Studying for Windows Certification Exams?

William's Pocket Consultants and others books were read by millions and used by millions as resources to help them not only pass their certification exams but master what they needed to know to for their jobs. Although there were some good resources available covering the exams, readers increased their success and mastery of related tasks when using his books as part of their studies.

Windows 8 Administration Pocket Consultant and Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant were both around 700 pages in length. Together, the books gave readers about 1400 pages of practical advice and ready answers. William designed and wrote the books so that they could be used together, and in doing so he made the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Once such exam was Exam 70-410 which covered many installation and configuration skills for Windows Server 2012. Microsoft scoped the objectives for the exam by describing the types of skills and topics that may be tested. However, the skills and topics listed for objectives are not exhaustive and you may be tested on other skills and topics related to the objective.

Approximately 17% of the exam covers installing servers, configuring servers, and configuring local storage. Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant discussed many of the related skills and topics in this area of the exam, including:

• Adding and removing features in offline images
• Configure storage pools and disk pools
• Configuring basic and dynamic disks
• Configuring MBR and GPT disks
• Configuring Server Core
• Configuring services
• Configuring storage spaces
• Converting Server Core to/from full GUI
• Creating and mounting virtual hard disks (VHDs)
• Delegating administration
• Deploying roles on remote servers
• Installing Server Core
• Managing volumes
• Planning for a server installation
• Planning for server roles; plan for a server upgrade
• Using Features on Demand
 

Approximately 16% of the exam covers configuring server roles and features. Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant discussed many of the related skills and topics in this area of the exam, including:
• Configuring access-based controls
• Configuring multi-server management
• Configuring NTFS permissions
• Configuring NTFS quotas
• Configuring offline files
• Configuring Server Core
• Configuring servers for day-to-day management tasks
• Configuring servers for remote management
• Configuring share permissions
• Configuring Windows Firewall
• Configuring WinRM
• Creating and configuring shares
 

Approximately 16% of the exam covers deploying and configuring core network services. Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant discussed many of the related skills and topics in this area of the exam, including:
• Authorizing DHCP server
• Configure interoperability between IPv4 and IPv6
• Configuring a DHCP reservation
• Configuring Active Directory integration of primary zones
• Configuring DHCP options
• Configuring DNS forwarders
• Configuring IP address options
• Configuring Root Hints
• Configuring subnetting and supernetting
• Creating A and PTR resource records
• Creating and configuring scopes
• Deploying and configuring DNS service
• Deploying and configuring IPv4 and IPv6
• Deploying Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service
• Managing DNS cache
 

Approximately 18% of the exam covers installing and deploying Active Directory. Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant discussed many of the related skills and topics in this area of the exam, including:
• Adding or removing a domain controller from a domain
• Configuring a global catalog server
• Configuring group nesting
• Configuring templates
• Configuring user rights
• Converting groups
• Creating and managing Active Directory groups and organizational units (OUs)
• Creating and managing Active Directory users and computers
• Delegating the creation and management of Active Directory objects
• Enumerating group membership
• Installing Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
• Managing default Active Directory containers
• Managing group membership using Group Policy
• Managing groups and OUs
• Managing inactive and disabled accounts
• Performing offline domain joins
• Resolving DNS SRV
• Upgrading a domain controller
 

Approximately 16% of the exam covers creating and managing Group Policy. Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant discussed many of the related skills and topics in this area of the exam, including:
• Configuring a Central Store
• Configuring Audit Policy
• Configuring GPO links
• Configuring Local Users and Groups
• Configuring multiple local group policies
• Configuring security filtering
• Configuring Security Options settings
• Configuring security policies
• Configuring Security templates
• Configuring User Account Control (UAC)
• Configuring User Rights Assignment
• Creating Group Policy objects (GPOs)
• Managing starter GPOs
 

If you're reading this, we hope you enjoyed our nostalgic look back. Hope you’ll let others know about William's books as well. If you want to contact William, he hangs out online from time to time on Facebook. His author page is @ http://www.facebook.com/William.Stanek.Author. He's also on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek.

Thank you for reading!