October 7, 2011

Microsoft to ship last service pack for Office 2007 this month

Microsoft yesterday announced it will ship a third and final service pack update for Office 2007 before year's end.

It appears that Microsoft will deliver Office 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3) this month.


"The October 2011 release provides a six-month window to test and deploy the release prior to exiting mainstream support," Microsoft said in a blog post Thursday.

Office 2007, which went on general sale in January 2007 alongside Windows Vista, exits what Microsoft calls "mainstream support" in April 2012.

The suite will continue to be updated with security fixes for another five years after that, through April 11, 2017, during the "extended support" phase.

The biggest difference between the two support phases is that extended, non-security fixes are provided only to companies that have paid for special support contracts.

Microsoft, however, never issues service packs -- which are mostly composed of past security and other patches -- once a product is retired from mainstream support.

Office 2007 SP3 will be offered using Microsoft's now-standard procedure. Initially, the service pack will be available as a manual download and through Windows Update as an optional install. Three months later, the company will kick SP3 into Windows Update for automatic distribution and deployment.

Microsoft also usually gives corporate customers another heads-up about 30 days before it starts serving Office service packs through its update services.

Service Pack 3 is Office's 2007's first SP since 2009's SP2.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft touted the newer Office 2010 as an option for customers who want to retire Office 2007 or the even-older Office 2003.

Office 2003 has more than two years of life left in it: The suite won't be retired from security support until April 2014.

70-652 Exam



Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com




QUESTION 1
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network, including virtual computers, have Windows
Server 2008 installed and all workstations have Windows 7 installed.
You have installed the Hyper-V server role on a server named ABC-SR34, and the Windows
Deployment Services role on a server named ABC-SR35. Certkingdom.com’s virtual computer, named
ABC-VM01, only has a solitary Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) configured.
You have been instructed to make sure that an image of ABC-VM01’s Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) is
deployed to physical and virtual hosts via Windows Deployment Services.
To achieve this, you first need to have an image of ABC-VM01’s Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)
positioned on ABC-SR35.
Which combination of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider exporting ABC-VM01, and then configuring the use of a legacy network
adapter.
B. You should consider configure ABC-VM01 to make use of a legacy adapter prior to restarting it
with a Windows Deployment Services discover image.
C. You should configure ABC-VM01 to make use of a legacy adapter prior to restarting it with a
Windows Deployment Services discover image.
D. You should configure ABC-VM01 to make use of a legacy adapter prior to restarting it with a
Windows Deployment Services capture image.

Answer: D

Explanation:


QUESTION 2
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
Certkingdom.com has a server, named ABC-SR14, which has a Windows Server 2008 Server Core
installation and is also configured as a Hyper-V server.
You have been informed that a Windows Vista SP1 64-bit workstation must be able to open
Hyper-V Manager, and also establish a link to ABC-SR14.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider making use of the winrm command-line tool.
B. You should consider making use of the cscript command-line tool.
C. You should consider making use of the oclist command-line tool.
D. You should consider making use of the ocsetup command-line tool.
E. You should consider making use of the Netsh advfirewall command-line tool.

Answer: E

Explanation:


QUESTION 3
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
Certkingdom.com has a server named ABC-SR14 that is configured as a Hyper-V server, and hosts four
virtual computers. These servers are named ABC-VM01, ABC-VM02, ABC-VM03 and ABC-VM04.
Certkingdom.com also has a server named ABC-SR15 that is configured as a Hyper-V server, but hosts
no virtual computers. Certkingdom.com has another server named ABC-SR16 that has Microsoft System
Center Virtual Manager (SCVMM) 2008 installed.
You have been instructed to relocate ABC-VM04 from ABC-SR14 to ABC-SR15 without altering
the virtual computer configurations.
You have to make sure that ABC-VM04 is offline for as little time as possible. You have also been
informed that user interaction must be kept to a minimum.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider relocating ABC-VM04 to a host group via the Hyper-V Manager.
B. You should consider importing ABC-VM04 via the Virtual Machine Manager on ABC-SR15.
C. You should consider dragging ABC-VM04 from ABC-SR14 and dropping it on ABC-SR15 via
the Virtual Machine Manager.
D. You should consider exporting ABC-VM04 from ABC-SR14 via the Virtual Machine Manager.

