70-680 is booked for 10/1

I've been through Don Poulton's book a couple times, and I've labbed quite a bit, especially deployment, since at my current job I never touch desktops, other than my own WS, and at my previoius job, I used Novell ZENworks (lol) for deployment. And I've been using Windows 7 as my primary OS at home pretty much since the final public preview before it went gold, though not the enterprise features, obviously.

Other than deployment, what would people who have taken this exam say are pitfalls to watchout for? I've played around with Bitlocker quite a bit, at least as much as I can without a system with a TPM. I feel like I have good understanding of the differences between software restrictions vs. applocker, and why & when I'd use one over the other. And I know I'm solid on all the basics like permissions & networking - though IPv6 is my kryptonite to a degree, because I still have yet to see it in a production environment.

Is there anything else I should focus on with my last week before the test? I was going to go over everything in general again, re-read a few things, watch the handful of Professor Messer videos I haven't hit yet, and just try to shore a few things up in general. Should I dive into branchcache, directaccess, and the application compatibility toolkit hands on, or would that be overkill for this exam?

Also, are there any sims on this exam? I know the time limit is a lot shorter than most MS exams I've taken.

Thanks in advance for any opinions/insights,.

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tr1x

The Professor Messer videos helped me the most. I took the exam three times, passing on the third. After failing the exam twice, I watched all of Professor Messer's videos and passed. It sounds like you've done a good job preparing so far. Here's some notes that I took while watching Professor Messer's videos.. maybe they will help you. Microsoft 70-680 notes, Configuring Windows 7

Psoasman

I would look over the exam objectives and make sure you are comfortable with them. Direct Access, Branchcache, deployment and compatibility tools would be good to brush up on. Read the questions carefully and remember the M$ way of performing the required steps.

jts1234

I would recommend brushing up on your knowledge of how vdisks work, how you can create them and install windows to/boot from them (using both the command line and GUI, where applicable). Maybe even try it once or twice, if you have ultimate or enterprise.

When I took it, I was very happy to have spent a considerable amount of hands-on time, just tinkering around with it. You're on the right track doing a lot of labbing.

Good luck,

Tom

jmritenour

tr1x wrote: »

The Professor Messer videos helped me the most. I took the exam three times, passing on the third. After failing the exam twice, I watched all of Professor Messer's videos and passed. It sounds like you've done a good job preparing so far. Here's some notes that I took while watching Professor Messer's videos.. maybe they will help you. Microsoft 70-680 notes, Configuring Windows 7

Yeah, I first discovered Professor Messer about a month back, and he's been an invaluable resource. It's awesome to have free videos of that quality for this exam.

Thanks for the notes, looks like a lot of handy info in one spot.

jmritenour

Passed this morning. Honestly, I'd say about 60% of it was general Windows client stuff that could have been relevant to XP or Vista as well. I'm glad I spent the time I did getting acquainted with imagex and dism becuase there was a good bit of that.

Devilry

jmritenour wrote: »

Passed this morning. Honestly, I'd say about 60% of it was general Windows client stuff that could have been relevant to XP or Vista as well. I'm glad I spent the time I did getting acquainted with imagex and dism becuase there was a good bit of that.

Congrats on the pass!

and yes.. messer rocks.

What is next?

parttimetechie

jmritenour wrote: »

Passed this morning. Honestly, I'd say about 60% of it was general Windows client stuff that could have been relevant to XP or Vista as well. I'm glad I spent the time I did getting acquainted with imagex and dism becuase there was a good bit of that.

What do you consider "general windows client stuff"? What kinds of things for imagex and dism? I take the exam on the 10th, and am trying to gear up as best I can with Prof Messer, Pouton and Sybex review questions.

jmritenour

Devilry wrote: »

Congrats on the pass!

and yes.. messer rocks.

What is next?

I'm taking a crack at CISSP in November - I've been studying for that off and on since the beginning of summer, and really focusing on more the past month and a half. I think I've got a good shot, and my boss told me to go ahead and take a stab at it on the company's dime before the exam objectives change next year.

Then I'm going to move on to upping my VCP to 5 in January/February, unless VMWare extends the grace period for current VCPs to be able to upgrade without having to take the What's New course before then.

jmritenour

parttimetechie wrote: »

What do you consider "general windows client stuff"? What kinds of things for imagex and dism? I take the exam on the 10th, and am trying to gear up as best I can with Prof Messer, Pouton and Sybex review questions.

The basics like share & NTFS permissions, local users & groups, TCP/IP, and that kind of stuff. For dism & imagex, know as much about the commands, their switches, and how you'd use them. I had to QA a Windows 2008 Server Core build yesterday at work, and it gave me a chance to put DISM into practice - I was glad I did. I was the only one in my department who knew off the top of my head how to install SNMP & Telnet client from the CLI.

parttimetechie

jmritenour wrote: »

The basics like share & NTFS permissions, local users & groups, TCP/IP, and that kind of stuff. For dism & imagex, know as much about the commands, their switches, and how you'd use them. I had to QA a Windows 2008 Server Core build yesterday at work, and it gave me a chance to put DISM into practice - I was glad I did. I was the only one in my department who knew off the top of my head how to install SNMP & Telnet client from the CLI.

Were there a lot more commands on the exam than in Prof Messer's vids and on the Poutlon book?

earweed

Congrats on the new cert!

jmritenour

parttimetechie wrote: »

Were there a lot more commands on the exam than in Prof Messer's vids and on the Poutlon book?

I think Professor Messer kind of glazed over them, and I don't remember whether Poulton got real in depth with the switches or not. Just make sure you understand the switches, specifically how you'd add features, applications, and drivers to an offline image.

parttimetechie

jmritenour wrote: »

I think Professor Messer kind of glazed over them, and I don't remember whether Poulton got real in depth with the switches or not. Just make sure you understand the switches, specifically how you'd add features, applications, and drivers to an offline image.

You mean make sure I understand the dism /add-package dism /add driver etc?

whatthehell

jmritenour wrote: »

Passed this morning. Honestly, I'd say about 60% of it was general Windows client stuff that could have been relevant to XP or Vista as well. I'm glad I spent the time I did getting acquainted with imagex and dism becuase there was a good bit of that.

Congratz on the pass and the recommendations!