Windows 8 is a new operating system from Microsoft that is designed to be user-friendly and easy to use. This review will show you how to get started with Windows 8, step by step. ..

You might be surprised to see us reviewing a Windows 8 book, especially considering we recently launched our own book, The How-To Geek Guide to Windows 8 – but since we don’t (yet) have a paperback version, we may as well give you another option.

Note: we are indeed working on a paperback version of our book, but it’ll probably be a month before it’s available. Plus, the Step-by-Step book is written by Ciprian Rusen, a personal friend of mine, and it’s published by none other than Microsoft Press.

The Book

We’re not going to go into great detail, since we find book reviews to be quite boring, but there’s a few points that we’d like to talk about concerning this book, both the good and the bad.

The good

The bad

Touch Gestures Covered in the Appendix: Given the fact that Windows 8 is so focused on the new Touch-friendly interface, we were surprised that you have to flip to the Appendix to actually see coverage of the new touch gestures. We suspect that many people will be using Windows 8 for the first time on a touch-enabled device, so we’d think it would have been right up front and center. Note: the touch gestures are covered within the text of the book, just not illustrated until the end. Typos: We don’t have a lot of room to talk here, since the first version of our book also had typos in it, but just be prepared if you’re the type of person to get upset about some typos. Confusing Intro: When you open the book, it’s to a section called “Introducing Windows 8”. Then you flip a bunch of pages further and the first chapter is also called “Introducing Windows 8” – in the table of contents, they are both listed, but each one contains something different and you really need to read both. It’s a little confusing.

Bottom line

If you want a paperback book that covers Windows 8 the way How-To Geek does, and you don’t want to wait a month or more for our book to come out in paperback, this is a solid choice.