Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

Steven Sinofsky has a new blog post up at Building Windows 8 An inside look from the Windows engineering team and it is a very detailed look at the history of file management and access throughout the history of the Windows operating systems. It also includes a look at what's planned for Windows 8. Steven's intro: Windows Explorer is a foundation of the user experience of the Windows desktop and has undergone several design changes over the years, but has not seen a substantial change in quite some time. Windows 8 is about reimagining Windows, so we took on the challenge to improve the most widely used desktop tool (except maybe for Solitaire) in Windows. Alex Simons on the program management team authored this post with a detailed look at the evolution of Explorer and the major improvements to its interface and functionality for Windows 8. Judging by the passion on file operations and user interface design, we know this is an important subject so we expect a pretty e

By Arielle Levin Becker © The Connecticut Mirror This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org , the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics and public policy. HARTFORD — Julie Michaelson has spent five years working on her hospital’s information technology system, but she says it would be a misconception to think she’s computer- savvy. Mary McAward worked for years in data processing before being laid off, and is hoping the coming wave of health information technology will mean a new career path for her. Both are taking federally funded courses at Capital Community College, part of a national effort to educate more than 10,500 people in the electronic systems that, after years of discussion, are poised to become commonplace in medicine. That means jobs, to build, install and maintain the systems. The federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has estimated that

I plan to get a couple of posts up here regarding my current efforts to complete all of my Hyper-V certifications (I recently passed 70-669 and I’ll blog about that at some point) but I am hoping to get to VMWare shortly after as that is what is in use at my current employer, Bloomberg LP. I wanted to finish up Hyper-V as I have more experience with it before I moved over to make an attempt at the VCP certification (if you are a VCP4 you only have until February 29, 2012 to upgrade to VCP5 without having to take a VMware Education course all over again; if you pass that date you’re effectively starting from scratch. I’ll get to all of that in a moment.) I’ve always had great success LEARNING ABOUT THE PRODUCT by getting hands on exposure and filling in the gaps with good training and Train Signal is always my first stop. If they don’t have what I am looking for I may go elsewhere if I feel I am going to need it but I always lean on them first and I have done so since my first purc

Mike Rodriguez over on the TrainSignal Training website has released a great write up focusing on a number of important updates for many of the major certification tracks. He has a write up regarding the New 2011 CompTIA Security+ Exam and the new Security+ SY0-301 Exam Objectives TrainSignal's current Security+ Training offering has received CompTIA Authorized Quality Curriculum (CAQC) approval and I am sure as they upgrade their training for the new SY0-301 Exam Objectives they will be able to get the same certification. There is also a section regarding the upcoming Microsoft Exams that are retiring as of this September. You can review the list of exams that Mike has listed and you can take a look at the full list of retired exams on Microsoft's website   Mike's article also has some updates regarding the CCDE Practical Exam, VMware Certified Professional 4 Desktop Exam as well as a couple of others.   I would definitely suggest reviewing his entire post -

Live Webinar Date: 8/31/2011 Time: 12:00 PM ET Duration: 1 hour Global Knowledge senior instructor Tim Euler will introduce you to security for Windows 7 and examine the features that make Windows 7 a truly secure operating system. He will provide a high-level overview of key Windows 7 security components, including: UAC (User Account Control) Windows Firewall with Advanced Security Windows Data Execution Prevention Windows BitLocker and Windows BitLocker To Go Encrypting File System (EFS) in NTFS Direct Access IPv6 Tim will help you understand which security features you can use to protect your organization and its data, and he will discuss the hands-on Windows security training available to help you master the concepts presented in the webinar. You can register for this free webinar here .

CompTIA is looking for IT professionals who have extensive experience in the field of PC troubleshooting, repair and support to be involved in the next update for the CompTIA A+ certification exam. The full details are below, as taken from their website. If you would like to be considered as a Subject Matter Expert, their application form is available on their website. Here is the body of the call for SMEs: PC Repair/Troubleshooting Experts needed for New A+ Exam Workshop CompTIA is looking for IT professionals who have extensive experience in the field of PC troubleshooting, repair and support to be involved in updating our CompTIA A+ certification exam. During this "Job Task Analysis" exam development workshop, the first of three workshops, subject matter experts (SMEs) will help determine the exam's target audience, outline main competencies and objectives to be covered in the test, and weight different topics. SMEs will validate the skills and knowledge r

