Should this be my first microsoft cert?

mattman26

Hello guys i need some advice, I recently graduated from lincoln tech from Network communication and IS program, I am thinking about taking Windows 7 exam as first microsoft exam is this a good idea? i took a windows xp course their, windows 7 was not available. but i want to get 7 because it is newer then xp and probably more deployed in the workplace, what learning material should i use?

Thank You

eserfeliz

In my opinion, you should look at a couple of factors:

1) What are you familiar with, and
2) What is in demand in your area/region?

The latter you can find an answer to by searching through career portals and job boards. This will lead you to the former question. You know what you're familiar with already. If the market is demanding Windows 7, get a copy of the OS and a self-study book. You will need some level of familiarity with some of its more advanced features to pass the 70-680 exam.

Hope this helps.

mattman26

Yes tank you for your advice, im just wondering do you know of any good books for 70-680?

Devilry

Welcome to the TechExams forums!

We are glad to have you.

The following books and materials are the ones I am currently using to study for this exam:

Don Poulton: Amazon.com: MCTS 70-680 Cert Guide: Microsoft Windows 7, Configuring (9780789747075): Don Poulton: Books

Sybex: Amazon.com: MCTS Windows 7 Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-680 (9780470568750): William Panek: Books

MS Press Kit (has some errors, but still worth the read): Amazon.com: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7 (9780735627086): Ian McLean, Orin Thomas: Books

And I start by watching professormesser.com videos, its a great overview to get friendly with things, then your reading and labs you can get into the nitty gritty.

universalfrost

my technicians used the Don Poulton book with 100% success so far, those that used the MS Press Kit had about a 50% pass rate for the first try...

Might also want to get Darril Gibson 70-685 and 70-686 book to read as well before sitting for the 70-680... I have heard from my techs and others on this board that there is helpful information in Darril's book for the 70-680 (plus you can shorten you time between 70-680 and either 685 or 686 to finish your MCITP....

You can get a trial version of win 7 business edition from MS and for any of the 2008r2 portions of the 70-680 you can also download 2008r2 trial from MS.

mattman26

Great, Thank you guys so much for your advice im gonna purchase the Don Poltron one and also use the professor messer videos, i heard they are really useful

Wish me luck

Psoasman

Make sure you set up a lab and go through the exam objectives. Make sure your servers are 2008 R2, when labbing. The labbing helps you walk through steps in your mind when being asked about the way M$ wants it done.

dazl1212

Psoasman wrote: »

Make sure you set up a lab and go through the exam objectives. Make sure your servers are 2008 R2, when labbing. The labbing helps you walk through steps in your mind when being asked about the way M$ wants it done.

My PC will not support 64 bit VM's will using 2008 R1 not be good enough?
Don't know why I have a quad core Phenom

tokhss

Its not your PROC.. its usually the MB that prevents you from running VM's for some reason.. there is a setting that allows your proc to virtualize. Check out our MB specs / settings first.

I have a Phenom and it works just fine.

universalfrost

some proc's aren't able to support VM's, but your proc is not the problem. I would assume that your motherboard chipset (northbridge mostly) is the cause. First check the manufacturer site for specs. hopefully it only takes a bios update to make it VM capable (that was the issue with my old Dell inspiron 530 desktop, and a simple BIOS update made it capable of 64bit VM hosting)

dazl1212

Thanks guys I have tried updating the bios its an amd 780g chipset.
Amd-v is turned on in the bios. I am going to try Windows 7 x64 again as it just kept blue screening when I had it installed last time.
VirtualBox claims you can run x64 clients on a x86 host but I'm not too sure

Psoasman

dazl1212 wrote: »

Thanks guys I have tried updating the bios its an amd 780g chipset.
Amd-v is turned on in the bios. I am going to try Windows 7 x64 again as it just kept blue screening when I had it installed last time.
VirtualBox claims you can run x64 clients on a x86 host but I'm not too sure

I have an x86 machine at work, with 2 Server 2008 R2 DC's running on it. My RAM is limited of, course, but they run ok with 1 GB of RAM each. Just out of curiosity, do you have a SSD on your lab machine. I have heard of some issues with blue screens occurring with virtualization.

universalfrost

download and run this little tool to tell you if your system is 64bit capable and can host VM's

GRC | SecurAble: Determine Processor Security Features |  

dazl1212

Psoasman wrote: »

I have an x86 machine at work, with 2 Server 2008 R2 DC's running on it. My RAM is limited of, course, but they run ok with 1 GB of RAM each. Just out of curiosity, do you have a SSD on your lab machine. I have heard of some issues with blue screens occurring with virtualization.

No I have no SSD. I will have to dual boot and have a mess about with it. ::

Thanks universalfrost for the Util. I will give that a bash tonight

PCSPreston

I have taken this exam twice and failed slighty. I failed with 647 and 682. Third time the charm. This exam is hard ,but can be done because if you use Win7 and get to know each area we should be good to go!

dazl1212

looks like im in bother. Cannot install 2008 r2 tried each memory stick individually messed about in the bios. Installs the blue screens on reboot, does this in vms and as dual boot, Dont know what to do, I don't have the money for a new cpu or mother board. Seriously thinking of giving up and doing the 620 instead

dazl1212

system sorted got an Opteron from a faulty server

universalfrost

so the cpu was the cause????

dazl1212

universalfrost wrote: »

so the cpu was the cause????

Yeah, I had narrowed it down to the CPU and M/B. Since I have swapped it out I have managed around 3 hours on VM's in 64 bit.
I feel a lot better now, was really starting to flap

impz

dazl1212 wrote: »

Yeah, I had narrowed it down to the CPU and M/B. Since I have swapped it out I have managed around 3 hours on VM's in 64 bit.
I feel a lot better now, was really starting to flap

did you ever try checking the option "enable IO APIC" option under the system menu in virtualbox? I had a similar problem where my 64bit OS would BSOD, sometimes before installation started or sometimes, after the installation was done.