John left a question in the comments, and I wanted to make sure other reader of my training kit got the information:

I bought your MS Press 70-642 Configuring Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure and would like to know how to set up the lab using Virtual PC 2007…

I have two Dell Latitude laptops running XP Pro SP3 with enough hard drive space that I should be able to install both Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Server 2008 on…they will be connected to each other via a 4-port Netgear switch…

Where can I get a free copy of Windows Server 2008 to use for the lab?…and do you have any suggestions on ensuring that the lab software don’t mess up these two laptops (I use both of them for business purposes)?

And later in an e-mail followed up with:

Actually, I was able to download WS2008 (and VPC 2007 SP1) from a MS download website yesterday (WS2008 was 1.9 GB and it downloaded as an iso file)…

I just have a few (dumb) questions about setting up the lab (please confirm the correctness and the sequence of the following steps):

1. I’m assuming that I need 3 actual computers physically connected to each other by a switch…true?

2. Next, install default? VPC 2007 on each computer.

3. Next, install default WS2008 on each computer (I am assuming I will install WS2008 while inside the VPC environment , or should WS2008 be installed outside of the VPC environment as you suggest?…if outside of the VPC environment, do I have to wipe the hard drive clean before installing WS2008, or can I keep the existing XP Pro SP3 OS and all of my apps and data files intact and install WS2008 in a separate partition?).

4. Next, do I rename the computers from inside or outside the VPC environment (however, I cannot change the real existing computer names on these computers because they are domain machines in my company’s environment…if I change their names, I will not be able to connect to my work network!).

Are there any other steps that I am missing?

Really appreciate any clarification you can provide!

My replies after the jump.

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Dear Sirs:

Regarding your MCTS (Exam 70-536) Book (ISBN: 9780735622777):

On pp. 172-173 (comparing UTF encodings, Chapter 3, Lesson 2) you state:

“Unicode UTF-8 uses 8-bit, 16-bit … and up to 48-bit encoding.”

and that:

“Unicode UTF-32 encoding represents … characters as … 32-bit integers.”

In the Lesson 2 Review Test, question 1 asks:

“Which … encoding types would yield the largest file size?”

According to the Answers section (pp.954, Lesson 2, Question 1) it’s UTF-32.

If UTF-8 can go up to 48-bits, and UTF-32 is always at 32-bits, how can the answer be a straight forward “UTF-32 would yield the largest file size”?

Answer after the jump…

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Hello Tony,

I’ve been studying for the Microsoft Certification exam 70-536 with the first edition of the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536) book.  I’ve noticed that there are many mistakes in this book and some chapters are a lot harder to process than others as they appear to be written by a different author to other chapters (e.g. Chapter 9 and 10).

I’m considering purchasing the second edition of this book but I wondered whether you could please let me know how much revision has gone into the book and if all of the errors have been corrected in the second edition.

I have also found that there are topics covered in the exam that aren’t in the text book – does the second edition cover all of the required exam topics?

Many thanks!

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Yes, it competes with my own training kit, but my good friend Kurt Dillard recently posted his own study guides for several Microsoft MCTS certifications. Enjoy!

Question:

Hi Tony,

I am now preparing for MCTS 70-528 certification. I have studied the training kit of yours.

But is it sufficient for the exam? This is my first certification so I am not having any idea of how difficult the questions might be.

Tell me some sites which I can explore and prepare for this certification and also nice sites for the mock tests.

Thanks in advance.

Nita

Answer:

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