I'm interested in structured, authoritative documentation for Windows (7, Vista and XP). No click-here click-there guides, but terse technical documentation which defines terms. What kinds thereof exist and where can I get it? Is there a commandline-accessible documentation index?

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The best guide available for many subjects is straight from Microsoft on Technet.

If however you want books, consider the sys admin's bible, the MS Press, Windows Resource Kits: enter image description here

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Thank you very much! Unfortunately it does not cover all terms (at least not localized ones). I get zero results for "systemkennzeichen" (part of an error message, could mean registry setting but I'm not sure) on technet.microsoft.com/de-de – artistoex Mar 27 '11 at 13:36
@artistoex: Search things in English, you'll get a lot more results. A quick translation reveals either "system characteristic" or "license number system", so I think it most likely has something to do with licenses... – Tom Wijsman Apr 13 '11 at 10:32
@Tom This strategy has the flaw I wanted to avoid in the first place: In general, only Microsoft sources give reliable definitions for Microsoft terms. Same goes for reliable translations of Microsoft terms (German Micorsoft Term --> English Microsoft Term). My hope was: if there is a reference work in Microsoft ;-) English, it might also be available in Microsoft German. – artistoex Apr 13 '11 at 20:34
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@artistoex I just found FindErr.net -- Might this be relevant? It looks like "system flag" is the original wording. – Daniel Beck Apr 14 '11 at 12:13
@Daniel It's been some time, but: thank you! Specifically that's exactly what I was looking for. But in general I don't feel like researching each single term in the future. – artistoex Jun 30 '11 at 14:20
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There is also MSDN Online.

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MSDN is a developer resource mainly, not a sysadmin one. – BloodPhilia Apr 19 '11 at 9:19
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