Windows XP
Control Panel
Accessibility Options
Magnifier
Because your grandmother’s eyesight is failing, she cannot see the computer screen clearly.
How do you configure the Magnifier utility to make it easier for your grandmother to view the
screen?
Onscreen Keyboard
Because of an accident that has left him with limited use of some of his fingers, an employee has
asked whether the IT department could configure his computer with an onscreen keyboard so that he
may use the mouse to type data.
How do you configure this user’s computer to comply with his request?
Sticky Keys
A friend with severe arthritis is having difficulty pressing multiple keys simultaneously (for example,
Ctrl+Alt+Del). You offer to enable Sticky Keys for her.
How do you configure this setting?
Add Hardware
Driver Not Detected
You are running Windows XP Professional on an old Pentium II computer. A friend has just bought a
new network interface card (NIC) for his computer and asks whether you would like to have his old
one. You install the NIC and the correct driver on your computer, but you discover that when you
restart your computer, the operating system does not detect the new NIC.
Without restarting your computer, how do you troubleshoot this problem?
2 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Add/Remove Programs
Add Components
How do you install IIS (Internet Information Services) on your computer?
Remove Programs
Adobe Reader has recently become corrupted.
How do you remove it from your computer?
Administrative Tools
Computer Management
Add User to Group
A user named Bob Smith needs to install and uninstall software packages for the Research and
Development department. You decide to make him a Power User.
How do you do this?
Change Password at Logon
You have just reset the password for a user named Bob Smith and now you want to force him to
change his password the next time he logs on.
How do you do this?
Convert to Dynamic Disks
As part of your disaster recovery plan, you decide to create fault tolerance by installing a second
hard drive and configuring RAID 1. You have already installed the second hard drive. Before you
can install RAID, however, you must convert both hard drives to dynamic disks.
Begin by converting your original hard drive (Disk 0) from a basic partition to a dynamic disk.
Create New Group
Your company has just been awarded a new government contract. Employees from many different
departments will be involved in working on this project. To more effectively manage company
resources, the IT department has decided to create a new group named Research. Employees who
will be working on this project will then be added to the Research group. Your IT supervisor has
asked you to handle this assignment.
How do you create this new group named Research?
Windows XP 3
Create New User Account
Your company has just hired a new employee and you have been asked to create a new account for
him.
How do you create a new user account?
Enable Guest Account
The Guest account is created automatically during installation but is normally disabled. Your boss
has decided to temporarily enable the Guest account for use in a meeting tomorrow, and he has
asked you to take care of this assignment.
Enable the Guest account for tomorrow’s meeting.
Create New Primary Partition
You have some unused space on your hard drive, and you decide to create a new primary partition.
How do you create a new primary partition?
Reset Password
A user named Bob Smith calls the held desk to say that he has forgotten his password and cannot
log on to his account. His password needs to be reset.
What would you do to help him?
Note
The user may change his own password if he is able to log on. This scenario, however, stipu-
lates that Bob does not remember his password and has asked the administrator to reset it for
him.
Shared Folders
Where do you go to view a list of all the shared folders on your Windows XP computer?
From this location, find the location of the shared folder named Homework.
Event Viewer
View Audit Results
You suspect that someone has been attempting to hack into your computer at night, so yesterday
you created an audit that would record both the successful and the unsuccessful attempts to log on
to your computer. Now you want see whether the hacker has succeeded in penetrating your system.
How do you view the results of this logon audit?
4 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
View Disk Quota Log File
You have created disk quotas for your employees. At the same time, you also created a log file to
alert you if employees exceed their limits.
Where you would go to view this log file?
View Log Files
You suspect that a service failed to start when your system started.
Where do you find the log files that describe this failure?
Local Security Policy
Account Lockout Policy: Duration
The IT department is implementing an account lockout policy that will keep a user’s account
locked for 15 minutes during a hacker’s attack.
Your assignment is to create an account lockout policy that will release the user’s account after
being locked for 15 minutes.
Account Lockout Policy: Reset Counter
Create an account lockout policy that will allow the counter to be reset after 15 minutes of
inactivity.
Account Lockout Policy: Threshold
To prevent a hacker from gaining access to your network, you decide to implement an account
lockout policy.