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 4
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
When Certkingdom.com acquires a new server, you are instructed to install the Hyper-V server role on it.
The server has a 32-bit Dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM, a single port network card, and two SATA hard
drives.
You need to make sure that you are able to install the Hyper-V server role on the new server.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should install an additional network adaptor to system.
B. You should install an additional 8 GB RAM.
C. You should substitute the 32-bit CPU with a 64-bit CPU.
D. You should install an additional 500 GB hard drive.

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 5
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
A network administrator, named Andy Reid, has requested that you compile a report for server
consolidation suggestions. This report should list servers on which virtualization can be
configured, as well as performance monitoring information.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider having the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 update first.
B. You should consider having the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Self-Service Portal installed first.
C. You should consider executing the ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V command first.
D. You should consider having Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator installed
first.

Answer: D

Explanation:


QUESTION 6
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
Certkingdom.com has a server named ABC-SR35, which is configured as a Hyper-V server. ABC-SR35
has two disks, of which one is configured as the C: drive and the other has not been allocated as
yet. Both of these drives are online.
You are tasked with creating a pass-through disk. After accessing Hyper-V Manager, you find that
you are unable to create a pass-through disk because the hard disk option is not displayed.
You are required to rectify this as soon as possible.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider completely removing the C: drive.
B. You should consider completely removing the unallocated disk.
C. You should consider marking the unallocated disk as offline.
D. You should consider marking the C: drive as offline.

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 7
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
You have been tasked with creating a virtual computer named ABC-VM05. ABC-VM05 has six
virtual drives configured. There is a 100 GB drive, a DVD drive, as well as four 300 GB drives.
You would like to configure as little disk controllers as possible for ABC-VM05’s virtual disks.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider configuring an SCSI controller for the DVD drive, and a single IDE
controller for the five hard drives.
B. You should consider configuring an SCSI controller and five IDE controllers for each of the hard
drives.
C. You should consider configuring six SCSI controllers.
D. You should consider configuring six IDE controllers.

Answer: A

Explanation:


QUESTION 8
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
Certkingdom.com has a server named ABC-SR35, which is configured as a Hyper-V server. ABC-SR35
has two virtual computers installed, named ABC-VM01 and ABC-VM02. Each virtual computer has
one Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) configured as a differencing disk. The Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs) are
named ABC-vm01.vhd and ABC-vm02.vhd respectively.
A fellow administrator, named Kara Lang, has removed lots of information from ABC-VM01, and
would like to know how to decrease ABC-vm01.vhd’s size. Kara Lang would like to complete this
task without affecting the current information on ABC-vm01.vhd. Kara Lang also informs you that
the solution should not have an effect on ABC-vm02.vhd.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider deleting ABC-vm01.vhd.
B. You should consider compacting ABC-vm01.vhd.
C. You should consider expanding ABC-vm02.vhd.
D. You should consider editing ABC-vm02.vhd.

Answer: B

Explanation:


QUESTION 9
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
You have been tasked with running tests on a new application, named TestApp1. The tests will be
performed on a Windows Vista SP1 virtual computer named Test-VM01, which is installed on a
workstation in Certkingdom.com’s test lab named Test-WS01. Every test you are about to perform will alter
TestApp1’s configuration.
You must make sure that every test is performed with TestApp1’s default configuration.
You have already deployed the application with the default configuration, and also taken a
snapshot image of the virtual computer.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider choosing the option to revert Test-VM01 subsequent to every test.
B. You should consider choosing the option to restart Test-WS01 subsequent to every test.
C. You should consider choosing the option to restore Test-WS01 subsequent to every test.
D. You should consider choosing the option to reset Test-VM01 subsequent to every test.

