Microsoft e-courses

Taking the Plunge: Signed up For Collection 5347

OK. I did it. Today I visited the Career Assist page at Microsoft Learning, signed up for the Second shot offer therein, and got my promotion code to buy a collection online class for $35 (it added up to $37.89 actually, after I paid local sales taxes). I now have 90 days to complete Collection 5347: Installing and configuring Windows Vista which should entitle me to go after a Vista Technical Specialist credential by taking Exam 70-620 Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client.

At this point, I’ve completed several online courses from Microsoft Learning —specifically:

• Course 3392: Working with Windows Vista
• Course 5352: Fundamentals of the Windows Vista Startup Process
• Course 5354: Fundamentals of Windows Vista File Systems

I think that entitles me to make some observations about these offerings:

1. I wish they offered a printable manual of some kind to summarize and re-present course materials. Right now, the only way to refresh concepts is to repeat the courses or to take copious notes and/or shoot lots of screenshots while inside the e-learning GUI. I’m not completely happy about either of these alternatives, but may have to learn to use both of them often and well.
2. The material is generally interesting, well broken up into small digestible modules, and fairly useful. I do wish they inlcuded a built-in connection with TechNet, user manuals, and so forth, along with links to more details, so that these tools could provide more guided learning, in more technical depth as one completes individual course modules. Of course, this is pretty easy to do on your own on a multi-display set-up like mine, simply by opening another browser window to dig into stuff on one screen while working through the prepared e-learning materials on the other screen.
3. Access to flash cards, or easy repeat access to review questions from these materials, would really help with exam prep and refresh stuff. Right now, there’s no easy drill and practice capability included, and I believe that both drills and practice are essential to passing cert exams and putting that knowledge to work on the job. The labs, when available, are pretty good, though.

I’ll find out if these observations stick as I dig into the aforementioned collection and will also report on same. I’m going to be looking for tips and tricks to put stuff together to prep for 70-620, using this material as my primary preparation source (I can always take up the SecondShot offer if I don’t pass the exam on the first try, and dig into other prep materials at that time).

HTH,

–Ed–

MS Exam 70-620 TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client

In digging up the info on this, the first in my series of four MCTS and MCITP Vista-related exams that I’ll be covering over the next week or so, I discovered that Microsoft has finally changed the format for its exam pages. I’ve been tuning into these documents since the late 1990s and it’s nice to see that they’ve finally gotten a facelift (looking at the source, I can see that MS has switched from HTML 4.01 to XHTML 1.0, and the markup looks programmatically generated, but I can’t find any evidence for the tools used to generate it except the file extension .aspx which would indicate ASP.NET is involved). If you take a quick look at the 70-620 exam page, you’ll see exactly what I mean.

The 70-620 counts toward a surprising number of credentials:

• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Consumer Support Technician
• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Enterprise Support Technician
• Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Enterprise Administrator

This exams aims to certify that individuals have at least one year of experience working in IT, often providing telephone support at the tier-1 or tier-2 levels across various types of environment that range from retail stores, to medium sized companies, to enterprise environments. General areas of knowledge required to pursue this exam include networking, desktop operating systems, security, and end-user applications, plus basic administrative tasks including solving logon problems, resetting passwords, and supporting desktop applications.

The exam’s coverage is broken into seven areas:

• Installing and Upgrading Windows Vista
  Covers the basics of hardware requirements and compatibility checks (e.g. Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor), performing a clean installation, upgrading to Vista from an earlier Windows version or from one version of Vista to another, troubleshooting installation issues, and installing and configuring Windows Vista drivers.
• Configuring and troubleshooting post-install system settings
  Includes troubleshooting post-install configuration difficulties, configuring and troubleshooting Aero, parental controls, and Internet Explorer (version 7 is the primary current focus).
• Configuring Windows Security features
  Working with User Account Control (UAC), Windows Defender, Dynamic Security for IE 7, and security settings in Windows Firewall and Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
• Configuring network connectivity
  Configuring networking through the Network and sharing centers, troubleshooting connectivity issues, and configuring remote access (Remote Desktop Connection).
• Configuring applications included with Windows Vista
  These include media applications (Media Center, Media Player), Mail, Meeting Space, Calendar, Fax and Scan, plus the Windows Sidebar.
• Maintaining and optimizing systems that run Windows Vista
  This means troubleshooting performance issues, using built-in tools to troubleshoot reliability issues (System Health Check, Reliability Monitor, Problem Reports and Solutions, and so on), plus configuring Windows Update and data protection.
• Configuring and troubleshooting mobile computing
  This entails managing mobile display settings, and configuring mobile devices, Tablet PC software, and power options.

