Free eBooks for Windows administrators [updated]

Microsoft Press released two new free eBooks: Enterprise Cloud Strategy and Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mission-Critical Applications, Deeper Insights, Hyperscale Cloud, Preview Edition.

SQL Server 2016 is currently as Community Technology Preview 3.2. The new eBook discusses the new security features, the database engine enhancements and the improvements to Reporting Services.

The second eBook with the title Enterprise Cloud Strategy describes how to get started in the cloud, how to plan the migration to the cloud and how your organization will be affected by this change. The book focuses on Azure, but I think it is also helpful as a general introduction to cloud computing.

If you know of another good free eBook that could be of interest for Windows administrators, please post the link as a comment below or send me an email.

I will update this page regularly, so you might want to bookmark it. If you spot a book that is no longer available as a free e-book, please let me know.

Cloud computing

Enterprise Cloud Strategy

Barry Briggs, Eduardo Kassner, Microsoft Press 2016

This book, based on real-world cloud experiences by enterprise IT teams, seeks to provide answers to these questions. Here, you’ll see what makes the cloud so compelling to enterprises; with which applications you should start your cloud journey; how your organization will change, and how skill sets will evolve; how to measure progress; how to think about security, compliance, and business buy-in; and how to exploit the ever-growing feature set that the cloud offers to gain strategic and competitive advantage

Microsoft System Center Building a Virtualized Network Solution, Second Edition

Nigel Cain, Michel Luescher, Damian Flynn, and Alvin Morales; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press 2015

In summary, this book is specifically designed for architects and cloud fabric administrators who want to understand what decisions they need to make during the design process and the implications of those decisions, what constitutes best practice, and, ultimately, what they need to do to build out a virtualized network solution that meets today's business requirements while also providing a platform for future growth and expansion.

Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud

Shreesh Dubey, Vijay Tandra Sistla, Shivam Garg, and Aashish Ramdas; Mitch Tulloch, Series Editor, Microsoft Press 2015

We will cover how the Azure Backup service has evolved into a first-class platform-as-a-service (PaaS) service in Microsoft Azure that integrates with the on-premises enterprise class backup product, System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), to provide a seamless hybrid cloud backup solution. Current backup products treat the cloud as a storage endpoint, which we see as a limited-use case for the public cloud.

Microsoft Azure Essentials: Azure Machine Learning

Jeff Barnes, Microsoft Press, 2015

Microsoft Azure Machine Learning (ML) is a service that a developer can use to build predictive analytics models (using training datasets from a variety of data sources) and then easily deploy those models for consumption as cloud web services. This ebook will present an overview of modern data science theory and principles, the associated workflow, and then cover some of the more common machine learning algorithms in use today.

Microsoft Azure Essentials: Azure Automation

Michael McKeown, Microsoft Press, 2015

This ebook introduces a fairly new feature of Microsoft Azure called Azure Automation. Using a highly scalable workflow execution environment, Azure Automation allows you to orchestrate frequent deployment and life cycle management tasks using runbooks based on Windows PowerShell Workflow functionality. These runbooks are stored in and backed up by Azure. By automating runbooks, you can greatly minimize the occurrence of errors when carrying out repeated tasks and process automation.

Data Science in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and R

Stephen F. Elston, Microsoft, 2015

The Microsoft Azure Machine Learning cloud platform provides simplified yet powerful data management, transformation and machine learning tools. R language scripts integrate with built in Azure ML modules to extend the platform. Additionally, models running in Azure ML can be published as web services.

Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure

Michael Collier and Robin Shahan, Microsoft, 2015

This ebook focuses on providing essential information about the key services of Azure for developers and IT professionals who are new to cloud computing. Detailed, step-by-step demonstrations are included to help the reader understand how to get started with each of the key services.

