Gutted

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I have to agree with the comments on the scope of this exam. It's not aimed at entry-level, it's aimed at people with 1 year+ experience in an enterprise environment. Compare that with the MCSDT (6 months+ in small/medium/large business), the 70-620 (1+ years in the IT field) and the 70-270 (1+years in a medium/large business) you can see it's a step up from the others.

It's a pity that, after tomorrow ,there won't be a client exam aimed at entry level. The 70-620 seems to be the closest thing but who wants to study a dying OS? I'd argue that the majority of the skills you learn on the 620 are transferable to Windows 7 because of the similarities between the two OSs, but whether recruiters see it that way is a different matter.

This leaves me in a dilemma when it comes to giving people advice. The 270 is maybe a bit much for entry level, and most of the people trying to break in to IT seem to think they're going to be working with super-duper, up-to-the-minute technology so tend to discount XP, Vista is a no-go because it's market share is steadily declining, and the 680 is not entry level.

 

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Yeah was chatting about this very subject yesterday. XP is still very relevant in terms of cert choice (and will be for a while I reckon). As is Windows 7, but vista seems a bit pointless really. Any new PC/Laptop you will get now will be Win7, possibly XP, or even 7 & XP as a downgrade option. I reckon you would be hard pressed to get something with Vista on though.

Also, I would imagine the number of Vista installed machines is quite small compared to XP/Win7. Lets face it, a lot of people decided to skip Vista completely when it came down to it.

I do rememer some time ago deciding that I should upgrade my MCDST to the Vista equiv as it seemed good value in terms of the certs gained. When I came to study it though I really couldn't be bothered as I had no interest in the technology (or practical use for it in my job for that matter).

 

So true!

 

I doubt there's many XP machines to be had new, OEM pre-installation of XP ended last year. That means any new PC/laptop will almost certainly have Windows 7 on it, unless it's been sitting on a shelf/in a stockroom for months.
The more I think about it, the stranger it seems that MS don't have a "stepping stone" Windows 7 certification. Maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the consumer market as far as certs go, i.e. leaving the home-user support to the OEMs, who I imagine dominate the home-user market. Still seems a big jump though and misses out people working in small/medium business support.

 

As technologies go on, and improve - the exams will be more and more difficult, the amount of features windows 7 has compared to XP, and setting wise, is alot more - i wouldn't of said it's entry level, but it certainly isn't an advanced level.

I think for new starters, this'll still be the best exam to go in for, after all, windows 7 will be the dominant OS in a couple years time. my office is 100% windows 7 now, and the rest of the company are going through upgrades (15,000 computers in total)

 

Sorry to hear that GBL, but that was a brave attempt and you did pretty well for someone with not much experience... The important part is that it' just an exam, we all fail the exam sometimes but I am sure you'll get it on the next attempt!

Also I would agree with others, this is definitely not an entry exam. I've looked into it myself a few months back and will attempt it as well at one point down the line when I have some time. But definitely good job dude, don't feel bad, you'll get it on the next time!

 

We can still order Acer laptops and desktops with the XP Downgrade option. They usually come with Win7 XP Pro installed as the main OS though.

 

Unlucky mate, but its only 5 points. Download the Windows 7 Ent eval from microsoft and install it on a VM. Don't wait to long, do the Exam within 2 weeks you will pass. By the way got my exam booked thsi week any useful tips (without violating the NDA ofcourse) ?

 

Know where everything is in the interface. These questions caught me out as I can sit in front of a computer and navigate to anywhere, but ask me to tell you off the top of my head when it maybe 3 or 4 levels deep as is common with Windows 7 and I might struggle to remember.