I subscribe to many different email lists as I find that when I can target the email I get to something that is topical for me I can tolerate all that spam I get a little better (at least the stuff I’ve signed up for I am asking to have sent to me). Virtualization Review sent along an email regarding a half day seminar that is being sponsored by Virtacore Systems /PHD Virtual, Zerto and Veeam with David Davis giving the keynote. David Davis is THE go to guy for Virtualization topics and vSphere Training. He is an author at Train Signal for a number of their VMWare / vSphere training suites. The forum will focus on Disaster Recovery in VMware Environments on July 20, 2011 Time: 9 am PDT / 12 noon EDT David’s segment will cover: The top five DR challenges VMware oriented IT organizations face today What you can do to minimize disaster potential as information and data proliferates Typical DR scenarios faced in a virtual infrastructure DR best practices in virtualized environments Tips

As some of you are aware, I am presently studying for Exam 70-669: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization During the course of this and having a day job I've had to reschedule this exam once already, pushing it out to July 25. I hope I am ready for it now because much to my surprise there is a new rescheduling and cancellation policy in effect: "Please note that effective July 15th 2011 our rescheduling and cancellation policy has changed. In order to provide all Microsoft candidates with a broad selection of convenient times and locations in order to test, fees will now be applied for examinations that are rescheduled / cancelled with less than 15 days' notice. We therefore encourage you to keep your original appointment, or if necessary reschedule or cancel more than 15 days out from your appointment date. Please visit www.prometric.com/microsoft/reschedulecancellationpolicy for more information and www.prometric.com/microsoft/reschedulecancellation/faqs for

I have been reading articles from Fred Langa over the past two decades. His articles have been beyond insightful and extremely helpful. His “Langa Letter” emails were a staple in my inbox for years. His most recent article “Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall” is another big winner. Since Windows 95, there have been “secret” ways to re-install your Windows operating system leaving much of your data and installed application base intact. For the most part these re-installs are effectively unsupported and relatively unknown. I don’t remember where I learned my earlier re-installs from for Windows 95 and 98 but I do remember reading his article for Windows XP . Fred has written a great article that outlines this entire process for Windows 7 and it can be found on the Windows Secrets website; it is titled “Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall.”

Last week the Born to Learn blog posted some information regarding a new program and it has been released as of this past week. Microsoft Learning Partners in the US can now buy a digital Microsoft Official Course (dMOC) on behalf of their students. The purchase includes a voucher to take a Microsoft Certification exam. The Kindle is part of the package purchase which comes preloaded with two versions of the digital MOC courseware . One version is in PDF for use on the Kindle or a computer and one version of the course optimized for readability on the Kindle itself Students then choose if they’d like to consume their Microsoft Learning digital content on a computer, a Kindle, or both. All of the details can be found on the Born to Learn blog in the entry titled Better Together: Microsoft Courseware and Kindles

A few years ago when I was working at Microsoft they released a paper titled Ten Immutable Laws Of Security. It looks as if they have made some updates to this as it is now titled Ten Immutable Laws Of Security (Version 2.0) Whether you are a security specialist, a systems administrator or simply an end user of computer systems I believe this is a great read. I have often referred back to it when dealing with customers that desperately needed assistance in developing their own security standards in their own environments. I have also suggested a review of this for folks that are studying for their Security+ and / or CISSP exams as well as it allows for a good base of understanding.

Over on the Microsoft Certification Exam Development website there is an updated list of exams scheduled to retire on June 30th of this year along with a listing of exams that have already retired in months past. All of the exams listed can be found on the Microsoft Certification Exam Development Discontinued Exams page . Below is the list scheduled to retire on June 30. Exams retiring on June 30, 2011 TS: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions by Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 - Exam 70-235 TS: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions by Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 - Exam 70-241 Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System - Exam 70-271 Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System - Exam 70-272 TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 ‒ Implementation and Maintenance - Exam 70-431 PRO: Designing Database Solutions by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 -

Karri Alexion-Tiernan posted an article over on the Windows Blog regarding the upcoming software release of Windows Thin PC due out this July. Microsoft Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) is part of the company’s strategy with respect to Desktop Virtualization. You can read the entire post on the Windows Team Blog at Windows Thin PC RTMs! For more information you can visit the WinTPC site .