Rethinking Enterprise Storage: A Hybrid Cloud Model

Marc Farley, Microsoft Press, 2013

Rethinking Enterprise Storage: A Hybrid Cloud Model describes a storage architecture that some experts are calling a game changer in the infrastructure industry. Called the Microsoft hybrid cloud storage (HCS) solution, it was developed as a way to integrate cloud storage services with traditional enterprise storage.

The Oracle Cloud Book

Roddy Rodstein, Mokum Solutions Inc., 2014

Advances in virtualization, hardware and storage technologies, along with Oracle licensing costs are driving Oracle customers to evaluate their virtualization options for Oracle to lower their total Oracle cost of ownership, and to improve their Oracle operational efficiency.

Introducing Microsoft Azure HDInsight

Avkash Chauhan, Valentine Fontama, Michele Hart, Wee Hyong Tok, and Buck Woody, Microsoft Press, 2014

In Introducing Microsoft Azure HDInsight, we cover what big data really means, how you can use it to your advantage in your company or organization, and one of the services you can use to do that quickly—specifically, Microsoft’s HDInsight service.

Introducing Windows Azure for IT Professionals

Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Azure Team, Microsoft Press, 2013

Most Windows Azure services are described in some detail, with screenshots used to demonstrate some of the multitude of capabilities of the platform.

Database

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mission-Critical Applications, Deeper Insights, Hyperscale Cloud, Preview Edition

Stacia Varga, Denny Cherry, and Joseph D’Antoni, Microsoft Press 2016

The eBook discusses the new security features, the database engine enhancements and the improvements to Reporting Services.

SQL Server Source Control Basics

Robert Sheldon, Rob Richardson & Tony Davis, Simple Talk Publishing, 2014

The eBook gives a detailed walkthrough of database source control concepts, with code samples and clear examples

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2014

Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner, Microsoft Press, April 2014

This book is for anyone who has an interest in SQL Server 2014 and wants to understand its capabilities.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Ross Mistry, Stacia Misner, Microsoft Press, March 28, 2012

We are releasing this title to help you learn about the new features and capabilities in SQL Server 2012, which Microsoft released to manufacturing (RTM) on March 6, 2012. You can expect general availability of the product to begin on April 1, 2012.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner, Microsoft Press, April 2010

Our purpose in Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is to point out both
the new and the improved in the latest version of SQL Server.

Networking

TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft, 2008

Introductory approach to the basic concepts and principles of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite, how the most important protocols function, and their basic configuration in the Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 families of operating systems

TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview

Lydia Parziale, David T. Britt, Chuck Davis, Jason Forrester, Wei Liu, Carolyn Matthews, Nicolas Rosselot, IBM Redbooks, December 2006

Chapters: Core TCP/IP protocols (including IPv6), TCP/IP application protocols, Advanced concepts and new technologies

Office

Install Microsoft Exchange server 2013 step by step with DAG

Microsoft, Feburary 2105

This book gives step by step instructions on how to install Exchange Server 2013 with DAG (Database Availability Group).

Test Lab Guide: eBook for SharePoint Server 2013 Intranet and Team Sites

Joe Davies, Microsoft, May 2013

This Microsoft Test Lab Guide (TLG) e-Book provides you with step-by-step instructions to create the SharePoint Server 2013 three-tier farm with intranet and team sites test lab. This paper does not describe how to install and configure SharePoint Server 2013 in a pilot or production environment.

Getting started with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Office System and Servers Team, Microsoft, May 2010

This book provides basic information about the capabilities of and requirements for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The audiences for this book include application specialists, line-of-business application specialists, information architects, IT generalists, program managers, and infrastructure specialists who are just starting to learn about SharePoint Server 2010 and want a quick introduction plus installation steps.

Deployment guide for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Office System and Servers Team, Microsoft, January 2011

This book provides deployment instructions for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The audiences for this book include application specialists, line-of-business application specialists, and IT administrators who are ready to deploy SharePoint Server 2010 and want installation steps.

Business continuity management for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Office System and Servers Team, Microsoft, 2013

This book provides information about business continuity management, which consists of the business decisions, processes, and tools you put in place in advance to handle crises. Information includes features of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 that are likely to be part of your business continuity management strategy.

