Bad Vibes from "Windows Vista The Pocket Guide"

Long-time followers of Security Garden have frequently seen me mention Vista4Beginners, an excellent site with Tutorials, Tips & Tricks, Windows Vista Tools, and more. I have a lot of respect for the Vista4Beginners site owner and author, Ciprian. He has devoted an incredible amount of time preparing the wonderful tutorials and other material for his website. Aside from the references from Security Garden and Windows Vista Bookmarks, I frequently provide friends with a new Windows Vista computer links to Ciprian's articles.

In all the time I have followed Ciprian, I have never known him to be negative about another person's work. As a result, you can understand why I was surprised to read Ciprian's most recent article, Windows Vista The Pocket Guide & why you should stay away from this e-book . After I finished Ciprian's article, I decided to investigate on my own.

The first thing that caught my attention was the search results for Rich Robinson's e-book. It appears that Windows Live Search stripped out [Free eBook - Microsoft] from the title in the search results. Using [Free eBook - Microsoft] as part of the title provides the false implication that this is a Microsoft-sponsored book. That is certainly not true. Thus, seeing that set off the alarm bells.

Next, I decided to follow some of the links that were not to the author's website. They appear to be spam -- with the majority to torrent downloads. After my recent tirade about P2P programs, you can imagine my reaction!

Conclusion: It appears that the author is attempting to build up membership at his forum through spam and providing the false impression that his ebook is sponsored by Microsoft. Coupled with my respect for Ciprian, I will continue directing friends and Security Garden readers to sites that I know provide good tutorials, tips and help.

In addition to Vista4Beginners, a few of my other favorites include (in no particular order): Windows Vista Magazine, ITsVISTA, The Elder Geek on Windows Vista, The Road to Know Where, Paul Turrott's SuperSite for Vista. You can count on good information at any of those sites.

Read Ciprian's review here: Windows Vista The Pocket Guide & why you should stay away from this e-book

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May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...