70-270 and MCITP Enterprise Administrator

I've heard from a few sources that the 70-270 exam can be used to meet the client requirement in MCITP: Enterprise Administrator. I wanted to know for sure, so I went to the source and emailed Microsoft Learning.
They sent a reply stating that 70-270 does not meet the client exam requirement for MCITP: Enterprise Administrator. You will need to sit one of the Vista exams or the Windows 7 exam. It's quite odd that it doesn't meet the requirement, as you could use your Windows 2000 client exam as a pre-requisite for MCSE on Server 2003.

Anyways, I intend to study the Windows 7 exam early next year.

Exam 70-646: The Result

Yesterday I took the 70-646 Microsoft Certified IT Pro: Server Administrator exam. Being a current MCSE, I found the questions on the 70-646 exam easy to answer. In fact, I found it so easy that I passed with a perfect score 1000/1000. This is my first ever perfect score for a Microsoft Certification exam.

The next exam I am planning to study is the 70-647 Microsoft Certified IT Pro: Enterprise Administrator.

Laptop Review: Asus N51Vn

The Asus N51Vn is flexible enough to be either super fast or have a long battery life, you choose. The HD LED display is super bright and crystal clear. The chassis is a little clicky when pressed, but the laptop is light enough to easily carry it with one hand. The area on either side of the touch pad gets a little too warm to be comfortable, especially when playing graphic intensive games.

The good: LED display, Performance, Battery life
The bad: Chassis, Comfort

Install Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2

1. Install the Microsoft Filter Pack.
2. Open PowerShell and run: Import-Module ServerManager
3. With PowerShell still open run: Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy -Restart
   
   That will install the pre-requisites for Client Access, Hub Transport, and the Mailbox roles. If you are performing a different installation option, see this page.
   
   
4. After restarting, from within an elevated PowerShell window run: Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic
5. If you haven't already, run Windows Update and install all the latest critical updates
   
6. Run the Exchange Install
7. Choose your language option (Step 3 of the installer)
8. The rest of the install should be fairly straightforward :)
   

Rename-Member Pipeline Function

Here is the PowerShell function I wrote to move rename members within PowerShell objects. Hopefully you will find it useful too.


I mainly use the function to move old data from one property to another when performing a comparison.

Fast deployment from WDS

To speed up a new deployment from a Windows Deployment Server, try this:

1. Set the PC to boot from Hard Disk first and Network Second
2. Pre-stage the computer account in Active Directory
3. Set WDS to automatically network boot without requiring a user to press F12
4. Start the client computer

You will notice that the client PC will automatically boot to the network when the hard disk has no operating system, then once the install is complete, the client PC will boot from the hard disk. Hands off! :P

Now I just need to work on automating the rest of the process.