Explore SharePoint 2013

Microsoft Office System and Servers Team, Microsoft, November 2014

Learn about what's new in SharePoint 2013.

Deployment guide for SharePoint 2013

Microsoft Office System and Servers Team, Microsoft, October 2014

Learn how to install and configure SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation.

Microsoft Lync Server 2013: Basic Administration - Release 2.1

Fabrizio Volpe, Microsoft, 2014

Lync 2013 server is a unified communication system. Lync is able to deliver instant messaging (IM), audio conferencing, video conferencing, multi-party high-resolution meetings and voice over ip (VOIP), as well as persistent chat. You can integrate Lync with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to offer full telephony features and to replace existing IP PBX.

Deployment Guide for Office 2013

Microsoft, 2012

This book provides deployment instructions for Office 2013. The audiences for this book include application specialists, line-of-business application specialists, and IT administrators who are ready to deploy Office 2013.

Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime

Katherine Murray, Microsoft Press, 2011

This book shows you how you can use cloud computing—and ­specifically, ­Office 365—to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more ­flexibly than you ever have before.

First Look Microsoft Office 2010

Katherine Murray, Microsoft Press, 2010

Introduces you to the changes in Office 2010,  how-to guide for many of the top features, provides examples for integrating the applications and explores Office 2010 security and training opportunities

Other

The SysAdmin Handbook

Red Gate Software, March, 2010

A collection of articles about Exchange, Virtualization, Windows Server, Powershell, and Unified Messaging

Introduction to Storage Area Networks

Jon Tate, Fabiano Lucchese, Richard Moore, IBM Rebooks, July 2006

Illustrates where SANs are today, who are the main industry organizations and standard bodies active in the SAN world, and it positions IBM's comprehensive, best-of-breed approach of enabling SANs with its products and services.

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell Networking Guide

by Ed Wilson, Microsoft's "The Scripting Guy", Penflip

The book includes a short introduction into PowerShell and explains how to manage network adapters.

PowerShell for newbies: Getting started with PowerShell 4.0

Jeffery Hicks, Veeam 2015

This is a 30 page crash course on everything I think you need to get started with PowerShell. There’s no way you can learn PowerShell in 30 pages, but this should get you started on the right path.

The DSC Book

Don Jones, Steve Murawski, Stephen Owen, powershellorg

Desired State Configuration is Microsoft's technology, introduced in Windows Management Framework 4.0, for declarative configuration of systems. At the risk of oversimplifying a bit, DSC lets you create specially formatted text files that describe how a system should be configured. You then deploy those files to the actual systems, and they magically configure themselves as directed. At the top level, DSC isn't programming - it's just listing how you want a system to look.

Master-PowerShell

Tobias Weltner, PowerShell.com

Windows PowerShell Networking Guide

PowerShell.org, Ed Wilson

The Big Book of PowerShell Gotchas

PowerShell.org, Don Jones

The Big Book of PowerShell Error Handling

PowerShell.org, Dave Wyatt

Error handling in Windows PowerShell can be a complex topic. The goal of this book – which is fortunately not as “big” as the name implies – is to help clarify some of that complexity, and help you do a better and more concise job of handling errors in your scripts.

Secrets of PowerShell Remoting

Don Jones, August 2012

Step-by-step, screenshot-based instructions for configuring PowerShell Remoting for any imaginable scenario

Administrator's Guide to Windows PowerShell Remoting

March 2010

This guide helps users understand the concepts of remoting and provides essential and practical advice on setup, deployment and security.

Effective Windows PowerShell: The Free eBook

Keith Hill

I’ve gotten some requests to turn my Effective PowerShell blog posts into booklet form which I have done.

Layman’s Guide to PowerShell 2.0 remoting

Ravikanth Chaganti

WMI query language (WQL) via PowerShell

Ravikanth Chaganti

Table of contents: Introduction, Tools for the job, WMI Data queries, WMI Event Queries: Introduction, Intrinsic Event Queries, Extrinsic Event Queries, Timer Events, WMI Schema Queries, WMI Event consumers.

