Does Microsoft Hate All MCSE 2000 ?

Work_IT_out · March 2008

I just reviewed Microsoft's policies for upgrading from Windows 2000 MCSE to Windows 2008. There is no direct upgrade path. You have to upgrade from Windows 2000 to 2003 MSCE by taking 2 upgrade tests, and then you upgrade to Windows 2008 with at least 2 more upgrade tests.

I looked at the Upgrade tests from 2000 to 2003, and there is a little note that says these test are expiring in March 2008. Given the fact that Windows 2008 was just released to manufacturing in February of 2008, that gives all MCSE 2000 folks about 1 month to pass these 2 tests. With that tight of a time frame, Microsoft's free 2nd shot exam offer won't help.

This is not fair to those who invested their time & money into getting a Windows 2000 MCSE. After all, there is an upgrade path from NT 4.0 to Windows 2003, but none from Windows 2000 to 2008. If there is not going to be a direct upgrade path from 2000 to 2008 (because they are such different technologies, according to Microsoft), do you think Microsoft could at least throw give MCSE 2000 folks a break by extend this deadline, to give folks adequate time to study & pass these tests? I don’t know about you, but some of us spend their time on full time jobs during the day, as well as family at night, in addition to finding time to study for tests.

It seems to me that Microsoft is communicating a callous disregard for the time & money spent on certification by the community that implements their products. If you can't pass these 2 tests in the month of March 2008, I guess you either need to start over again with Windows 2008 certification, or maybe Microsoft wants us to jump ship and get certified in Linux?

What’s your take on this?

NinjaBoy · March 2008

Playing devil's advocate, I do have to say that MS did say that they were retiring the 2000 exam last year and that there was no direct upgrade path from 2000 to 2008.

Retiring exam info from April 2007, see here.

No direct upgrade from 2000 to 2008 info from March 2007, see here.

Most likely when Windows 7 (the client and server) comes up, there won't be a direct upgrade path from 2003 to Windows 7 as the technology is too different.

Plus I also have to say that the certification does not expire, only the exams.

Apart from that I don't really know why they are retiring the exams, there are lots of people/companies that still use 2000, heck there are still companies that still use nt4.

-Ken

royal · March 2008

NinjaBoy wrote:

Apart from that I don't really know why they are retiring the exams, there are lots of people/companies that still use 2000, heck there are still companies that still use nt4.

$$$

Who is seriously still going for their MCSE in 2000? Retiring exams will retire certifications if I understand correctly (I never did MCSE in NT or 2000). Because those exams are retiring, and the certs along with them (as I believe is correct), it'll persuade people to start doing their MCSE in 2003 or MCTS/MCITP in 2008 to still have a certification which results in more money in Microsoft's pockets.

cacharo · March 2008

Microsoft did give you 5 years to upgrade to 2k3.

RTmarc · March 2008

cacharo wrote:

Microsoft did give you 5 years to upgrade to 2k3.

Yep.

HeroPsycho · March 2008

I actually applaud them for closing this up. If you haven't taken an exam in as much as 8 years, you probably should have to start over.

It's still not even close to Cisco's 3 year policy.

snadam · March 2008

hey man, you dont have to TRIPLE POST.

http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32156
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32155
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32154

Ill just put what I put in the other posts...

Daniel333 wrote:

I agree, completely. I see no good jusitifcation for this. Microsoft sucks up money, it's what they do.

Nothing wrong with jumping on to Linux either.

so does every other company that provides certification; get real. Like others said, its been known for at least a year that the are retiring the 2000 track. Hell, its been out for eight [years] already! Sucks, but there will be a time soon when the MCSA/E will retire altogether.

Plantwiz · March 2008

royal wrote:

[... Retiring exams will retire certifications if I understand correctly (I never did MCSE in NT or 2000). Because those exams are retiring, and the certs along with them (as I believe is correct), ......

No. You'll be an MSCA/E 2000 or MCSA/E 2003. More along they don't want someone making the blanket statement of "I'm an MCSA." and having that cover them for ALL current NOS. So, once someone completes a track 2000/2003 etc...you merely claim the title MCSA/E 2000 or 2003 or both. At the end of the month....you'll either have MSCA/E 2000 certs or not.

The cert is for a lifetime.

AlanJames · March 2008

well you have 3 years to upgrade your cisco cert or they become expired.

Claymoore · March 2008

Work_IT_out wrote:

This is not fair to those who invested their time & money into getting a Windows 2000 MCSE. After all, there is an upgrade path from NT 4.0 to Windows 2003, but none from Windows 2000 to 2008. If there is not going to be a direct upgrade path from 2000 to 2008 (because they are such different technologies, according to Microsoft), do you think Microsoft could at least throw give MCSE 2000 folks a break by extend this deadline, to give folks adequate time to study & pass these tests? I don’t know about you, but some of us spend their time on full time jobs during the day, as well as family at night, in addition to finding time to study for tests.

An MCSE in NT4 only counts as an elective for the 2003 MCSE - that hardly qualifies as an upgrade path. I don't think there should be one for NT4 MCSEs either as the technology is so different (TCP/IP was an elective exam for the NT4 MCSE, for example).

At least 2000 MCSEs can retake the MCSE 2003 upgrade exams. If I remember correctly, the upgrade exam from NT4 to 2000 was a single test that you could only take once. Fail it and you had to take every test in the series to get a 2000 MCSE. This could be one reason why there are 100,000 fewer 2000 MCSEs than NT4 MCSEs.

I also remember Microsoft orginally announcing that all NT4 MCSEs would expire in 2001 and you would have to upgrade or you would lose your MCSE title. As you can probably imagine, that statement was not well received and the negative feedback convinced Microsoft to change their policy and allow us to keep our titles even though the technology expired. MS recently made the same change with the MCTS program and are not going to require people to recertify every 3 years.

Before you get all warm and fuzzy believing that MS did this because they like us so much, keep in mind that different partnership levels require certain numbers of certified staff members (or they did back when I was consulting). If you had to have 5 MCSEs in order to maintain Gold Partner status, imagine the revenue hit you would take by pulling 5 people off customer projects so that you could pay for 2-4 weeks of training for each of them, plus get them to pass exams or risk losing your partnership status. The Gold and Platinum partners got the rules changed, not us.

Does Microsoft Hate All MCSE 2000 ?

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