Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

The Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer is a free tool available for download from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/sam/en/us/msia.aspx that can help you with your software inventory. The current release of MSIA (5.1) will allow an administrator to scan and inventory all of the Microsoft software that is installed on a single system or across multiple systems (up to 250 systems in total). The tool can then generate a report that will show the details of all installed Microsoft products, including the type and the number of licenses. The tool can be used to identify and report all installed Microsoft products listed under Add or Remove Programs and it can c onsolidate the MSIA report with the Microsoft Licensing Statement (MLS) report (in .xls format). Downloads for MSIA 5.1 are available as shown below: View the MSIA online User's Manual View the MSIA Frequently Asked Questions View the logon script View the read me file ...

Microsoft Security Essentials provides Microsoft consumer customers with a free option for real-time protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software for their home PCs . The Microsoft Security Essentials free download (available to all consumers that are running genuine Windows installations) is as simple to install as it is easy to use. New definitions are provided automatically so that you are always kept up to date and so your PC is protected against the latest threats.  Minimum system requirements for Microsoft Security Essentials are Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3) Windows Vista (Gold, Service Pack 1, or Service Pack 2) Windows 7 Your software must be able to be verified as genuine as per the http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/ site For Windows XP, a PC with a CPU clock speed of 500 MHz or higher, and 256 MB RAM or higher. For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a PC with a CPU clock speed of 1.0 GHz or...

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for Microsoft Office 2007 (version 4.0) is available online via http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd632446.aspx If you’re looking to go to Office 2010 once it releases then you’ll want to check out the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for Microsoft Office 2010 (version 5.0 – BETA 1). You’ll need your Live ID in order to access the tool via the “ Download the MAP 5.0 Beta 1 for Office 2010 ” site as the BETA review program is now open but it is due to close in the next few days (mid-April). The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is an agentless tool that streamlines the IT infrastructure planning process through network-wide automated discovery. This Solution Accelerator performs an inventory of your enterprise environment and provides usage information for servers in the Core CAL Suite, a data center infrastructure assessment survey, and a readiness assessment for the most wi...

The Microsoft Rapid Economic Justification guide, created by the Microsoft Business Value Group, takes you through the project assessment process in simple steps and includes tools, templates, and how-to information to help you make a compelling business case for an IT project. The guide simplifies the process of researching, preparing, and presenting your project analysis into manageable, easy-to-follow steps. You can create the necessary reports and presentations on your own or work with a Microsoft partner to complete the work for you. You can get the details on the Microsoft Rapid Economic Justification guide on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/business/enterprise/value.mspx Additionally, the full 150 page Rapid Economic Justification Guide in PDF format is available for review as well. The Rapid Economic Justification Data Collection Worksheet is also available. Technorati Tags: Rapid Economic Justification guide , Office , Office 2010 , Microsoft ...

ExamForce is offering 7 free Microsoft, CompTIA and Cisco practice exams and their CramMaster test preparation engine. I have personally used them in the past and they are generally pretty good questions for study and review for the respective exams. The exams usually come to you in a small pool of about 50 for each topic, in the hopes that if you like your free preview that you might decide to buy the full package which will often includes 300+ questions. The current offer includes the following titles: 70-680 Windows 7 Configuring Practice Exam 640-802 Cisco CCNA Practice Exam 640-553 Cisco Security Practice Exam 220-701 CompTIA A+ Essentials Practice Exam 220-702 CompTIA A+ IT Technician N10-004 CompTIA Network+ SY0-201 CompTIA Security+ Download Your 7 Free Practice Exams Today at: http://www.examforce.com/customer/special25.php Just a quick note as well, I was not paid for any type of endorsement on this. I simply wanted to pass along the information regard...

I engaged in some email correspondence with the site owner of MCMCSE.com (Jason Sprague) regarding his free A+ Study Guides on their Study Center page. They currently have them listed as the 220-701 and 220-702 guides but upon further review I did notice that they were still the material from the 601 and 602 exams (which is still about 70% relevant to the 2009 exam release). I wanted to find out if he was going to have an update to this soon as I had students starting an A+ class and I wanted to offer them the links as additional study material. Jason explained to me that as of right now it was a work in progress to get the information updated but that it had to be put on the back burner for a bit. I am going to be preparing notes and updates for my class and I offered to assist with the content update. Over the next few weeks you can expect to see the content for 220-701 and 220-702 posted here and migrated into the guides that Jason offers as well. Technorati Tags: A...

Hi gang! Thanks for the emails asking what’s up with the site and what I’ve been up to. Sorry about the disappearance. I was pulled into a couple of escalating issues with respect to my day job and needed to focus additional time and attention that I might have otherwise directed toward the blog. That and I am still instructing at night. So with all of that I didn’t have the time to keep the blog on track. Having said all that, I have gotten the bulk of the issues addressed and I’ve taken a couple of weeks off from work and now I am going to get back on schedule. So you can expect to see regular posts from me again from three to five times a week again.