bleeding edge of technology

Our friendly, helpful guide to getting started with Windows 8 and making the most of your new OS; published by McGraw Hill.

Meet Windows 8.

It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s connected - and it’s different. It works just as well on a super-thin tablet like the Microsoft Surface as it does on an all-in-one computer with a big touchscreen, or a notebook you can use on the couch or carry to the coffee shop. It has a new Start screen with tiles that are all about you - showing you what your friends are up to and showing off your favourite photos and websites, as well as apps from the Windows Store that look great and are easy to use. It comes with a powerful new version of Internet Explorer, a starter set of Windows Store apps and extras like free streaming music. But Windows 8 still has the familiar Windows desktop where you can run your favourite programs and be as productive as ever - just a bit faster and more securely.

It’s the best of both worlds, and we’re going to show you how to make the most of it.

You can pick up a copy of HTDE Windows 8 on Amazon or from the McGraw Hill site for your country.

Windows 8 Executive Summary: What Your Business Needs to Know puts Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 in context: from how PCs are changing and what that means for Windows, to what’s in Windows 8 and Server 2012 that your business will care about. Want to know how to secure, manage and deploy Windows RT? What tools will help you trial Windows 8 for yourself? Should you move ahead with Windows Server 2012 without waiting for Windows 8? 

The second edition has been updated and extended for the release versions of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows RT; in particular we have more details on managing Windows RT and sideloading LOB apps. 

You can get Windows 8 for IT Decision Makers as an ebook from Amazon US, Amazon UK, BN.com, and Fair Trade (where it is available in multiple formats without DRM, so you can sideload to your ereader of choice). Buy the ebook and you’ll get any new editions we release…

If you prefer to read on paper, you can order the second edition from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany (and Amazon in many other countries too).

Check out this sample chapter covering what Windows 8 and Windows RT mean for the apps your business needs; it also includes the introduction and table of contents for the full book.

If you’d like to discuss the book, come on over to our Facebook fan page! We regularly post useful Windows IT resources there, or you can tell us what you’d like to see in a future book.

We’re based in London but we frequently travel to conferences and meetings, most often in Silicon Valley and Seattle. If you want to check our calendar before inviting us to an event or arranging a meeting with a client, we keep it on Plancast or you can find us on Tripit.

My usual response is that I knew I wanted to write but I had no idea what I wanted to write, and my then-boyfriend was a computer journalist and having seen what he did, I knew I could do it too. But getting into a field is one thing; staying here, as I have for over two decades, is another. There’s the fact that I get to meet interesting people and talk about interesting things - I’m always learning something new. And a couple of years ago I got to combine that with a look at the first time I ever really thought about technology, in a humorous column for PC Plus’s What if… series.

While researching it, I realised my whole career in technology journalism well might have been inspired by this proposal, when I saw a manifesto for it on TV as a child. I talked to Lord Ashdown about the plans and I asked him what other technology near-misses he’d seen. He replied he would rather have had a database of human knowledge than the Millennium Dome. Wouldn’t we all…

What if… we’d had 20 years of fibre

Keep reading