Answer: A

Explanation:


QUESTION 10
You work as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. The Certkingdom.com network consists of a single domain
named Certkingdom.com. All servers on the Certkingdom.com network have Windows Server 2008 installed.
You have been tasked with running tests on a new application, named TestApp1. The tests will be
performed on a Windows Vista SP1 virtual computer named Test-VM01, which is installed on a
server in Certkingdom.com’s test lab named TestLab-SR35. Every test requires TestLab-SR35 to restart.
You have to make sure that the tests continue to run at startup.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider choosing the option to restore Test-SR01.
B. You should consider choosing the option to revert Test-VM01
C. You should consider choosing the option to restart Test-SR01.
D. You should consider choosing the option to reset Test-VM01.

Answer: C

Explanation:




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October 1, 2011

10 reasons IT certification will be important in 2009

Guest post: In the midst of staggering business and economic turmoil, you need all the tools at your disposal to help shore up your career prospects. See why TechRepublic’s Erik Eckel believes IT certification will become increasingly important for IT pros and the organizations that rely on them. You can find more posts like this [...]

MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification

Microsoft MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification and over 2000+
Exams with Life Time Access Membership at http://www.actualkey.com


Guest post: In the midst of staggering business and economic turmoil, you need all the tools at your disposal to help shore up your career prospects. See why TechRepublic’s Erik Eckel believes IT certification will become increasingly important for IT pros and the organizations that rely on them. You can find more posts like this on TechRepublic’s 10 Things blog.

Many technology professionals believe IT certifications reached their peak during the height of the dot-com boom. But such a mindset may well prove shortsighted. The subsequent dot-com bomb led to an exodus of certified technicians from the industry. Then, as the dust settled, IT certifications were reworked. Accreditations were better mapped to real-world needs and expertise. Program flaws were eliminated. Training programs improved.

Now, in turbulent economic times, IT certifications will provide more relevance than ever before. With unprecedented bailouts, widespread cost and workforce reductions, and a slew of new platforms being released, IT accreditations will assume renewed importance in 2009. Here are 10 reasons why IT certifications will prove important in 2009.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.
#1: Job retention

Organizations are laying off employees at alarming levels. When wildly successful franchises such as the National Football League downsize 10 percent, you know the economy’s in trouble.

When faced with difficult personnel decisions, organizations generally try to retain the most skillful and knowledgeable employees. Certified IT pros have a credible advantage over their colleagues. While holding a current IT accreditation is no guarantee against being laid off, the more education, expertise, and skills you can demonstrate, the better.

#2: Salary maintenance

Many organizations — and city and state governments in particular — are asking employees to accept salary reductions. Whereas staff may have grumbled over a scant four or five percent salary increase a few years ago, today many are being asked to cut their compensation by those amounts.

Holding current IT certification does not guarantee you won’t face salary reductions. But possessing specific certifications — including A+, Security+, Microsoft credentials, and other accreditations –often qualifies employees for higher pay grades. Thus, when forced to accept a salary reduction, you’re more likely to be earning more than your non-certified colleagues.
#3: Hiring and promotion eligibility

Despite the economic downturn, some companies are still hiring. Others are actively promoting from within. Recent headlines prove medical facilities, health insurance companies, and manufacturers, among others, continue expansion efforts.

Significant competition exists for these open positions. With unemployment exceeding six percent, a number expected to grow in 2009, jockeying for good jobs will only increase. If your resume is bolstered by new and timely certifications, you’ll gain an advantage over others applying for the same role. For better or worse, in cases where two otherwise equal candidates are competing for the same lucrative job offer, one applicant’s certifications could prove the deciding factor. Certification may even be required to apply for the position.
#4: Career improvement

Many technology professionals feel they’ve done all they can do as a support technician or network administrator. They may be working in positions where they’ll receive no additional responsibilities, pay, or challenges unless they move up the corporate ladder.

IT certifications can certainly open the door to such promotions. By completing project management training and proving command of the fundamentals by earning a Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional or CompTIA Project+ certification, an administrator can demonstrate initiative and expertise in an effort to win a project management promotion. Likewise, a support tech might leverage a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) accreditation to gain a new position as a server administrator.
#5: New-generation certs increase relevance

Certifications are receiving a boost from considerable reworking. Many organizations, including CompTIA and Cisco, are revamping and redesigning exams and instructional initiatives. And Microsoft really stands out due to the variety and impact of changes made to its training and certification program.