Create an account lockout policy that will lock a user’s account after four failed logon attempts.
Audit Policy
You suspect that someone has been attempting to hack into your computer at night, so you decide
to create an audit of all logon attempts.
Without creating a group policy, set up an audit that will record both successful and unsuccessful
logon attempts.
Password Policy: Complexity
Create a password policy that forces users to use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, or
symbols in their passwords.
Password Policy: History
Create a password policy that does not allow a user to reuse his/her last three passwords.
Windows XP 5
Password Policy: Maximum Age
Create a password policy that requires a user to change his/her password every 60 days.
Password Policy: Minimum Age
Create a password policy that allows a user to change his/her password after only 1 day.
Password Policy: Minimum Length
Create a password policy that forces a user to create a password that is at least seven characters
long.
Performance
Create a Baseline for the Network
You have just been hired as the network administrator for a small company. As one of your first
actions, you decide to create a baseline to evaluate the efficiency of the network.
Use the System Monitor to create this baseline.
Date/Time
Daylight Savings Time
Daylight savings time began last night at 2 a.m., but your computer’s clock is still set for standard
time.
How do you configure your computer to automatically adjust for daylight savings time each year?
Display
Adjust Resolution
One of your users complains that the images on the screen are so large that he cannot see the
entire desktop without scrolling side to side.
How do you adjust the screen resolution so that he can view the entire desktop at one time?
Change Background
You decide to change the background picture on the desktop.
Change the background to the Autumn picture.
Change Desktop Color Scheme
You are bored with the “look” of your desktop and decide to change the color.
How do you change the color of your desktop to red?
6 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Screen Saver
Your friend complains that a screen saver pops on if his computer is inactive for only a minute or
two. He wants to keep the screen saver but would like to have it turn on after a 15-minute inactive
period.
How do you set a 15-minute delay before the screen saver automatically comes on?
Folder Options
Change Color of Compressed Files
The names of the compressed folders on your computer appear blue. Because this seems to be
confusing your users, you decide to turn off this feature of Windows XP.
How do you do this?
Change File Associations
You want to configure your GIF and JPG files to open automatically with the Windows Picture and
Fax Viewer.
How do you configure this change?
Remove Pathway from Address Bar
You have noticed that each time a user opens a file, the name of the file and the entire pathway to
that file displays in the address bar. You decide to reset the address bar so that it displays only the
name of the open file.
How do you reset the information that appears in the address bar?
Enable Offline Files
When you travel, you use your laptop to go online to access files from the office. You want your
laptop files to be automatically synchronized with your office files when you log off.
How do you enable your offline files?
View Hidden Files
Many of your boot files and system files are hidden.
Without using the command line, how do you make these files visible?
Internet Options
Add-Ons
Web browser add-ons add extra features to your browser, such as animation or extra toolbars.
Often you inadvertently install add-ons when you download programs from the Internet. Yesterday,
you downloaded a trial version of a new program from the Internet, and now you suspect that it
might have included an add-on that installed spyware on your computer.
Windows XP 7
How do you view a list of the add-ons that are currently in use on your computer?
AutoComplete
The AutoComplete feature has been turned on, and users’ passwords are remembered. Because this
is a security risk, you decide to turn it off.
How do you turn off the AutoComplete feature?
Change the Home Page
The current home page for your browser is InstructionalScenarios.com. The network administrator
has decided to use the company’s web page as the home page for the network.
How do you configure this change?
Controlling Java Script Execution
Java scripts are small sets of instructions embedded into a web page that affect its functionality.
Your browser is currently set to allow these scripts to execute automatically.
How do you reset your browser so that “Scripting of Java applets” is set to prompt you before exe-
cuting?
Control Image Download
You have a slow Internet connection (dial-up modem). To improve download speeds each time you
visit a new website, you decide to prevent the automatic download of pictures, animation, sounds,
and so on.
How do you configure your browser to prevent these automatic downloads?
Delete Cookies
Cookies are placed on your computer by the websites that you visit in an effort to track your web
browsing habits. You decide to remove the cookies that have been placed on your computer.
How do you do this?
Delete Temporary Internet Files Automatically
Your kids discover that you are tracking their Internet browsing activities, and they decide to set
the browser to automatically empty the temporary cache each time the browser is closed.