The Administrator Crash Course: Windows PowerShell v2

Don Jones

Microsoft MVP Don Jones offers a new book entitled The Administrator Crash Course: Windows PowerShell v2. Covering the most crucial elements of PowerShell v2, Don has constructed a set of practical tips and practice.

Security

Vulnerability Management for Dummies, 2nd Edition

Wolfgang Kandek, John Wiley & Sons 2015

If you are responsible for network security, you need to understand how to prevent attacks by eliminating network weaknesses that leave your business exposed and at risk. Whether your network consists of just a handful of computers or thousands of servers distributed around the world, this newly revised, 6-part book will clearly help.

IT Policy Compliance for Dummies

Jason Creech and Matthew Alderman, John Wiley & Sons 2010

This book is a quick guide to understanding IT policy compliance. It surveys the best steps for preparing your organization's IT operations to comply with laws and regulations - and how to prove compliance to an auditor.

PCI Compliance for Dummies

Sumedh Thakar andTerry Ramos, John Wiley & Sons 2010

Complying with the PCI Data Security Standard may seem like a daunting task for merchants. This book is a quick guide to understanding how to protect cardholder data and comply with the requirements of PCI -

Web Application Security for Dummies

Mike Shema, Dummies eBooks, John Wiley & Sons 2010

This book is a quick guide to understanding how to make your website secure. It surveys the best steps for establishing a regular program to quickly find vulnerabilities in your site with a web application scanner.

Cybersecurity for Dummies

Lawrence C. Miller, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014

This book provides an in-depth examination of real-world attacks and APTs, the shortcomings of legacy security solutions, the capabilities of next-generation firewalls, and security best practices.

Security and Privacy for Microsoft Office Users

Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press April 30, 2012

Take control—and put the built-in security and privacy features in Microsoft Office to work!

Security Concepts Book

Theodore Parker

Examines the typical problems in computer security and related areas, and attempt to extract from them principles for defending systems; attempt to synthesize various fields of knowledge, including computer security, network security, cryptology, and intelligence

Security+ Essentials

Techotopia

Provide the knowledge needed by IT professionals to pass the CompTIA Security+ exam; largely platform agnostic book

System Center

Microsoft System Center Deploying Hyper-V with Software-Defined Storage & Networking

Microsoft TechNet and the Cloud Platform Team; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, 2015

When you’re looking at testing a new IT solution—such as implementing a softwaredefined datacenter that includes virtualization, networking, and storage—the best starting point is always to get advice from someone who has already done it.

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Field Experience

Danny Hermans, Uwe Stürtz, Mihai Sarbulescu; Mitch Tulloch, Series Editor, Microsoft Press, 2015

If you’re responsible for designing, configuring, implementing, or managing a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager environment, then this book is for you. This book will help you understand what you can do to enhance your Operations Manager environment, and will give you the opportunity to better understand the inner workings of the product, even if you are a seasoned Operations Manager administrator.

Microsoft System Center Software Update Management Field Experience

Andre Della Monica, Chris Shilt, Russ Rimmerman, and Rushi Faldu; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft 2015

This ebook addresses some of the gaps and pain points you might encounter when implementing, administering, and troubleshooting Software Updates using Configuration Manager 2012 R2. The advice is based on the authors’ experiences working as Premier Field Engineers and Microsoft Consultants in customer environments on a daily basis. Enjoy this book and the shared experiences from the field.

Microsoft System Center Extending Operations Manager Reporting

George Wallace, Chris Jones, Bill May, Fred Lee; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, 2014

Microsoft System Center Introduction to Microsoft Automation Solutions

Rob Costello, Richard Maunsell; Mitch Tulloch, Series Editor, Microsoft Press, 2014

This ebook introduces you to two Microsoft Automation solutions: Azure Automation and Service Management Automation. It explores both of these tools and how they can be used to meet the automation needs of your Microsoft Azure cloud solutions or your enterprise datacenter environments.

