Certification

Free Windows 2008 TCP/IP ebook

Kay Sellenrode — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:01:50 GMT

I just found this free ebook that microsoft made available for download.
For those that are interested in the latest updates and the changes in the Windows 2008 TCP/IP stack i think it is a good reading.

See the following link at the microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c76296fd-61c9-4079-a0bb-582bca4a846f&DisplayLang=en

Windows Internals beta exam 70-660

Kay Sellenrode — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:47:18 GMT

Today I found the following announcement at the ntdebug blog.
Microsoft has released a windows internal exam, targeted for the IT Pro and Developers that need to know the internals.
seems to me it is definatly a developer exam, and also good to know for the IT Pro that do a lot of troubleshooting/debugging. For myself I'm considering it, but it seems a tough one and am not sure if I'm already prepared enough to take it.

At least for everyone that would like to take the exam here is the beta code and the info:
ps. I marked the beta code RED

Windows Internals Beta Exam 70-660

Hello Windows Debugging Community, We are super excited to announce a new certification. With the help of industry partners, including some of our very talented community members, we have developed a new Windows Internals Certification. This Certification targets developers and IT professionals that require knowledge of Windows Internals as part of their profession. Chance are if you are reading this blog post you are part of the target audience. I encourage you to register and please take the Beta exam. Please help us to improve the exam by providing feedback during the beta exam.

Register for Beta Exam 70-660: TS: Windows® Internals

You are invited to take beta exam 70-660: TS: Windows® Internals. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.

By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

Please remember that participation in the beta process is completely voluntary and Microsoft makes no promises or guarantees regarding the beta exam process. You can expect to receive your score on the beta exam within 12 weeks of taking the exam, although in some instances, beta exams may take longer to score and your results may be delayed.

70-660: TS: Windows® Internals counts as credit towards the following certification.

· Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows® Internals

Availability

Registration begins: July 17, 2008

Beta exam period runs: July 21, 2008– August 5, 2008

Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: WINT
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.

Microsoft Certified Master

Kay Sellenrode — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:57:13 GMT

So to make the Microsoft Certification program more complete they now added a new title MCM Microsoft Certified Master.
Though there isn't a lot of information about it yet i see there will be 5 specialisations

MCM Exchange Server 2007
MCM SQL Server 2008
MCM Windows 2008
MCM OCS 2007 ?? (just guessing on the info i found)
MCM Sharepoint ?? (also just guessing)

For the people that already know the MCA program, this seems to become (the technically) part of it.
In the next weeks there will be more info to find on the Microsoft site.

Whatch the following site http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/master/default.mspx

How to Prepare for the 652 Hyper-V Exam

Kay Sellenrode — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:39:56 GMT

Lukas Beeler posted a great report about his exam experience today and well as a lot of people are searching for resources how to prepare for this exam, i though this would be quite helpful.

See Lukas his blog

Passed 647, 2008 enterprise administrator

Kay Sellenrode — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:24:45 GMT

So all results are in now.

I'm fully Windows 2008 certified, the results are processed on the site of Prometric.
Good luck to everyone that schedule the exam next month when it is available.

Passed 646, 2008 server administrator

Kay Sellenrode — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:34:09 GMT

So endly the first result is in, I passed 646 Windows 2008 Server Administrator.

Probably the results for the 637 exam will be posted soon too.

Friday Exam Day, Vista and ISA 2006

Kay Sellenrode — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:23:38 GMT

Last Friday I took 3 exams to update my resume again.

The exams I took and which I all passed were:

                70-620 Configuring Windows Vista Client
                70-622 Microsoft Desktop Support – Enterprise
                70-351 Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server 2006,Configuring

So here my review of what I used to prepare for these exams.

Exam 620

The tools I used were Microsoft E-learning and U-certify Prepkit.

The Microsoft E-learning is a great way to interactively train yourself online and offline with the subjects that are needed for the exam. For me this was the first time I used this way of learning, and it was a good experience. You get all the subject presented in three different ways, Plain text, graphics and short video demonstrations. At the end of each course you will have a LAB where you can practice your skills on the trained subject. These labs are only available online, which I was missing since the most I used the e-learning while I was commuting on the train between home and my customer.

