I first got a copy of The Application Book by Tim Mangan as an early look of something I would review online. It was outstanding. Having edited several books in the past, I was compelled to provide lots of unsolicited feedback which he happily accepted. Later Tim asked that I provide a forward for the book which I was honored to do.

Tim has taught lots of classes (and has written other books) on App-V, Packaging and Windows Internals. This book really talks to how things work at a very technical level in a way that I’ve never seen provided to a IT Professional audience. Exactly how applications work is traditionally of interest to developers versus administrators. However, such knowledge is invaluable when it comes to creating a solid packaging, or (perhaps more so) when troubleshooting an installation gone wrong. Normally the types of things you learn over years of packaging and troubleshooting, this book provides some indispensable knowledge. Get it.