Microsoft’s new generation of certifications — including the new MCITP, Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) accreditations — map directly to real-world needs. The MCTS, for example, measures a candidate’s skill, knowledge, and expertise deploying, maintaining, and administering specific Microsoft platforms.

Microsoft’s new MCITP credential, meanwhile, is aimed at helping organizations meet specific staffing needs. The certification is designed to demonstrate expertise within job roles, such as server administrator or desktop support technician, thereby better enabling hiring managers to spot qualified, well-targeted candidates.

To keep these new-generation certifications relevant, Microsoft is expiring new credentials when mainstream support for the corresponding technology platforms is retired. Those changes, combined with the introduction of classroom and lab training requirements for new higher-level certifications, are helping put the shine back on IT certifications in 2009.
#6: Organizations will become more discriminating

Consultants can benefit from IT certifications in 2009, too. As clients more closely guard expenses and become more discerning, organizations needing to outsource computer services and support will want to ensure the firms and technicians they hire are competent. IT certifications are a great method for consultants to demonstrate their skill, knowledge, and expertise to potential clients.
#7: New products will gain momentum

A slew of new products is sure to gain momentum in 2009. Microsoft’s 2008-branded server products lead the charge of new technologies that will gain market share throughout the year.

As organizations begin replacing older or failed equipment with these new products, and as myriad other factors require that the new platforms be deployed, these organization will seek qualified IT technicians, managers, and consultants to plan, deploy, and administer the upgrades. If you can demonstrate your skills and expertise with these platforms, you’ll be better positioned to provide those services. By becoming certified on new technologies that gain traction in 2009, you’ll not only strengthen your resume, but you’ll also position yourself well by aligning your expertise with these new products.
#8: Organizations must minimize downtime

Server, desktop, and network downtime, as well as mean times to repair, must improve. This is true for most every organization, but especially for those that have reduced staff, as fewer employees are available to pick up the slack when errors or failures occur.

When running lean, as many companies have been forced to do, remaining employees’ workloads are often increased. Thus, it’s imperative that organizations fully utilize remaining staff.

IT certification programs are one method of ensuring that staff members have the training and instruction required to fulfill specific responsibilities. Employees who are better trained and educated as the result of certification efforts will be less likely to commit errors that lead to failure. And when outages do occur, the corresponding education and training will prove helpful in speeding recovery.
#9: Organizations need to reduce costs

When sales or funding levels dive, reducing operating costs becomes critical. During periods of recession, organizations are obligated to maximize efficiency. As a result, productivity requirements become greater for each worker.

From a cold and calculating perspective, IT certification is one proven method for leveraging an organization’s salary expenses. By ensuring that technicians have specific skills via training and certification programs, whether those skills target desktop support or network design and optimization, organizations know that IT certification efforts help maximize ROI.

A Kotler Marketing Group study published by CompTIA revealed certifications enabled organizations to reduce expenses, identify knowledge gaps, and improve productivity. In addition, certifications proved helpful in improving uptime and reducing turnover.
#10: Confidence proves handy during turbulent times

If nothing else, during periods of stress and upheaval, it helps to have confidence. While you can’t insulate yourself from major economic trends, you can leverage certifications to know you’ve taken prudent steps to keep skills current and make yourself an attractive employee, both to your current employer and to prospective hiring managers, should a pink slip arrive.

Some 75 percent of IT professionals responding to the Kotler study said their CompTIA certifications make them more attractive to employers, while 84 percent believe they now have the skills necessary to fulfill a job’s requirements. Further, some 93% agreed or strongly agreed that customers felt they are in good hands when working with them, due in part to their certifications.

With numerous other factors seemingly out of your control, IT certifications present at least one element you can command. In an age of unprecedented business and economic turmoil, the resulting confidence boost can only help.
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