Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) ― Computer hackers have begun targeting power plants and other critical operations around the world in bold new efforts to seize control of them, setting off a scramble to shore up aging, vulnerable systems. Cyber criminals have long tried, at times successfully, to break into vital networks and power systems. But last month, experts for the first time discovered a malicious computer code — called a worm — specifically created to take over systems that control the inner workings of industrial plants. In response to the growing threat, the Department of Homeland Security has begun building specialized teams that can respond quickly to cyber emergencies at industrial facilities across the country. As much as 85 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure is owned and operated by private companies, ranging from nuclear and electric power plants to transportation and manufacturing systems. Many of the new attacks hav...

Over on the Petri IT Knowledgebase website I have a new article up titled Configuring Taskbar Alerts & Maintenance Functions in Windows 7 Action Center In this article I introduce the Windows 7 Action Center, how to directly access it from the Control Panel as well as to review some of the settings and options available to you through the Security and Maintenance functions This is another one of those Windows 7 articles that fits well within the body of knowledge for the exam. As always, I am always looking forward to any feedback you have on this or any of the articles I have written so feel free to offer your input. Additionally, I would welcome any suggestions topics of interest that you would like to see and based on free time and column space I’ll do what I can to deliver them to you.

Edited content from the FAQ that was originally published at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff384134.aspx Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is an update for enterprises and IT Professionals that includes virtualization enhancements and previous improvements delivered via Windows Update. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is an update that helps keep your PCs supported, provides ongoing improvement to the operating system, by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 platform based on customer and partner feedback, and is easy for organization to deploy a single set of updates. The system requirements for the Service Pack 1 beta are that you need to be running the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (build 7600). The beta of SP1 can install on RTM evaluation versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The final release version of Service Pack 1 is expected to b...

by Kimberly Pittmon Certifying your skills affords tangible career advancement benefits. Possible merits include boosting your salary, illuminating your résumé and advancing your job. In today's sputtering job climate, attaining--or maintaining--a certification can give you a razor-sharp edge. Here is how a certification can jumpstart or augment your career: 1. Provides you leverage. Employers expect employees to contribute quickly, accurately and measurably. A certification says, "Yes, I can do that." 2. Illustrates your tenacity. If anything is worth having, it's worth the toil. Employers seek people who will produce more with fewer resources. 3. Boosts your confidence. In the workplace, it's all about solving problems. And confidence--to deliver--is the engine that drives practical solutions. 4. Illuminates your résumé. Hiring managers give résumés a cursory glance. A certification makes them apt to read your résumé and summon an interview. 5....

There is a seven part series developed by Jay Paloma posted over on You Tube and I have leveraged the embed code to post the videos below for your study of the 70-680 and 70-685 Windows 7 exams. This video series explains how to deploy Windows 7 from Windows XP using WAIK – the Windows Automated Installation Kit and MDT 2010 – the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Windows 7 Deployment Series Part 1 - Generate WinPE Boot CD - by Jay Paloma This video is Part 1 on a series on Windows 7 Deployment. This explains how to generate the WinPE Boot CD in Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)   Windows 7 Deployment Part 2 - Use WAIK to Acquire WIM Image - by Jay Paloma This is Part 2 of the Windows 7 Deployment Series. Let's now take a look at how to use WAIK to acquire an image of a Windows 7 machine and store it in the Windows Imaging Format or WIM. For this we will need the WinPE boot CD that we created in part 1   Windows 7 Deployment Part 3 - Using WAIK...

Late last year I had posted an article over on http://www.petri.co.il/ that reviews some subtle changes to Windows 7 Desktop that you should be aware of. While the changes from Vista to Windows 7 are subtle they are a radical departure for those users that are more familiar with Windows XP. The full article is titled Getting Started with the Windows 7 Desktop and it takes a brief look the Windows 7 Desktop and the changes in the basic functions of it and how you can perform some customizations for personalization and ease of use. There is some additional focus of the article regarding the Notification Area that is on the right side of the taskbar by default near the time and date information. This part of the Taskbar contains icons for installed program that can provide status for things such as the existence (or lack) of network connectivity, volume control, action center notifications and so forth. For the 70-680 exam it is good to just understand some of these changes – agai...

This post was originally written by Gabriel Villa on his blog http://extofer.blogspot.com/ It’s about that time to focus on a few things, one being Microsoft Certification. I passed the 70-433 Database Developer certification last year. My intention is to become a Microsoft Certified IT Pro Database Developer and DBA. Microsoft has three Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification and three IT Professional certifications for SQL Server 2008. The MCTS include Implementation and Maintenance (70-432), Database Development (70-433) and Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance (70-448). Each of these are the prerequisite to the IT Professional certifications (MCITP). For instance if you take 70-432 and 70-450, Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Server Infrastructure using Microsoft SQL Server 2008, you obtained MCITP Database Administrator. Exam 70-433 along with 70-451, Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008, makes you an...