System Center: Designing Orchestrator Runbooks

David Ziembicki, Aaron Cushner, Andreas Rynes and the System Center series editor, Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, 2013

Our objective with this book is to provide a framework for runbook design and IT process automation to help you get the most out of System Center Orchestrator 2012 and to help you utilize Orchestrator in concert with the rest of the System Center for an enterprise-wide and systematic approach to process automation.

Microsoft System Center: Integrated Cloud Platform

David Ziembicki and Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, 2014

Microsoft System Center: Integrated Cloud Platform is targeted toward IT executives and architects interested in the big picture of how Microsoft’s cloud strategy is delivered using Windows and Microsoft System Center.

Microsoft System Center: Building a Virtualized Network Solution

Mitch Tulloch with Nigel Cain, Alvin Morales, Michel Luescher, Damian Flynn, Microsoft Press February 2014

This book is geared to private and hybrid cloud architects preparing to design and build a virtualized network solution based on Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1, or later.

Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2

Mitch Tulloch with Symon Perriman and the System Center Team, Microsoft Press December 2013

The capabilities of each component of System Center 2012 R2 are first described and then demonstrated chapter by chapter.

Microsoft System Center: Optimizing Service Manager

Thomas Ellermann, Kathleen Wilson, Karsten Nielsen, John Clark, Microsoft Press December 2013

This book provides focused guidance for deploying and customizing Service Manager, an integrated platform for automating and adapting an organization’s IT service management best practices.

Microsoft System Center: Cloud Management with App Controller

Yung Chou and Keith Mayer, and the System Center series editor Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press 2013

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 App Controller is uniquely positioned as both an enabler and a self-service vehicle for connecting clouds and implementing the hybrid computing model.

Microsoft System Center: Troubleshooting Configuration Manager

Rushi Faldu, Manoj Kumar Pal, Andre Della Monica, Kaushal Pandey, Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press 2013

Provides you with insights and tips on troubleshooting System Center 2012 Configuration Manager drawn from our insider knowledge and real-world field experience.

Microsoft System Center: Network Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Mitch Tulloch with Nader Benmessaoud, CJ Williams, Uma Mahesh Mudigonda, Microsoft Press, March 2014

This brief book identifies some key usage and deployment scenarios for cloud computing to provide some deep technical background on the Microsoft SDN (software-defined networking) solution, enabling IT professionals to quickly learn the internals of HNV (Hyper-V Network Virtualization), how it works from end to end, and where and how it should be used.

Microsoft System Center: Configuration Manager Field Experience

Rushi Faldu, Manish Raval, Brandon Linton, Kaushal Pandey, Microsoft Press, 2013

Provides System Center 2012 Configuration Manager administrators with helpful and tested real-world guidance from consultants and product experts at Microsoft.

Virtualization

Licensing brief: Licensing Microsoft server products for use in virtual environments

Microsoft, April 2014

The purpose of this brief is to give an overview of Microsoft licensing models for the server operating system and server applications under virtual environments. It can help you understand how to use Microsoft server products with virtualization technologies, such as Microsoft Hyper-V technology, or third-party virtualization solutions provided by VMware and Parallels.

Licensing Microsoft Server in a Virtual Environment

Eric Siron, Altaro

Microsoft licensing provides special benefits when the server operating systems are used in a virtual environment. The details are not complicated, but usually catch the uninitiated by surprise. To make matters worse, there is a great deal of misinformation being passed around. This book serves as a simple guide to the basics of Microsoft Server licensing in virtual environments. This eBook is written for Hyper-V Server 2012 and 2012 R2.

The Altaro PowerShell Hyper-V Cookbook

Jeffery Hicks, Altaro

For most Windows administrators, the Hyper-V management console is more than sufficient. However you are limited to what the console is designed to handle. For more complex tasks, or those that might extend beyond the scope of the management console, you need an alternative. That alternative is Windows PowerShell.

