I did my first (vocational) IT exam in 1999. This was after an annual appraisal from my (then) manager, who said “I’ve spoken to lots of people, and they’re all very impressed with your work. However, there’s no way for me to quantify your performance, so you don’t get a pay rise.” Based on that, …
Tag archives: Microsoft
Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900)
In July 2021, I took the Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900) exam.NB The exam content has changed since then, so some of the specifics in this blog post might be out of date. According to the exam description:“Candidates should be familiar with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 and want to understand how Microsoft …
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Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
In May 2021, I took the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam. This is similar to Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900), i.e. it’s asking about what the technology does rather than how you use it. However, I thought this was a better exam than MS-900, i.e. it was more relevant to what you actually need to know …
Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900)
In April 2019, I took the Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900) exam. Microsoft offer free training; they say that this will take 4 hours 11 minutes, although you might find that you need to repeat some of the videos if you didn’t fully understand it the first time through (e.g. if you got distracted). It would …
Active Directory lockouts
A lot of organisations set up security policies so that users will be locked out if they enter the wrong password too many times. The idea is to prevent brute force attacks, where an attacker could sit there all day running through the dictionary until they guess the correct password. The downside is that this …
Definition Update for Windows Defender – infinite loop
I recently came across an odd situation involving Windows Server 2016 and WSUS updates. On the WSUS server, I typically see several new Definition Updates for Windows Defender (KB2267602) every day. E.g. on 2017-11-26, Microsoft released: 1.257.995.0 1.257.996.0 1.257.998.0 1.257.1001.0 1.257.1003.0 1.257.1005.0 The update with the highest number will supersede the others, so I only …
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Disabling 16 bit applications in Windows
In January, someone at Google discovered a bug in Windows that had been there for 17 years. (This was reported at The Register, among other places.) Microsoft have now released a patch, as described in Security Bulletin MS10-015, so it’s no longer a problem. However, I think that the details are interesting, particularly if you …
BlackBerry vs Exchange 2007
Exchange 2007 has a few options for remote access to email: you can use Outlook Web Access, or ActiveSync with a smartphone. In particular, it only takes a couple of minutes to configure an iPhone. However, yesterday it took me all day to get a BlackBerry working.
Ribbon Hero
Microsoft recently released Ribbon Hero. This is an add-in for Office 2007 and Office 2010, and the idea is to earn points by completing challenges (e.g. formatting a table). In the process, you’ll become familiar with the new user interface. The name is obviously inspired by “Guitar Hero”, but I think it’s unlikely that this …
LUA part 5 (of 5): Related technologies
This post is part 5 of a series about using a limited (standard) account in Windows for everyday activities rather than logging in as a computer administrator all the time. (You may want to read parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 before continuing.)