There is a newly posted article over on the ComputerWorld website that indicates that Windows 7 will top out at a 41% share, less than half XP's peak of just about 84%. This is based on current roll outs of the Windows 7 operating system and the speculated release date of Windows 8 next year. Other mitigating factors also include the lag of the Windows Vista release and its unpopularity which allowed Windows XP to reign supreme for such a long time. The entire article “Windows forecast shows XP's one-of-a-kind dominance” can be found on the ComputerWorld website

Early April, Corp-Corp conducted a survey among Indian IT professionals. More than 1000 professionals responded to this survey. The results show m ore than half of the Indian IT professionals are planning to return to India . Survey Highlights Here are a few quick insights from the survey: 50.1% of the people said that they will be returning to India soon. 6.4% of them have already returned to India and 43% do not have plan to return. The survey participants includes permanent residents, citizens and Visa holders. The survey results shows 69% of visa holders and 57% permanent residents or citizens are intend to return. To read the entire story please see Over half of Indian IT professionals may return to India – Survey

VMware has acquired social communications platform Socialcast. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. VMware has been on a bit of an acquisition spree of late, recently buying Shavlik Technologies, and SlideRocket. Please see Leena Rao’s complete story at TechCrunch - VMware Acquires Enterprise Microblogging Platform Socialcast

This year I have two main goals for myself and one stretch goal. I decided for 2011 that I was going to obtain my Microsoft Virtualization Certification and my Cisco CCNA. My stretch goal for 2011 was to also work towards a certification on WMWare. I am a little farther behind the curve than I wanted to be for the year (I was hoping to have a couple of the Microsoft Virtualization Certification exams out of the way already) but I have been busy with several projects at work and saving the 4th of July celebration in my hometown for the second year in a row. With that work completed, both the project at work and the one in Wallingford, I am going to get back on track over the summer. (Admittedly, I may have to drop my certification on WMWare stretch goal for 2011 and defer it to 2012 but we’ll see how it goes). In the meantime I am going to be looking at the Microsoft Server Virtualization certification track as well as the Desktop Virtualization certification track.  These ce

Hi Gang, Really quickly this AM - I saw a posting over on LinkedIn from Shon Harris - Owner and President of Logical Security where she indicated that she is providing 25 hours of free CEH on-line training. I am presently studying for this certification myself so I am certain it will be quite helpful for me to review this from the master herself and I wanted to pass along the information. Directly from her posting: Free On-Line CEH Course – Over 25 Hours Long I am providing 25 hours of free CEH on-line training. The video modules are outlined below and can be found at www.logicalsecurity.com/resources/resources_videos.html Hope you find them useful! 1. Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing 2. Footprinting and Reconnaissance 3. TCP/IP Basics and Scanning 4. Enumeration and Verification 5. Hacking and Defending Wireless/Modems 6. Hacking and Defending Web Servers 7. Hacking and Defending Web Applications 8. Sniffers and Session Hijacking 9. Hacking and Defending Windows Systems 10. Hac

Andy's Tech Experiments Blog has an excellent video presentation covering an experiment he performed where he which upgraded through every major version of Windows using a virtual machine install. Along with the video installation he has his blog post that offers additional information and details that he did not include within the presentation. Below is the video and his blog post can be found at Andy's Tech Experiments Blog under Chain of fools : Upgrading through every version of Windows

Companies are offering their IT pros more flexible hours and more money in the hopes of getting them to stay. Read the full post on the InfoWorld website. Regular readers of my blog know I have been saying this for the past six months and it’s only going to escalate from here – this is good news for IT workers, as they may have more leverage for raises / bonuses / flexible and /or additional benefits with their current employer. If not, the one up the street might offer what you’re looking for. Just remember all the loyalty (or lack thereof) that you’re current employer provides and make the decisions that are best for you and your career.

