Learn! Microsoft Windows 98: Getting Started

Although Bill Gates has already announced the Windows 2000 upgrade (official release date: The Future), there are still many poor S.O.B.'s (Slaves of Bill) who are fiddling around with buggy Windows 95 and its battier successor Windows 98. For these Not Quite Taskbar Masters of the Universe, Learn! Microsoft Windows 98: Getting Started offers a bit of guidance on the weird icons on the Windows 98 desktop (though no advice on which ones you can safely send to the "Recycle Bin"), opening and moving around Windows-based programs, using the taskbar and start menu, using the "find" and "help" features, and sending e-mail (with the full Outlook rather than the more commonly used Outlook Express). While I was a big fan of WinStruct's Learn! Microsoft Windows 95: Getting Started video, I am less impressed with this successor for a few reasons: first, original "Software Guy" Tom Jaffee is a soft-spoken, conversational presenter, while his two new female co-stars often sound like they're conducting an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio for Tiger Beat: a little on the hyper side. Secondly, the presenters constantly start down a narrative trail only to abruptly stop and say that the topic will be covered in more detail in one of three other named videos. Finally, the self-promotion is depressingly aggressive: in the section on e-mail, the example given is one of e-mailing WinStruct to ask about volume discounts on their videos. And yet...compared to Mastering Windows 98: Making the Most of Your Upgrade (VL-1/98), this is less expensive and more user-friendly. Let's hope that the next WinStruct titles offer a little less sizzle and a little more soyburger. Sure to be popular, this is recommended with some reservations. Aud: I, J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)