In the new exam page format, Microsoft not only lists relevant Classroom training courses, it also lists e-learning items as well as Microsoft Press books that focus on the exam. All in all this exam should help IT professionals establish a solid working knowledge of basic Vista operation, installation, configuration, and troubleshooting. As we’ll see in the next exams, things quickly get more complex and interesting from here.

Pre-Vista Certification Training Warm-up

OK, OK. I know I promised to dig into the various Windows Vista certification exams in their MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist) and MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) programs as my next series of blogs. But hey! I found a resource that relates strongly to all of these credentials, and promises to impact your general learning and preparation experience for any or all of the required exams involved in a positive–and affordable–way. What am I talking about? Why it’s the Windows Vista e-Learning catalog page in the Microsoft Learning Web site, of course!

There are over 70 Vista e-Learning courses available. They cost anywhere from $15 to $192, and include small, focused items at lower prices, and collections of e-courses for higher prices, many of which target specific Vista-related certifications and/or related topics, including

• :Course 5232: Planning for 2007 Microsoft Office System Client Deployment
• Collection 5366: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Computers Running Windows Vista
• Course 5371: Advanced Troubleshooting with Windows Sysinternals Tools
• Course 5384: Protecting Against and Removing Malicious Software on Windows Vista
• Course 5381: Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Client Applications in Windows Vista
• Collection 5379: Supporting Windows Vista for the Consumer Support Technician
• Collection 5106: Upgrading Enterprise Desktop Support Skills to Windows Vista
• Collection 5372: Deploying Windows Vista Desktop Images and Applications

Of course, there are oodles and oodles more of these items you can explore at the catalog page, but you’re bound to find multiple topics of interest there if you do a little digging. The value for the training offered is good, as is the coverage, so please consider adding this resource to your arsenal of potential Vista certification preparation tools.

Next blog: I promise to start with the MCTS credentials for Windows Vista. I swear!

More out-of-cycle Vista patches on Windows Update!

On Tuesday, October 28, as I was knocking off for the day, after 11 PM, I noticed that the autoupdate function in Windows Update had posted two more items to my primary production Vista PC. Both look interesting, but so far I’ve had some trouble trying to ferret out more details about one of these two patches.

Here’s what I know so far:

• One of the items is a security update, labeled MS08-062 and is entitled “Vulnerability in Windows Internet Printing Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution.” Interestingly, the security bulletin is dated October 14, and it documents a serious vulnerability in the seldom-used Internet Printing Service–or rather, the IPP protocol and the Internet Printing Client that this service uses–that Vista installs by default (see this vulnerability report dated October 14 for more info on the vulnerability details; this MS White paper describes how Internet Printing works inside Vista; note further that this vulnerability applies to Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, and Windows XP as well). Basically an integer overflow in this service lets attackers run arbitrary code at system level privilege: a proof-of-concept exploit is known, and several “active, in-the-wild exploit attempts of this type have been detected.” If you don’t use Internet Printing, you can follow the instructions in the MS White paper to turn off the Internet Printing Client in Vista instead (under Printing Services, Turn Windows features on or off, Programs and Features, Control Panel).
• More interesting, and more mysterious is the other item: a “reliability update” for Windows Vista described in a currently unavailable Knowledge Base article (KB957200). All I can find on this update so far is the standalone download page entitled Update for Windows Vista (KB957200). Of course, I’m dying to know what’s been tweaked in this particular update, and why MS decided to push it out the door before November 11 (next patch Tuesday). The Web is abuzz with the word that the KB article remains missing in action, so I guess I’ll have to bide my time. As of this morning (10/30/2008) the article remains missing in action, so I posted a query to the Technet Windows Vista Announcements forum in hopes it might provoke some kind of official response (or better yet, the promised KB article).

My advice on MS08-062 is to download and install it, unless you never use the Internet Printing Service, in which case you can simply turn it off on your PCs, or set a GPO to do it globally. Files affected are detailed in KB 953135, and include three Vista DLLs: Msw3prt.dll, Win32spl.dll, and Printcom.dll. As far as the reliability update documented in KB957200 goes, stay tuned: I’ll provide more information about this update as soon as it becomes available.

Wow! Two out-of-cycle update postings for Windows in the same month, after 18 months with no updates except for Patch Tuesday releases. What does it all mean?