Support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will come to an end on July 12, 2011. The transition of support on this date corresponds with the regular Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy. The date was originally set when Windows Vista Service Pack 2 released back in April 29, 2009. Windows Vista users can continue to use the product at this service pack level but to be eligible for Mainstream Support and to have access to security and high priority updates, users must be on the supported service pack. The most important part of this is that customers still on Windows Vista SP1 after this date will not have access to new security updates, high priority updates and non-security hotfixes. As part of the normal support lifecycle, support is provided for 12 months for the previous service pack when a new service pack is formally released according to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Service Pack policy for servers as outlined on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle page. Both Mainstream and Exte

QUESTION – What is a router’s primary function on a network? (Choose all that apply – choose only the best answers). A.   Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain B.   Create the boundary of a Collision domain C.   Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway D.   Creates a network segment where it is the central network device on that segment E.   Responsible for Packet Switching on the network F.   Responsible for Path Selection on a network Answer and Explanation. The best answers for this question are A, C, E and F Choice A - Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain, is correct because routers are mainly responsible for creating the logical network division that we call a broadcast domain. For more information please see the Wikipedia article titled “ Broadcast Domain ”. Choice C - Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway, is a correct answer because routers are generally the default gateways for a network segment. For more inform

In my post from yesterday I had mentioned that I am going to be studying to take my Cisco CCNA 640-802 exam. I have a couple of text books I am going to be reviewing for research and study, I also have access to a couple of CCNA video training suites that I will be using.  One of the titles I am going to be reviewing is Train Signal’s Cisco CCNA Training . I am going to be doing this training on my train ride to work so it is nice to have it available to view offline and when I am not connected to the internet. I’ll give you a quick overview of the product now and some more of a detailed review once I’ve had the chance to review most of it. So according to the marking material on the Train Signal’s Cisco CCNA Training page – “In 3 Days or Less, You'll Learn How To Install, Operate, and Troubleshoot a Small to Medium Enterprise Branch Network... And Have the Knowledge to Pass the Cisco CCNA 640-802 Exam... Guaranteed!” The immediate additional information there also inc

QUESTION – What are the three core principles of information security? A. Confidentiality B. Non-repudiation C. Authenticity D. Availability E. Integrity F. Identity G. Risk management Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION – What is a router’s primary function on a network? (Choose all that apply – choose only the best answers). A.   Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain B.   Create the boundary of a Collision domain C.   Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway D.   Creates a network segment where it is the central network device E.   Responsible for Packet Switching on the network F.   Responsible for Path Selection on a network Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

Hi Gang. I’ll have a little more to write about some of the additional changes you’re going to be seeing in the site but briefly, one of the ways I have personally found that it is easiest for me to learn something new or to brush up on something I am out of practice on is to research the information and write articles on the theory of a topic. This is just one piece of training that works for me. I still need to do the hands-on practical part and in some cases, especially for new and emerging technologies, take instructional courses. As such and as part of my studying for my CCNA 640-802 exam, I’ll be publishing Question of the Day questions on this site. They’ll be as much a review for you the reader and they will be for me the blogger. You can expect to see these questions starting tomorrow. I will be intermixing them with the other QOTD for the CompTIA and Windows 7 topics. On the topic of instructional courses, these come in many “flavors.” Computer based training, online in

The Microsoft Certification team recently announced a new set of exam retirements that are planned for this upcoming March 2011. The review process for exams is an ongoing one and as new exams are introduced the older exams are either revised or discontinued. Below is a list of exams retiring on March 31, 2011 as listed on the Microsoft Learning website . Exams retiring on March 31, 2011 Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003    Exam 70-284 Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization Exam 70-285 TS: Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, Configuring  Exam 70-351 TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, Implementing and Managing    Exam 70-500 TS: Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Exam 70-510 TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 – Application Development Exam 70-540

QUESTION – You are the network administrator for your company. There is a problem with clients connecting to your news server and you believe it is an issue with the way the protocol has been configured. Which protocol would you need to check to verify the settings? A.   NTP B.   NNTP C.   SNMP D.   SMTP E.   TCP/IP    Answer and Explanation. B is the correct answer – NNTP is the Network News Transfer Protocol and it is the primary protocol that is used to connect news servers to networks and allows clients to access them. For additional information please see the Wikipedia article titled “Network News Transfer Protocol” Choice “A” is the Network Time Protocol which is used to keep time on computer systems synchronized. For additional information please see the Wikipedia article titled “ Network Time Protocol .” Choice “C” is the Simple Network Management Protocol which is used for managing devices on TCP/IP networks. For additional information please s

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available. SP1 for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 is a recommended collection of updates and improvements to Windows that are combined into a single installable update. The Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 update also provides a comprehensive set of innovations for enterprise-class virtualization. This includes new virtualization capabilities with Dynamic Memory and Microsoft RemoteFX. Consumer end-users can find general information about Windows 7 SP1 at the Service Pack Center Website Windows 7 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is available via KB976932 Additional details regarding Windows 7 Service Pack 1 are available on the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 page Additional details regarding Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

For Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring you’ll need to make sure you have a good, solid understanding of all of the skills measured. This will need to be a combination of academic knowledge of the subject matter and real world experience. The first domain is “Perform a clean installation” and the first set of knowledge to have is “Identifying hardware requirements.” In Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring - Perform a clean installation - Identifying hardware requirements (PART 1) we reviewed some of these requirements and we’ll continue with some additional ones with this installment including reviewing some of the details of each of the different editions of Windows 7 Each of the different editions of Windows 7 supports different features and you’ll need to have at least cursory knowledge of this topic for the exam. This will allow you to pick the specific edition of Windows 7 that you need for an installation for a given scenario. Windows 7 Starter Edition Windows

QUESTION – You are the network administrator for your company. There is a problem with clients connecting to your news server and you believe it is an issue with the way the protocol has been configured. Which protocol would you need to check to verify the settings? A.   NTP B.   NNTP C.   SNMP D.   SMTP E.   TCP/IP   Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION – Which of the following are examples of a male serial connection? (Choose all that apply). A.    B.     C.     D.    E.    F.    G.      Answer and Explanation: The correct answers for this question are choices A and C. “A” represents a D-sub 9 Connector which is commonly used in serial ports (RS-232). See D-sub 9 Connector Pinout for additional information. “C” represents a D-sub 25 Connector which is also used in serial ports (RS-232). See RS232 serial cables pinout for additional information “B” represents a parallel port input also known as a printer port or Centronics port. The IEEE 1284 standard defines the bi-directional version of the port, which allows the transmission and reception of data bits at the same time. For more information please see the Wikipedia post “parallel port” “D” in the D-sub 9 female connector. Please see “D-sub 9 Connector” for more information. “E” is the Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) female input that

So training and certification are always the double edged sword for both the employer and the employee. Let's start with the employer. So as an employer, you want to keep your technical folks as up to speed as possible. As technologies change you want your team to keep pace. To do that you have to arrange for formalized training or just hope they are going to learn it on their own. It is almost always better to at least allow for the team leads to get the formal training and pass down the information on the job to the junior staff. You do need to include some of the junior staff as well so that they feel like they are getting some direct benefit from the classes as well. Some of the issues that come with training are the cost of the training itself, who gets to go (as often not everyone can go and not everyone is of the skill level to get the most out of the training), how to arrange the coverage at work (time off) for those attending the class and so on. All of this is perpetual t

As part of your effort to take the 70-680 Exam for Windows 7 you’ll need to make sure you have a good, solid understanding of all of the skills measured. This will need to be a combination of academic knowledge of the subject matter and real world experience. The exam itself is intended for technicians and desktop administrators that have at least one year of experience working with the most recent desktop operating system (Vista). You will also need to have about one year of experience implementing and administering systems in a networked environment. The first domain is “Perform a clean installation” and the first set of knowledge to have is “Identifying hardware requirements.” What this means is that you need to understand the base, primary system requirements for Windows 7 which are: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or

QUESTION - You are a desktop engineer for your company which is configured as a single Active Directory domain running Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers. Desktop systems in use include Windows XP running service pack 3 and Windows Vista. You have been working on a service request to install Windows 7 Professional on a workstation in a dual boot configuration with Windows Vista Business edition. You have completed the Windows 7 installation but you want Windows Vista to be booted by default. What should you do? (Choose the best, single answer). A. Use the Bcdedit.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. B. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. C. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /Addsw parameter. D. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the Windows 7 partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. E. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the C:\ partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. F.

QUESTION – Which of the following are examples of a male serial connection? (Choose all that apply).   A.      B.       C.       D.          E.      F.      G.        Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION - You are a desktop engineer for your company which is configured as a single Active Directory domain running Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers. Desktop systems in use include Windows XP running service pack 3 and Windows Vista. You have been working on a service request to install Windows 7 Professional on a workstation in a dual boot configuration with Windows Vista Business edition. You have completed the Windows 7 installation but you want Windows Vista to be booted by default. What should you do? (Choose the best, single answer). A. Use the Bcdedit.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. B. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. C. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /Addsw parameter. D. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the Windows 7 partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. E. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the C:\ partition so that Windows Vista is boot