MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional: Installing, ... Second Edition (Pro-Certification)

If you want to learn about installing, configuring and administering XP Professional on a network, I think this is a very good book to have. This book prepares you to take exam 70-270. It covers the material very thoroughly with twenty chapters devoted to theory and seven chapters devoted to practicing for the exam. Actually, the last seven chapters were very helpful in learning the subject. These chapters present questions covering all objectives of the exam with an explanation of both the correct and the incorrect answers. You need to be aware that the questions don't simply cover material presented in the first twenty chapters. Quite to the contrary, they present new information that adds to your knowledge base. The questions were of high caliber being verbose and somewhat difficult. This is what you want to prepare for the exam.As a bonus the enclosed CD offers hundreds more questions using the MeaurseUp testing engine. I found the questions to be very good. They were difficult and required a bit of thought to answer. They also include good explanations for both the correct and incorrect answers - very helpful for learning. But, I must say that several of the questions were wrong - only a few, and there were way too many typographical errors. I really think that MeaurseUp (the company producing the question engine) needs to vet their products better.Overall, I found the book and CD combo to be a great value.As a side note, XP Professional will remain relevant for some time to come. It is true that at this time Vista has been out for five months now, but many businesses will not upgrade immediately and many will just clone XP to their new machines. So you still need to know XP perhaps while learning the new OS on the block.You want to study other resources in preparation for this or any exam. I found that answering questions and noting the explanations for the answers is a very good way to master the subject. I researched many Web sites that offer practice exams for a price. It appears that the two I would recommend are also the two that Microsoft recommends, that is, MeasureUp which you get for free on the CD, and SelfTest.

First off, do not listen to the reviews that post bad about this book. YES, you will fail the test if you just go off this book and have 0 experience with Microsoft Windows XP (as an admin) and other M$ technologies.This book is supposed to be a supplement to an Admin's knowledge to pass the test, not your average Joe that does something else for a living and fixes PC's in their spare time.However, that being said, if you want to pass this test and have little experience, do all the hands-on labs in this book and get exam-cram. This will help you (hopefully) pass the test.This book is well written, however very DRY....good book to sleep to...but it's supposed to be this way, I want information, not a happy novel.All exam topics are covered in here (except for a Bluetooth question I had) but I am not sure if that was a scored question or just a question M$ throws in. Anyway, good enough to pass the test if you are a desktop admin or Network admin! Good Luck!

I bought this book in early February. It was my sole study guide for the 70-270 exam which I passed very comfortable on April 2nd.The book comes in at almost 1100 pages. Just over 900 are devoted to the various topics that make up the 70-270 exam with the remaining 200+ acting as a quick reference exam preparatory guide. Like many Microsoft press books this study guide is way too bloated. The book could quite comfortable have been condensed by half while still encompassing all therelevant exam topics. Therefore should any Microsoft folks be reading, size does matter particularly when dealing with exam preparatory guides. Nevertheless I found the quality of the material to be very good although there were areas ( detailed below ) that were lacking and could have done with a little more explanation or at the least a link pointing the reader in the right direction.So let's begin with the good.The core topics of Windows XP Installation / upgrading, hardware devices and drivers ( basically everything that can and will go wrong ), the desktop environment,user accounts, hardware profiles, NTFS permissions / shared folders, printers, performance optimization and security configuration were I felt very well explained. Those new to the world of IT will appreciate the dept the authors have went too in their coverage. The IT professionals will find the explanations very drawn out; there is nothing new or exciting revealed that you possibly have not already come across in your everyday use of XP Professional. Suffice to say these chapters will be a good point of reference.and now the badTopics such as EFS ( encrypted file system ), offline files, Internet Explorer settings and how could I possibly forget Supporting TCP/IP were; well lets just say no cookies for the authors from me. These are all sections ( or lessons to quote Microsoft press jargon ) of larger chapters but none the less questions do appear on the exam. Those new to IT will find the EFS material truly cryptic ! ( no pun intended ), TCP/IP subnetting will make no sense and the configuration of Internet Explorer consists of 11 pages of screenshots and alas these pictures do not tell a thousand words folks. Supplemental material will need to be gleamed from the Internet. No way around it.and finally the downright uglyhas to be the 200+ pages devoted to exam preparation. Nasty nasty stuff.To summarize if you are hoping to do the 70-270 exam I would recommend this book. It is not perfect but it is very very good and in my opinion money well spent. The IT professionals will use it merely as a reference book for the exam and never again. Those new to IT will obtain a good grounding in XP but will need supplemental material to ace the exam and shine like a star among their peers. Best of luck.