So for the following months I will keep on using this e-learning tools to update all my skills.

The U-Certify Prepkit was the other tool I used and it quite nicely surprised me.
In the past I was always negative about these kind of tools, they mostly where brain dumps of the exams, they were targeted to learn each possible question you would get on the exam, opposite to what you really need. But U-certify did a good job on this Prepkit.
For me the Prepkit was a way to be triggered to study subjects that I was missing without this tool.

It directed me to several parts in Vista that I didn’t even knew they were there, from all the test questions I just recognized two or three that were also covered in the Microsoft exam.
The Prepkit did exactly what I was expecting from it, triggering me to dive into the subjects that I wouldn’t have studied otherwise.

All in All I’m very pleased by the Microsoft E-learning and the U-certify Prepkit.

Exam 622

The Tools I used where Microsoft E-learning and a few MSPRESS titles.

The E-learning was verry helpful on this one and well since I had to study for the 620 and 622 the subjects for both exams just helped me to get a better feeling on all the topics.

Nothing really special to me about this exam.
Since the U-certify tool wasn’t released yet for this exam I was unable to use it here.

Exam 351
For this exam I was unable to do really any studying, it was missing preparation tools like e-learning
But since ISA server is one of the technology parts that always triggers my interest I wasn’t too worried that I couldn’t pass the exam.
But during the exam I got little worried, and I think this is exactly what a Microsoft exam shouldn’t be.
It almost seemed like it was a copy of the 2004 exam and was missing all the new things that are part of ISA 2006.
No questions about web farms or the new authentication options in 2006, and at one point I was shocked, I got a question where there was stated that I just did an in place upgrade of ISA 2000 to ISA 2006.
I might have missed something but like Marc Grote also mentioned on his Blog, this is not possible.

For me this exam was really disappointing, even though I passed it.
The score was lower than expected and also like Marc I had 0% on proxy chaining which I couldn't understand why.
I previously did several Beta exams and most of those seemed better/same than this exam.

But well It was a good day for taking the exams as it turned out since I passed all the exams.

ISA 2006 Exam is released

Kay Sellenrode — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:55:53 GMT

So just this morning when i was looking at all the rss feeds i was supprised to see that Trika had published a post on her blog about a new exam that is released.
ISA 2006 is now available as an exam and even gives you a special MCTS certification on your Transcript.

The new exam is labeled 70-351: TS: Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006, Configuring

The MCTS certification is labeled: ISA Server 2006, Configuration

I will schedule this exam as soon as possible, too bad i wasn''t in the list for the beta.
Hopefully i will pass this exam with same kind of result as my ISA 2004 exam.

Microsoft Certfication will change

Kay Sellenrode — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 06:25:45 GMT

So lately a lot of things changes for the good or bad in the Microsoft Certification area.

So today i read the story on Trika her webpage that they will quit working with VUE.
Badly enough for me this means that i have to find me an new place to pass my exams since all places where i can certify right now are vue test centers and not prometric.
In the netherlands i have to travel for more than 1 1/2 hour to get to the nearest Prometric testing center.
So for me and i guess more people in europe this is a bad announcement.
I hope some testing centers will change from vue to prometric.

Will also miss the nice people of vue at Teched every year.
So we will see what will happen next year.

Windows 2008 Beta Exams Available at Teched 2007 Orlando

Kay Sellenrode — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:26:30 GMT

Just noticed the posting on Trika Harms her page.

During Teched the Beta exams for upgrading your MCSA / MCSE certs.
These will only be available through Teched 2007.
So if you're already up to date with all the new Windows 2008 stuff, I would say go for it.

You will be one of the first to have the Windows 2008 certification, something which might help when a customer needs to choose between two IT partners.

I will invest some extra time the following weeks to get up to date and take this exam.

To find more info, go to Trika her page