Acknowledgments

When I first approached Robert Denn at O'Reilly & Associates about revising Managing the Windows NT Registry to cover Windows 2000, neither of us realized what we were getting into. The devil is always in the details, and Windows NT and Windows 2000 are superficially similar in lots of ways--but then the details rear their ugly heads.

As with my other O'Reilly books, I was fortunate to work with a team of true professionals at O'Reilly's Cambridge office, led by the tireless (and very patient) Robert Denn. Steven Abrams was the editorial assistant for this book.

This book benefited from the technical knowledge and writing skill of two other writers. Tom Fronckowiak, cryptographer to the stars, wrote Chapter 7 and revised Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 when my schedule began to oppress me. Likewise, Greg Bacon applied his considerable Perl talents to revising the Perl coverage in Chapter 8 so that it was more in keeping with an O'Reilly book; something my own meager Perl skills would have prevented. Tye McQueen, author of the Win32::TieRegistry module, generously allowed me to use his documentation as a base for the Perl discussion.

The technical review process for this book took longer than usual, in large part because of the volume, and quality, of technical review comments I got back. I'd like to thank my friend Glenn Fincher for taking time out of his busy schedule to review the book; in addition, my thanks go to the other reviewers, Jon Forrest, Cory L. Scott, David White, and Adam Wood.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this book was entirely written on a variety of Apple Power Macintosh and PowerBook computers. In fact, I even wrote the code in Chapter 8 on the Mac using Metrowerks CodeWarrior, then tested and debugged it on a "real" PC running Windows 2000. I use and manage Windows NT and 2000 every day, but I'm a more productive writer with the Mac--go figure.

I am indebted to David Rogelberg and the staff of StudioB Productions, the literary agency that represents me. David makes the easy tasks happen invisibly and handles the hard tasks without ever breaking a sweat, raising his voice, or appearing rattled in the least. I appreciate his negotiating skills, his extensive web of industry contacts, and his role as the voice of reason.

Lastly, I could not have even considered this project without the love, support, and help of my wife Arlene and my two sons, David and Thomas. I am truly blessed to have such a loving and supportive family.