Where would they go do this?
Pop-Up Blocker
Windows XP Service Pack 2 provides a Popup Blocker utility. Using this utility, you may block all
pop-ups, allow only pop-ups from sites you specify, or turn off the Popup Blocker.
Configure your browser to allow pop-ups from a site called InstructionalScenarios.com.
8 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Keyboard
Cursor Blink Rate
How do you adjust the rate at which the cursor blinks?
Mouse
Change Mouse Pointer
You are bored with your standard mouse pointer and want to personalize it.
How do you change your pointer from an arrow to a dinosaur?
Double-Click Speed
Your aunt’s arthritis makes it difficult for her to double-click the mouse quickly enough to open
applications. You offer to slow the double-click speed on her mouse.
How do you do this?
Left-Handed Mouse
A new employee has sent an e-mail to the IT department requesting a left-handed mouse.
As you do not seem to have a left-handed mouse in stock, how might you help him?
Network Connections
Add Protocol
Your computer is currently using TCP/IP to connect to the Internet. You decide that you would like
to add NetBEUI to your internal network.
How do you add this new protocol?
Change IP Address
You have decided to create a small home network and to implement private IP addressing.
Where do you go to assign a private IP address to your computer?
Create a VPN
Your company wants to allow members of its sales force to remotely access the company’s net-
work via the Internet. The Internet, however, does not provide security for their communications,
so the decision has been made to create a virtual private network (VPN). The server has already
been configured to use a VPN. Your assignment is to create a VPN connection for one of the
Windows XP client machines.
How do you do this?
Windows XP 9
Create a Wireless Network
Create a wireless home network. Use InstructionalScenariosEncrypted as your service set identifier
(SSID). Allow the computer to automatically assign a network key using Wired Equivalent Privacy
(WEP).
Power Options
Configure Power Button
How do you configure your computer to hibernate when the power button is pressed?
Hibernate
How do you enable the hibernation feature on your computer?
Standby
You are preparing for a presentation, and you do not want your computer to go into Standby mode
because of inactivity during the presentation.
How do you reset the power scheme for Presentation mode?
Printers
Add Printer
You have just purchased a new printer, and now you want to install it on your local computer.
How do you install a local printer?
Enable/Disable Spooling
A user complains that his computer takes a long time to print and that he cannot use his computer
again until the printing has completed. You wonder whether the user might inadvertently have dis-
abled the spooling feature on his printer.
Investigate this complaint and, if necessary, reenable spooling.
Pause Printing
A user complains that the printer keeps printing the same document over and over. You decide to
pause the printer while you investigate the problem with the queue.
How do you pause the printer?
Print Test Page
You have just installed a new printer. When you open a Word document and try to print, you dis-
cover that it will not print.
How do you troubleshoot this problem with your new printer? What should your first action be?
10 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Set Priority
You have just installed a computer in the new district manager’s office. When you configure his
printer’s settings, you decide to give him the highest possible print priority.
What priority would you assign him and how do you do it?
View Print Queue
The printer at work has jammed. You, as a member of the IT department, have been asked to inves-
tigate and solve the problem. After clearing the jam, the printer begins to print its stored docu-
ments. Unfortunately, in their frustration with the printer, users attempted to print their documents
multiple times. As a result, the print queue now contains multiple copies of individual documents.
How do you access the queue and view the list of print jobs?
Scheduled Tasks
Schedule Backup
You decide to back up your files every Saturday at 12 a.m.
How do you schedule this backup to run automatically every week?
Security Center
Allow Remote Desktop in Windows Firewall
Your quarterly report is due next week, and you find that you must work on it this weekend if it is
to be ready on time. Instead of coming into the office on Saturday, you decide to use the Remote
Desktop utility to enable you to work from home.
How do you configure the firewall to allow remote access from your home PC to your desktop at
work?
Automatic Updates
Your computer is currently set to download and install updates automatically.
How do you change this configuration so that updates are still downloaded automatically, but you
may now choose when to install them?
