Charles Pluta – IT Service Integration

Week 5 – Project 52

An open letter to Microsoft Learning.

It is to my knowledge that when Microsoft partnered with Sylvan/Prometric testing centers in June, 2007 that it was a 3 year contract. That would mean by simple math that the contract is set to expire in the coming months. For all practical reasons, I would see Microsoft renewing this partnership, as together I believe they delivered almost 2 million exams over the course of 2009 alone. However, one can hope that they will put this to an end, and switch to Pearson Vue testing.

There are probably numerous reasons that Microsoft Learning chose Prometric centers to begin with in 2007. Whatever the reasons, at the time I was actually fine with this decision. I have a local Prometric center and I was just starting out getting my certifications, so I was not aware of the vast differences between the two testing centers.

But now as an experienced test taker, (I believe I have taken at least 15 different Microsoft, CompTIA and Cisco exams), I have had the pleasure of dealing with the Pearson Vue testing centers. In my experiences as a candidate for these exams, Pearson Vue’s excels in any category when compared to Prometric’s testing centers.

Allow me to give an example of my local Prometric center compared to the Pearson Vue center. At Prometric, All of the computers that the exam is presented on are very outdated. The monitors are old CRT that can hurt your eyes after reading them for so long for the older scenario based exams. The chairs provided are simple fold-out chairs that are completely uncomfortable after sitting for more than 10 minutes. There is no table/desk area to rest the keyboards, and the mouse is on a small corner of the desk. So if you need to type anything for the exam, you have to balance the keyboard in your lap to be able to use it. There have been plenty of times the proctor has left the exam area and there was no supervision isnide the testing area. One could say that it is just my local center and others are much nicer, however I have tried 3 Prometric centers, and in my experience all of them have had the same standards.

Now, for the Vue testing center. When I walked in for my first experience here, it was for my CCNA. Being a much harder exam than some Microsoft exams, I was a little more nervous taking this one than I had been for other exams. I arrived about 30 minutes early for my scheduled exam, and the testing center offered complimentary soft drinks and candy bars. Plus, since I was early they offered an area I could do some last minute studying before going in to sit the exam. Once inside of the testing area, there was an entire desk with flat panel monitor for easy viewing, a good surface area that the keyboard and mouse was on the table instead of in my lap, and extra space for use of the whiteboard if needed. The chair was a comfortable, rolling desk chair.

All of these small details matter to candidates who are taking an exam. If I have to sit a longer exam for up to 4 hours, why would I want to pay $125+ to sit in an environment that isn’t comfortable. I believe there are several reasons why MSL should not renew the contract with Prometric and switch to the obvious superior testing delivery service, Pearson Vue. So to Ken Rosen and whoever has the ability to make this happen, I implore you to make the change. Your candidates and your exams will be better off.

Windows 7 was released yesterday to TechNet and MSDN subscribers.. I began my download last night before heading to bed, its still downloading. I have an extra box I believe I will put it on and maybe try to use 25% of the time remotely from my normal machine.
I have also been using Office 2010 for a full day now and have to say its very fast. I didn’t have a problem upgrading from 2007 to 2010, all my outlook information upgraded without a hiccup. It has a slightly different look to it but is the same idea of 2007 as far as the ribbon up top and different menu items. One new standout feature is when you hit the Office circle, instead of a drop-down menu, a full-window appears with different options layed out. It will take awhile to figure out exactly where everything is compared to 2003/2007.

I came across an interesting problem yesterday and used something I had never used before – “net file” – to fix it. A shared document off a server was telling any user that opened it, that it was open by “another user”. The office manager had already went around to all the machines personally to make sure that the file was not opened. She closed all instances of MS Word on the network but still had the popup when she tried to open the file. I was able to remote into the server and use “net file” in the command line, and it displayed a list of open shared file connections with a connection ID. I then used “net file /close ID” to terminate that connection and free up the file. Once I did that she was able to open the file on her machine. Wonderful command line tool to help any sysadmin in the daily jobs.

Had an odd issue this week that I wasn’t quite sure was handled properly to begin with. There is a machine that the user complains in the mornings only that it won’t turn on. Before I touched the machine the measure taken was to replace the motherboard since it was under warrenty. Two days later the user called again with the same issue. This is when I took the call, and quizzed the user and had her walk me through the steps. Turns out that in order for it to turn on, she has to reset the UPS. So I swap out the UPS and turn it on without issue. Today, she calls again saying she can’t turn it on. I’m really not sure if its even a power supply issue, as thats the only thing left, than it might be a user error. Is she just having trouble turning on the machine? I really don’t know….

In other news, Microsoft today made the Windows 7 XP Mode Release Candidate available for download on their website. Since Windows 7 is built on the same core kernal that Windows Vista is, this is a major feature that needs to work in order for businesses to actually want to migrate to Windows 7. Without this feature. XP could actually stay in network for a lot longer than Win98 or Win2000 machines did and still do today.

I hope to have some virtualization stuff up in the coming weeks, as I will be working on a project setting up a terminal server and about a dozen thin clients.