Does MCP Certifications Expire?

Microsoft Certifications do not expire. They simple lose value with time. For example, an MCSE on Windows NT 4 was all the rage in 1998. In 2009, that certification will not go far in a job interview. Microsoft publishes "upgrade" exams to help keep you up to date in your certification. The upgrade exams test you thoroughly on the new features of the OS. If you were starting for scratch or with a very outdated MCSE, you will have to take all the exams. This will not only test your knowledge of the new features, but also the basics that the certification requires.

Here is a little Q and A I pulled from a Microsoft site:

Q. How long will the certification be valid?

A.

For our newest credentials, such as Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD), the credential retires along with the product support for the technology being tested. The credential will still appear on your transcript but will be listed as retired. In most cases, an upgrade path (usually one exam) will be available for individuals who have that credential so that they can demonstrate their skills on the newest version of the technology without completing all exams associated with the new credential.

The legacy Microsoft credentials, such as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) do not expire, but as Microsoft releases new versions of the associated technology, these credentials are likely to be valued less by the industry.

Q. Do hiring managers really value certification?

A.

During a recent poll of IT hiring managers, 55 percent said that they consider employee certification as a criterion for hiring, and 63 percent of hiring managers said that they believe certified employees are more productive than noncertified employees.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-get-started.aspx

Are there any SQL Snapins for PowerShell?

Yes there SQL SanpIns for PowerShell. SQL is not my cup of tea so here is a link to a blog article by Rob Farley, owner of LobsterPot Solutions.

https://msmvps.com/blogs/robfarley/archive/2008/03/04/sql-server-2008-powershell-snapin.aspx

Control user experience through GPO in Terminal Services.

The users experience in Remote Desktop is going to be controlled by one of three ways.

1) You can configure the options on the Remote Desktop Connection on each workstation. That is not ideal in any environment beyond one or two clients. You can control

2) You can open Terminal Services Configuration. Right click RDP and select Properties. Then under the Client Settings tab, you can control the color depth and device redirection for that Terminal Server.

3) You can utilize GPOs at Computer Configuration à Policies à Administrative Templates à Windows Components à Terminal Services à Terminal Server

Remember to test your users experience across the slowest network connection that will be used. Latency will drive up cost due to lost productivity, not to mention your users tempers. Easy ways to decrease latency is to limit the maximum color depth. Many application will work well in 8 or 15 bit color. Restricting device redirection may also help prevent non business devices from consuming precious bandwidth.

If you name a computer and then prestage it, will it change the name?

For prestaging to work in Windows Server 2008, you need to have WDS (Windows Deployment Services) installed. This is a role and can be installed from the Server Manager. Once WDS is installed, it makes a change to Active Directory Users and Computers. Before this change, when you create a computer name, it would not give you the option to set This is a managed computer. You would simply click OK and be done. After the change, you would enter the computers name and click Next. At this point you can provide the GUID for the new computer. You will find the GUID on the computer or on the shipping material. Now the computer is ready for installation utilizing WDS. The name will then be changed to what you set it to.

How to access remote computers with PowerShell?

Windows PowerShell V2 allows you to access remote computers and execute PowerShell commands on those remote clients. The following steps illustrate how to create a session with a single client.

For every client that we will be remotely accessing, we need to run the command:

• Winrm quickconfig
• Press Y at all prompts.

This will open the ports on the firewall that we need open for remote management.

Now, on the copmuter that will be making the remote connection, type:

• Enter-PSSession –computerName ComputerName

In my case, the ComputerName parameter is MCT-1. Once the session is established, your prompt will look like this:

[MCT-1]: PS C:\Users\Administrator\Documentss>

Go ahead and type Get-Service. You should notice that what is returned is the services from the remote client.

Type Exit to return to your local client.

Now what about multiple sessions?

Once you have run WinRM QuickConfig on multiple clients, you can set up multiple sessions.

My current setup has me on a computer named MCT-Win7-1 I want to set up a session to two other clients, MCT-1 and MCT-Win7-2. I type in this command:

New-PSSession MCT1, MCT-Win7-2

What comes back are the session numbers. With this method, you can only have on session open at a time. To access one one of the sessions, type Enter-PSSession –ID and then the session number.

Once you have comleted your work with that client, type Exit.

You can get a list of all open sessions by typing Get-PSSession.

So how do you run a command in all sessions? First lets save the current sessions in a variable.

$PSList = Get-PSSession

Now, we are going to use the Invoke-Command commandlet.

Invoke-Command –session $PSList –scriptblock {Get-Service}

From here you will receive a list of the data returned.

You can close the sessions in one of two ways.

Remove-PSSession – ID SessionNumber

Or

Remove-PSSession –session $PSList

What does the Delegate default credentials in lab 1 of MOC 6428 do?

In lab 1, Exercise 1, Task 4, we were asked to set a GPO policy to Allow Delegating Default Credentials. We set this delegation to NYC-TS-01 which was our terminal server. The reason that we did this was to support the SSO (Single Sign On) capability in Windows Vista and Windows 7. You may notice that when credentials are required, the client goes into the secure desktop mode. Not even the client software knows what you have typed. This is a security enhancement for you Windows Vista, Win7 and Win2008 environments.

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749211(WS.10).aspx

When executing MSTSC /Admin, is it really the console you are on?

Testing shows that the Session ID is and RDP Session and not console when launching a remote session with the command MSTSC /admin. The purpose behind this is to allow you to connect to a terminal server without consuming a TS CAL.

Reference: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/97716/what-is-the-admin-switch-in-microsoft-terminal-services-client-mstsc-for-windows-2008-and-vista.html