft added "Built on NT Technology" as a tagline to Windows 2000 Professional, just to make sure.

The name change didn't just affect Windows 2000 Professional. It also affected what the company once called Windows NT Server 5.0. Instead of a single product called Windows 2000 Server, however, the company has three:

All told, the name change makes sense and folks will get used to it, if they haven't already. It falls in line with Microsoft Office 2000, and confusion with Windows 98 and Windows Millennium is a marketing issue—nothing more. Although there is a question about whether this means that Windows 98 will be orphaned, according to sources at Microsoft, it will thrive as a consumer operating system for many years to come. Microsoft's gain from the name change is worth any trouble it causes, too. First, it implies a major milestone in the product, which is true. Second, it removes the stigma associated with the word workstation, which people associate with high-powered workstations that are far beyond their capabilities. The name Windows 2000 Professional says it all: It's the professional's operating system for a new millennium.

I wrote this book for intermediate and advanced users, who I affectionately refer to as power users. These power users include administrators, who must learn the ins-and-outs of any operating system that they deploy in their organizations. Thus, not only does this book include inside information about Microsoft's latest desktop operating system, it also includes information about how to best deploy and manage this system. Windows 2000 Professional has four parts, in which you find the following information:

Windows 2000 Professional has better Help than any of its predecessors. Because Help is so much better, it actually makes buying many books about this operating system a waste of time and money because they duplicate information that's already at your fingertips. To make sure this book is valuable to you, I don't duplicate information that's in Help, unless doing so is necessary for clarity. I've designed this book's content to supplement Help by giving you information that's not easily accessible. You don't just learn how to use history lists, for example—you learn where the operating system stores them in the Registry. You don't just learn how to run applications—you learn about the most common application failures and what to do about them.

This book uses a variety of elements to communicate more clearly. Notes, Tips, Cautions, and Sidebars provide information that's useful and applies to the passage you're reading. Tips provide hints and tricks that help you work smarter and faster. Notes contain useful information that's not essential, but is nonetheless interesting. Don't ignore cautions, which warn about actions that can damage the computer's configuration. Sidebars are detours. They give background, historical, or otherwise useful information that is relevant but not essential. I frequently use sidebars as tutorials when providing the same information in the text would hinder advanced users who already understand the information.