Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

Leann Turpin  is the Site Manager for the Born to Learn site and she has been adding and updating to the Certification Exam Prep Resources as pa rt of the Server Certification Study Group content.   I have been reviewing these for my 70-417 exam (which is not broken down as its own entry but is there as part of the core entries). The site breaks down each skills measured subtopic into groupings and offers links to the materials. For those of you looking for 410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 materials can check out the wiki page for the 70-410 exam for all the links.

I am looking forward to my  opportunity to review VMWare's Project NEE . I received my welcome email and beta sign in information: "Welcome to Project NEE! We're happy to welcome you to the NextGen Education Environment." The VMware Hands-on Labs are now available and the public beta has over one thousand users according to the information as posted on the VMware Hands-on Labs communities page. If you are interested in participate in this you can request a logon via the VMware Hands-on Labs Online Public Beta   section of their communities page in the "Public Beta Interest List" section. If you want to keep up-to-date on the latest hands on Labs news you can read about VMware innovations for both event-based and online labs via their blog http://blogs.vmware.com/hol One word of note - Internet Explorer is not supported. If you want to use the environment you'll need to Install one of the supported browsers: FireFox 13+ Chrome 18+ Safari 6+

I personally use TrainSignal Training for my own studies and continue to do so 10 years later and I highly recommend them for anyone that is looking to study for the corresponding certification exams or just looking to increase their knowledge on the subject matter. In both cases TrainSignal puts you on the best track for success. For the Windows Server 2012 Installing and Configuring (70-410) Training , Ed Liberman teaches you how to perform a full installation of Server 2012. The course goes through exam objectives for Exam 70-410 including: -- Active Directory Domain Services -- Implementing Server Virtualization with Hyper-V -- Introduction to PowerShell -- PowerShell vs Command Prompt -- Implementing Network Services -- Working with Group Policy -- Installing Windows Server 2012 -- Group Account Management -- Computer Account Management -- Organizational Unit (OU) Management -- Implementing IPv4 -- Implementing IPv6 -- Implementing DNS, DHCP, Group Policy and more The train

Beginning February 8th through June 2013, you can block time on Fridays on a weekly basis between 10AM and 3PM Eastern Time to join a Virtual Study Hall and work through real-world hands-on activities with live Q&A assistance from a field-experienced IT Pro Technical Evangelist. A Virtual Study Hall is an “open lab” time where you can study and work virtually on any of the hands-on exercises in the “Early Experts” Hands-on Labs http://earlyexperts.net/ or Step-by-Step Guides http://aka.ms/CloudLab . The list of study and lab topics is always growing, but here are the ones that are listed at the time of this post -- Windows 8 - Build a Windows 8 Application Development Environment in the Cloud -- Windows 8 - Side-loading Windows 8 Apps -- Windows 8 - Controlling Access in Windows 8 via AppLocker Windows Server 2012 - 11 labs in total including Installing Windows Server 2012, Implementing Server Core and Minimal Server Interface, and Manage Server Roles and Features with Se

New York Times News Service The effort to take Dell private has gained a prominent, if unusual, backer: Microsoft. The software giant is in talks to help finance a takeover bid for Dell that would exceed $20 billion, a person briefed on the matter said Tuesday. Microsoft would be expected to contribute up to several billion dollars. An investment by Microsoft could be enough to push aleveraged buyout of the struggling computer maker over the goal line. Silver Lake, the private equity firm spearheading the takeover talks, has been seeking a deep-pocketed investor to join the effort. And Microsoft, which has not yet made a commitment, has more than $66 billion in cash. Microsoft and Silver Lake, a prominent investor in technology companies, are no strangers. The private equity firm was part of a consortiumthat sold Skype, the online video-chatting pioneer, to Microsoft for $8.5 billion nearly two years ago. And the two companies had discussed teaming up to invest in Yahoo in

Author Deb Shinder takes a look at two new features of BitLocker in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8: used disk space only mode and preprovisioning of BitLocker. These and other BitLocker Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are part of her ongoing series of articles over on http://www.windowsecurity.com Part two of her series is titled BitLocker Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 (Part 2) - Cluster Share Volume Support The printable version of the article is available here .

‎1 of 2 new releases today! Check out our new Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Essentials Training with virtualization expert David Davis. Follow along as David walks you through installing, configuring, and using the most powerful new features such as live storage migration, Replica, and failover clustering. With the release of Server 2012, the time is right to learn Hyper-V! Save $100 with coupon HYPERV382 at checkout, limited time only! I have been using TrainSignal training for decades (yep - in the early 2000's and today so I get to say "decades"); I cannot emphasize enough the quality of the products. I have personally used their training for both certification purposes as well as skills enhancement and it has been above par in every case - from the early days of Windows 2000 and 2003 Active Directory all the way through the VMware vSphere 5 Training and CompTIA Cloud Essentials Training that I am reviewing today. If you have only the time and / or the budget for onl

Author Deb Shinder   takes a look at the new support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs) and the new Network Unlock feature that allows for automatic unlocking of BitLocker-protected drives when the computer is connected to the wired corporate network. These and other BitLocker Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are part of her ongoing series of articles over on http://www.windowsecurity.com Part one of her series is titled BitLocker Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 (Part 1) - SED Support and Network Unlock The printable version of the article is available here .

MVA Office Hours - Windows Server & Client January 15, 2013 8:30-10:00am PST Register Now: Space is Limited! The Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) team is hosting a live online discussion designed to enable experienced IT Pros to ask technical questions regarding Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 . This exclusive session will feature two of Microsoft’s most popular personalities from " The Edge Show " -- Senior Technical Evangelist  Joey Snow -- Senior Technical Evangelist  Rick Claus  Both will be engaging in dialog, debate and demos shaped by a global audience of esteemed IT Pros.