ISBN9780735614376

If it would be possible then I would give this book a 'no star' rate.

The reason why I am so hard with my judgment is that the book does not cover the topics deep enough so you will pass the exam. Some of the topics are even completely missing like for example VBScript. The topic Terminal Services is completed with 20 pages which way to less.

If you rely on this book and you will go to the exam you will experience a huge surprise what questions are waiting for you. With this book there is no chance in my opinion that that you pass the exam the first time.

Another reason why I gave this book one star is that it is from the manufacturer of the software itself and it is more than a shame that Microsoft published such a book.

My recommendation is ... don't waste you time with this book ....look some where else. I put this book away and bought one from Syngess and I passed the exam at the first attempt and believe me it was not because I read this book first.

I enjoyed working through this book. It was written in a pleasant administrator to administrator style, and I especially liked the "Why this chapter matters", and "Troubleshooting Labs". Nice touch.

What I especially appreciated, is that the exercises don't take you through every mouse click. They often just say "do this". If you don't know how, you can find out using online help, but it doesn't waste the time of those who (should) know how.

Just the right level for me, coming from Windows 2000 server, and a vast improvement on the Windows 2000 training guide!

I would like to give it a zero star if it were there. I read it through but it totally disappointed me. it left so much out, totally uncovered, such as terminal server, which is listed as examinable part. Even the 70-270 book from microsoft press is a total rubbish. The parts covered are not deep enough to help you understand for the exam. For those who work on MSCE, I highly recommend sybex books in stead of Microsoft RUBBISH.

I have this book because I purchase MCSE Training kit (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735619530/ref=pd_rvi_gw_2/102-4874099-2083325?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155) in order to prepare to take an MCSE certificate. Currently I just finish reading this book. I didn't review an MCSE training kit because I didn't read the other three books.

In my opinion, this book was building only the background of windows server 2003. All of its topic just introduce you to use the feature that ship with windows 2003 only. If you want to take this book and pass an exam, I recommend you not just reading this book. You should read the other book in addition to collect more knowledge and experience. The other solution that you should do is practic as much as possible from the topic in the book. I didn't take an exam yet but I just only take the test from the 2nd part of the book after I complete reading and pract all of the lesson from the first section. After the test, I found that many question are out of scope of the book explaination. If you do not read additional book to gain more information, I guess that you won't be able to pass an exam. My case a good example, i just read and practic all of topic in this book but after I have the test i only get 50% of the score. This will not pass an exam while Microsoft require 70% to pass an exam. The topic that should have addition reading are:

- Disk storage.
- WMI.
- Back up and restore.
- System recovery.
- Software update service.
- Group polocies.
- File and print server.
- Server performance.
- ...

These topic also write in a separate book in much more detail. I plan to have an exam next and now prepare to read additional documentation to fill up my knowledge.

This book alone covers about 85% of what you need to know to pass the test. I would recommend a cbt or transender on the topic as well.