Free Windows 7 eBooks and guides from Microsoft

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Microsoft Press often offers eBooks for free, and the Windows 7 launch has prompted several new releases ... for free! I recently saw an article on Rob Margel’s Windows Help blog about a new free guide to Windows 7 from Microsoft (actually, it's from TechNet, though, not Microsoft Press. Keep reading for the Microsoft Press stuff!). It is a very nice PDF that gives a quick overview of some of Windows 7’s newest and greatest features, including the taskbar preview with Aero Peek, Libraries, Windows Snap (my favorite new feature), and more. It’s only 8 pages long, so it is not an in-depth Windows handbook, but if you haven’t been following the development of Windows 7 it can be a great introduction to Windows 7 features. Download it now in PDF form at this link:

Your Guide to Windows 7

But wait, there’s more…

And, if you’d like more in-depth coverage of Windows 7, Microsoft Press is offering 10 chapters from recently published books on Windows 7 for free. These cover a wide range of topics including installation, backup, maintenance, the new taskbar, remote access, security, and more. All chapters are available as PDF or XPS files at this link:

Windows 7 sample chapters

If you really enjoy the books and want more, you can always purchase the full eBooks from Microsoft Press’ new O’Reilly store.

Server 2008 R2 eBook for free too!

Windows Server 2008 R2, the server version of Windows 7, has a free eBook offer too. It includes a number of new features too, such as the newest version of Hyper-V with Live Migration, BranchCache, DirectAccess, and support for up to 256 processors! And students, don’t forget, you can download Windows Server 2008 R2 for free from Dreamspark! So here’s a complete, 182 page guide to every feature in Server 2008 R2 from Microsoft Press, for free. What more could you ask for?

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2

That’s a ton of reading for now. Do you know of any other great tech eBooks for free? Sound off in the comments!

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.