Windows XP 11
System Properties
Advanced Tab
Configure Reboot Parameters
The area of the country in which you live experiences periodic power failures. Each time the
power goes out, your computer automatically reboots. Sometimes the power returns for only a few
minutes and then goes out again. You are concerned that your home computer is being forced to
reboot too often, and you want to prevent the automatic reboot.
How do you disable this feature?
Change Default Operating System
You are running a system that dual boots between Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP
Professional. Currently, your system defaults to Windows XP Professional, and you want to
change the default operating system to Windows 2000 Professional.
How do you do this?
Change Size of Page File
To improve the performance of your system, you decide to increase the amount of space allocated
to virtual memory.
Where do you go to adjust the size of the page file?
Error Reporting
Each time an application fails, you receive a message asking whether you would like to send an
error report to Microsoft. You would like to configure the Error Reporting utility to send operating
system errors only and not program errors.
How do you do this?
Automatic Updates Tab
Automatic Updates
Your computer is currently set to download and install updates automatically.
How do you change this configuration so that updates will still be downloaded automatically, but
now you may choose when to install them?
12 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Computer Name Tab
Change Computer Name
The IT department has just installed 20 new workstations. You must now give each new worksta-
tion a name that conforms to your company’s naming convention.
How do you change the name of a Windows XP computer?
Join a Domain
You have just installed Windows XP on a new computer, and now you want to add this computer
to the InstructionalScenarios.com domain.
How do you do this?
General Tab
OS and Installed Service Packs
Your company has recently won a contract to perform a systemwide upgrade for a client. Your IT
manager has given you the assignment of evaluating the client’s existing network. You know that
the system is running Windows XP, but you are not sure whether any service packs have been
installed.
How can you determine whether the most recent service pack has been installed?
Type and Speed of Processor
A friend has just given you a spare computer to add to your home network. Now you need to get
some basic information about your new computer. How do you determine the type and speed of
your new processor?
Hardware Tab
Block Unsigned Drivers
An employee at your company has recently downloaded a software product that was incompatible
with the Windows XP environment. Your company’s policies allow employees to download certain
software packages, so you do not want to prevent them from downloading all software. You do,
however, want to prevent the installation of incompatible hardware and software, so you decide to
block the installation of hardware and software that uses unsigned drivers.
Without writing a group policy, where do you go to block these unsigned drivers?
Windows XP 13
Disable a Device
You have just installed a new NIC, and now you suspect that you have created a conflict. As part
of the troubleshooting process, you decide to disable the NIC. You do not want to uninstall the
NIC yet; you only want to disable it.
How do you disable the new NIC?
Create Hardware Profile
One of your company’s employees occasionally brings his laptop to the office, so in addition to his
PC, he also needs a docking station. Your IT supervisor has asked you to create two hardware pro-
files for this user to facilitate the dual configuration.
Where do you go to create a new hardware profile?
List of all IRQs
The system resources for your computer include the IRQ (interrupt request) assignments, I/O
addresses, memory addresses, and the DMA (direct memory access) assignments.
Where do you go to view a list of the IRQ assignments for every device on your system?
Note
You are looking for a single list that includes all IRQ assignments.
Rollback Driver
A friend complains that his computer is “acting really weird.” You ask him about the symptoms of
this weird behavior, and you also ask him whether he has made any configuration changes to his
computer recently.
He replies that he has recently installed a new NIC. You ask about the manufacturer and discover
that the NIC is from a manufacturer that you do not recognize. You check the hardware compati-
bility list (HCL) and do not find the NIC listed. Most of the symptoms your friend describes also
seem to be related to the NIC.
You decide to use the Driver Rollback utility to remove the new driver.
How do you rollback a driver?
Uninstall a Device
How do you uninstall your NIC?
14 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Remote Tab
Allow Remote Desktop in Windows Firewall
Your quarterly report is due next week, and you find that you must work on it this weekend if it is
to be ready on time. Instead of coming into the office on Saturday, you decide to use the Remote
Desktop utility to enable you to work from home.
How do you configure the firewall to allow remote access from your home PC to your desktop at
work?
Remote Assistance
You want to configure your home PC to accept remote assistance from the held desk at work.
Configure your computer to issue an invitation for remote assistance and set a time limit of 1 day.
System Restore Tab
Adjust Restore Point Space
You have planned a series of major upgrades to your system, and you plan to create several restore
points as your upgrades progress. You are concerned about the amount of space available for your
restore points.
