MCSE Microsoft Windows XP Professional Readiness Review; Exam 70-270 (MCSE Readiness Review) [Paperback]

Kurt Dillard (Author), Anthony Northrup (Author)

Book Description

Series: MCSE Readiness Review | Publication Date: November 30, 2001

MCP Exam 70-210 measures ability to install, configure, and administer the Windows 2000 Professional desktop operating system. And with Readiness Review, certification candidates can sharpen their test-taking skills, save valuable time and money, and build their confidence for the real exam with the help of this exclusive MCP exam simulation on CD-ROM. After completing practice sessions, readers can consult the companion text for helpful explanations for all responses -- right and wrong -- and to identify areas for further study.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (November 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735614601
• ISBN-13: 978-0735614604
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,152,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kurt is an independent consultant who relocated his family from the U.S. to Corrientes, Argentina a few years ago. He writes books, articles, and other documents on the challenges of information security for a variety of organizations, including Microsoft and the U.S. Federal Government. In recent years, Kurt has been helping with NIST's United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) program (http://usgcb.nist.gov). He has collaborated on numerous security guides and tools published by Microsoft, including the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide, Windows 7 Security Guide, and the Security Compliance Manager: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displayLang=en&id=16776.

You can also find out more about Kurt's work at his website: http://www.kurtdillard.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exam-study or not - Very Enlightening, March 3, 2002

By 

Jase T. Wolfe - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: MCSE Microsoft Windows XP Professional Readiness Review; Exam 70-270 (MCSE Readiness Review) (Paperback)

I was very surprised when I used this book and the associated practice exam system (both in the book and on the CD-ROM) in the amount of information about the XP OS that I learned. I've used XP since it was in beta, read the Resource Kit, read other Microsoft Press books on XP and still I found reference to items in this book that I had not read anywhere else. Granted, the book presents the data in very brief summary statements and if you really want to learn more than what is needed to get the practice exam answers right you will need to use the on-line help in XP, the Resource Kit and the Microsoft Web Site. But the knowledge gained after reading the book and following up with the additional resources was well worth my time.

My only complaint about the book is that much of it was obviously the Windows 2000 Professional Exam Prep, and whoever performed the global search and replaced missed quite a few 2000 references. It can sometimes be a little confusing when they are giving you a scenario involving Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and the answer does tell you to boot from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to correct your Windows XP installation.

Regardless of whether you are studying for the MCSE exam or not, if you want to delve into the Windows XP OS and learn about things that may not have been obvious, this is a great book.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars False sense of security, March 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: MCSE Microsoft Windows XP Professional Readiness Review; Exam 70-270 (MCSE Readiness Review) (Paperback)

I get the impression that Dillard and Northrup really rushed to get this book onto the bookstands. Reading through chapter one I found many instances where the authors stated Windows 2000 when they meant to say Windows XP. For example, page 19 suggests that to install Windows XP you simply "insert the Windows 2000 Professional installation CD-ROM and reboot the computer." Well, last time I checked the Windows 2000 CD installed Windows 2000, not Windows XP.

So then I consulted the Microsoft Knowledge base, and discovered Q316452 which lists out all the mistakes in the book. What a mess! These authors really rushed the book, and made a lot of mistakes as a result.

On the bright side - I did pass the exam, and the book did give a good overall perspective of the knowledge required to pass. My advice, however, is to make this book a supplement to a much larger amount of study. The exam had a surprising amount of questions related to the PC BIOS (APM vs ACPI) and SCSI BIOSes.

To the authors I offer this - please put out a Second Edition as soon as you can, and correct these errors. The 70-270 is a fundamental exam for the .Net MCSE's, and I don't want to be working with dummies!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and informative, February 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: MCSE Microsoft Windows XP Professional Readiness Review; Exam 70-270 (MCSE Readiness Review) (Paperback)

I read the resource kit, wrestled with XP on a handful of computers at work and at home, and then read this book before signing up for exam 270. I passed it easily. I've read several other readiness reviews from MSpress and they all follow a similar format, I wasn't expecting to get everything I needed to know about being a Windows XP guru, but it gave me good guidance for the test. It was lot more readable than most MSPress books with scores of sample exam questions.