Explored: 7 Key Areas of Hyper-V

Eric Siron, Altaro

Hyper-V, Microsoft’s computer virtualization technology, has matured into an enterprise-ready platform. Unfortunately, newcomers often find themselves stranded in a sea of unfamiliar terms and concepts.The good news is that their questions are common. This eBook gathers together information on some of the most common stumbling blocks to help you chart a clear path to a successful deployment.This eBook is written for Hyper-V Server 2012 and 2012 R2.

Citrix HDX for Dummies

Alexander Ervik Johnsen, Wiley Publishing, 2014

This free eBook will guide you through the different HDX Technologies, what they can do, and what they mean for the overall implementation of Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop and NetScaler technologies. In addition, a vital part to get the HDX Technology to work is the Citrix Receiver.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - A Deployment Guide for Education

Microsoft, 2014

Although many of the topics discussed in this guide are applicable to VDI in Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows MultiPoint Server 2012,
this guide focuses on VDI in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition)

Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, February 2010

Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms including Windows Azure

Hyper-V Essentials

Neil Smyth, Virtuatopia, 2010

Overview of the Hyper-V architecture and components, Hyper-V role installation, the creation, management and migration of virtual machines, virtual networking architecture and remote access to virtual machines.

VMM 2008 Essentials

Virtuatopia

Chapters: VMM 2008 Components, VMM 2008 Architecture and Port Usage, VMM 2008 System Requirements, Installing VMM 2008 Components, A Guided Tour of the VMM Administrator Console, Managing Hosts with the VMM Administrator Console, Creating and Managing VMM 2008 Virtual Machine Templates, Managing Virtual Machines with the VMM Administrator Console, Managing VMM 2008 Library Servers, Performing Physical to Virtual (P2V) Conversions using VMM 2008, Converting VMware Virtual Machines to Hyper-V using VMM 2008 V2V, Understanding and Configuring VMM 2008 User Roles, Deploying a VMM 2008 Self-Service Portal

Xen Virtualization Essentials

Virtuatopia

Understanding of the basic approaches to virtualization together with detailed information on deploying virtualization using Xen technology; emphasizes the practical aspects of working with Xen, including detailed step by step tutorials designed to show exactly how to create and manage Xen based guest domains.

Windows Client

Introducing Windows 10 for IT Professionals, Preview Edition

Ed Bott, Microsoft Press 2015

This book is a preview, a work in progress about a work in progress. It offers a snapshot of the Windows 10 Technical Preview as of April 2015, on the eve of the BUILD Developers’ Conference in San Francisco. By design, this book focuses on things that are new, with a special emphasis on topics of interest to IT pros. So you might find fewer tips and tricks about the new user experience than your users want but more about management, deployment, and security—which ultimately is what matters to the long-term well-
being of the company you work for.

Windows Store Apps - A Deployment Guide for Education

Microsoft, 2014

Explore Windows Store app deployment strategies and considerations for educational institutions running Windows 8.1/Windows 8.

Windows 8.1 Deployment to PCs - A Guide for Education

Microsoft, 2014

This guide provides an overview of Windows 8.1/Windows 8 deployment to PCs in an educational environment.

Windows 8.1 Deployment Planning - A Guide for Education

Microsoft, 2014

This guide covers the key considerations and questions that should be answered as a part of a typical Windows 8.1/Windows 8 deployment in educational institutions.

How To: BYOD Project - Volume 1: The Desktop

Douglas A. Brown, 2014

Volume 1 covers Citrix DesktopPlayer for Mac and XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer, including Hyper-V 2012 R2 and FSLogix Apps.

