computer books

Hello,
I need everyones advice on computer books. I'm looking for info on how to
modify and understand all aspects of a computer. I need intermediate to
advanced knowledge of Registry modifications, browsers,what programs I can
delete and so forth.
I thank everyone in advance. Happy Holidays

 

Well a general understanding of computers is very different to knowlege of OS specific stuff like the Registry. If you want to understand how a computer actually works (rather than how Windows works), then I'd get somthing like Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics. This does contain some stuff about Windows, but not that much.

You might want to look up Computer Science textbooks, which will give you a very thorough understanding of how things work, down to the transistor level (if you pick the right book).

However, if you just want to know how to work Windows then you could get somthing like one of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/14228881/ref=br_dp_bl_5/202-9284555-8809417

Registry changes arn't all that hard, really - it's just changing some values in a big (disorganised) database. Knowing what to change them to is all a matter of looking them up in your applications documentation, or a third party documentation (e.g. www.tweakxp.com ).

What programs you can delete is a very simple thing to understand: if you don't use it, you can uninstall it. Unfortunately Windows being the tangled mess that it is, rather than being nice and modular like certain other OSes, uses rather a lot of stuff. But the principle still applies: you need to find out what it does, whether you need it and whether anything depends upon it, which is all a matter of looking it up.

Browsers: again, look at documentation online for specifics. Since browsers are constantly changing you can't really "learn browsers", other than the very bare basics (like they download HTML and render it, sometimes run scripts too). There are a gazillion of browsers out there and the one you use is entirely up to you.