Windows 7 | Todd's Blog

Windows 7 Beta Exam

posted on April 17, 2009

I was reading the Beta Exam Announcements blog and noticed that the first Windows 7 exam is going into Beta. Registration begins April 27th and you can write the exam from May 5th – May 18th. The exam is available on a first come, first serve basis.

I plan to sit the exam and I hoping David Myers is too. If we do write, I will try and post some study notes, help articles, etc that we used to help us prepare for this exam.

Here is the information from the blog.

Registration begins: April 27, 2009

You are invited to take beta exam 71-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.
By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

71-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

· MCTS: Windows 7, Configuration

Availability

Registration begins: April 27, 2009

Beta exam period runs: May 5, 2009– May 18, 2009

Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately! Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: WIN7J
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.

To register in North America, please call:

Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.

EnergizeIT: Install Fest for Windows 7 – Ottawa Event

posted on April 9, 2009

The EnergizeIT Windows 7 Install Fest ran in Ottawa and the session went great. There were 71 people out tonight with laptops to install Windows 7 onto their computers and a few more people from the OWSUG walking about and helping people with problems. Windows 7 was installed to computers as fresh installs, dual boots, upgrades and installs to virtual machines. We used both DVD media, USB sticks and ISO images. There were even two Macs in the crowd installing Windows 7 on their machines. (Who says you can’t make your Mac better?) One was using Boot Camp and one was using Parallels. Rick, Pierre and Christian had several demos, covering different Windows 7 scenarios. We saw how to boot from USB stick and how to enable Bitlocker to go. We learned about shims using the Application Compatibility Toolkit and new features in programs that have been with Windows since the Windows 3.1 days. Having been at the Windows Vista Install Fest in Mississauga a few years back, it was nice to be at the EnergizeIT: Install Fest for Windows 7. It was a great event and an evening well spent. Here are some photos from the event.

Crowd Shots

Windows 7 gets installed onto Macs

Using MDT 2010 to Deploy Windows 7 to a VHD

posted on March 8, 2009

I was getting caught up on some blog reading over my lunch hour and noticed a new post by the Deployment Guys on their blog. If you didn’t know, with Windows 7, you can now boot from VHD; there is even a trick to make Windows Vista boot from VHD. Booting loads the VHD and uses your physical hardware, its a great way multi-boot a computer into an OS that is VHD aware. In the Microsoft world, at this point in time, this means Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The post from the Deployment Guys blog explains how to deploy Windows 7 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT 2010) to a computer and instead of deploying to Disk 0 Partition 1, it is set to deploy to VHD file.

How to Setup MDT to Create a Boot from VHD Deployment

So how do we do this? Here’s the point form version. (You can get pictures from the Deployment Guys blog)

Create a task sequence to deploy Windows 7
You are going to insert 3 steps in the Pre-Install \ New Computer only phase
Edit the task sequence that changes how the drive is partitioned (I presented how to do this at TechDays Ottawa). In this case we don’t want to partition or format the drive. Disable this task sequence.
Insert a Set Task Sequence Variable Step named Set Boot VHD Location. You set the location of the VHD file is by setting the Task Sequence Variable to BootVHDLocation and set the Value to the location where you want the file to exist. (for example C:\Boot1Windows7.vhd) Ensure that the file you named in the variable doesn’t already exist.
Insert a Set Task Sequence Variable Step named Set Boot VHD Size. Set the task sequence variable to BootVHDSize and set the value to the maximum size you want the VHD to be. Ensure you have enough space to grow to the maximum.
Insert a Run Command Line Step and call it Setup VHD. The command line is cscript.exe “%SCRIPTROOT%\ZTIDiskPartVHD.wsf (There is no start in value.)
Download the script ZTIDiskPartVHD.wsf and copy is to your Distrobution$\Scripts folder. The link to the script is at ZTIDiskpartVHD.zip
Run your task sequence on a computer and it will install Windows 7 into a VHD.

This doesn’t work on machines that use Bitlocker to encrypt the drive.

The full article can be found at: http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/archive/2009/03/03/deploying-win-7-to-boot-from-vhd-with-mdt-2010.aspx. They have pretty pictures to help you out.

This is a really smart way to boot into different environments. You can have different VHD images for different tasks, ie. One for programming, one for gaming, etc. Pretty sweet and easy to deploy when using MDT