Alan, I think the best source would be someone who is
really INTO staying current on Microsoft products.
The point is that the material advances pretty rapidly,
which is true of any IT subjects.  But in the Microsoft
world, there is the additional factor that XP is new
and there is a whole new generation of terminology and
mysique associated with this product line.  This is
part of Microsoft's business strategy which hard-sells
whatever is on their leading edge, making anything
a year or two old totally obsolete.  In this case, XP
is only three months old, and anything non-XP is
yesterday's news in that market.

I'd recommend your friend seek out MS user groups.
I'm sure there would be lots of people willing to
share not only their books, but additional insights
such as "this is just that under a new name with
these little differences" -- a really golden shortcut
to expertise.

Vic

alandd@mindspring.com wrote:
> A friend of mine (Not me. Really!) wants to finish
> studying for an MSCE cert.  He has very little money.
> He wants to borrow (get for free?) books on MSCE
> knowledge and preparation.