Introducing Windows 8.1 for IT Professionals

Ed Bott, Microsoft Press, 2013

This book focuses on things that are new, with a special emphasis on topics of interest to IT pros

Introducing Windows 8: An Overview for IT Professionals

Jerry Honeycutt, Microsoft Press, November 21, 2012

Get a headstart evaluating Window 8—guided by a Windows expert who’s worked extensively with the software since the preview releases. Based on final, release-to-manufacturing (RTM) software, this book introduces new features and capabilities, with scenario-based insights demonstrating how to plan for, implement, and maintain Windows 8 in an enterprise environment. Get the high-level information you need to begin preparing your deployment now.

Windows 7 Power Users Guide

Mike Halsey, The long climb, May 2011

The Windows 7 Power Users Guide contains helpful how-to's, full colour pictures and quick tips to guide you through everything from using the Start Menu and Taskbar to backing up your documents and identifying and fixing problems.

The Complete Windows 7 Shortcuts eBook

Nitgin Agarwal, The Windows Club, February 2010
More than 200 keyboard shortcuts containing almost all the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows 7 and its default programs like Paint, WordPad, MS Office, Calculator, Help, Media Player, Media Center, Windows Journal, Internet Explorer

Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance

Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team at Microsoft, Microsoft Press, October 2009

Download the New eBook: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and Microsoft® TechNet Magazine. Looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment? Check out what the industry's leading experts have to say in this free Microsoft Press eBook with selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on Deployment Platforms, Planning, Testing Application Compatibility.

Windows Server

ADMT Guide: Migrating and Restructuring Active Directory Domains

Justin Hall, Microsoft, 2014

This guide assists Active Directory administrators in performing domain migration through the use of the Active Directory Migration Tool version 3.2 (ADMT v3.2). ADMT v3.2 has recently been updated and re-released. The version remains v3.2 because it’s functionally the same as its predecessor (that is, there are no new features). This final release includes various bug fixes and can be used with all supported Windows operating systems and versions of Windows Server Active Directory.

Migrate Roles and Features to Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012

Microsoft, 2014

This E-Book includes guidance to help you migrate server roles and  features to Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012. Also included is an
installation and operations guide for Windows Server Migration Tools, a set of five  Windows PowerShell cmdlets that can be used to migrate some roles and features to Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012

Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Technical Overview

Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Server Team, Microsoft Press, 2013

This book is intended to provide you with an overview of the new features and enhancements introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2. The intended audience for this book is IT pros who deploy, manage, and maintain Windows Server workloads in data center, private cloud, and hosting provider environments.

Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release

Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Server Team, Microsoft Press, 2013

This book is intended to provide you with a “first look” at the new features and enhancements coming in Windows Server 2012 R2. Because the book is based on the Preview release of this platform, it’s possible some information might change between now and release-to-manufacturing (RTM) later this year.

Introducing Windows Server 2012

Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft Press, June 8, 2012

Introducing Windows Server 2012 is 256 pages and includes 5 chapters loaded with insider information from the Windows Server Team.

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2

Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker, Microsoft Press, 2010

Focuses on what is new and important, while giving you the context from Windows Server 2008 Chapters: What’s New, Installation and Configuration, Hyper-V, Remote Desktop Services and VDI, Active Directory, The File Services Role, IIS 7.5, DirectAccess and Network Policy Server, Other Features and Enhancements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Essentials

Neil Smyth, Techtopia, 2010

Installing, configuring and administering Windows Server 2008 R2 systems including installation and upgrades, networking configuration, remote desktop services, disk and partition management, RAID configuration, security, BitLocker encryption, remote desktop access, print services, resource sharing, clustering, load balancing and user permission management

Microsoft Windows Server System Deployment Guide for Midsize Businesses eBook

Microsoft, 2005

Step-by-step deployment instructions for the Microsoft server products that are most relevant to a midsize business (50-250 PCs), in one easy-to-read format

Windows Server 2008 Essentials

Techotopia

Cover all aspects of installing, configuring and administering Windows Server 2008: installation and upgrades, networking configuration, terminal services, disk and partition management, RAID configuration, security, BitLocker encryption, remote desktop access, print services, resource sharing, clustering, load balancing and user permission management.