How may you view and adjust the amount of space reserved for restore points?
Taskbar and Start Menu
Add My Network Places to Start Menu
To make it easier to access My Network Places, you decide to add a link in the Start menu.
How do you add a link to My Network Places to the Start menu?
Edit Start Menu
A user at work wants to be able to click and open individual Control Panel utilities from within the
Start menu. Can you help her?
Adjust the Start menu to display a list of Control Panel utilities.
Hide the Taskbar
Hide the taskbar so that it is visible only when you pass the cursor over it.
Windows XP 15
Users Accounts
Change User Logon/Logoff
You have created a small home network with user accounts for each member of your family. By
default, the Welcome screen appears at logon, allowing a user to click his/her username and then
enter the password. You realize that this is a dangerous security breach, so you decide to switch to
the classic logon prompt. This requires a user to type both the username and the password at
logon.
How do you configure this type of logon?
Change Password
A user named Bob suspects that his password has been compromised, and he wants to change it.
What should you tell him to do to change his password?
Note
Normally a user could change a password by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, but in this scenario,
Ctrl+Alt+Del has not been programmed as a possible solution. Look for an alternative way to
change the user’s password.
Create New User Account
Your company has just hired a new employee, and you have been asked to create a new account
for him.
How do you create a new user account?
Enable Fast User Switching
You have created a small home network with user accounts for each member of your family. You
decide to enable Fast User Switching so that family members can quickly switch from one user
account to another without having to close any programs and log off.
How do you enable Fast User Switching?
Drive Properties
Create an ASR
Your supervisor has asked you to develop an emergency plan for the IT department. As part of that
plan, you decide to create an automated system recovery (ASR) disk.
How do you create an ASR for a Windows XP Professional computer?
16 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Backup: Differential
You are employed as a backup and restore technician in the IT department. Your supervisor has
requested that you run an additional differential backup on drive C: tonight.
Your assignment is to
■ Back up the C: drive.
■ Use a differential backup.
■ Verify the backup.
■ Append your results to earlier backup tapes.
How do you complete this assignment?
Backup: System State
As part of the regularly scheduled maintenance for your computer, you must run a backup of the
system state files.
How do you configure a system state backup?
Disk Cleanup
You have just received a warning message that you are approaching the limit on your disk quota
space, so you decide to run the Disk Cleanup utility.
How do you access the Disk Cleanup utility?
Disk Quotas:
You administer a small network with very limited available disk space. Instead of buying addition-
al hard drives for the network, you decide to limit the disk space assigned to your users by
enabling disk quotas.
Assign your users 1 KB of disk space.
Also, create a log event when a user exceeds both the quota limit and the warning limit.
Folder Properties
Compression
Your company has a group of files from a test project that are rarely used now but which need to
be preserved for legal reasons. To save storage space on the hard drive, you decide to compress
these records. You want to ensure that all the files and folders inside the Test folder are automati-
cally compressed, too.
How do you compress the C:\Test folder along with all of its subfolders and files?
Windows XP 17
Assigning NTFS Permissions
Employees on the Beta Testing team in the Research and Development department are working on
a new project and have asked you to create a shared folder in which they may store documents
needed for this project. You have created the new folder on the C: drive and named it Test.
All members of the Beta Testing team must be able to access this folder and must be able to create
and edit documents inside the folder. You do not, however, want them to be able to delete the Test
folder itself.
Assign the NTFS permissions that will allow the Beta Testing group proper access to the C:\Test
folder.
Note
You do not need to configure share permissions for this scenario.
Change File Attributes: Read-Only
Your company has just revised its Employee Manual and now wants to make it available to all its
employees. You have placed this file in a shared folder on the C: drive.
To protect the integrity of the Employee Manual folder, assign the read-only attribute to it.
Assigning Share Permissions
Employees on the Beta Testing team of the Research and Development department are working on
a new project and have asked you to create a shared folder in which they may store documents
needed for this project. You have created the new folder on the C: drive and named it Test. You
decide to give the Beta Testing group Full Control share permissions.
Assign the share permissions that will allow the Beta Testing group the required access to the
C:\Test folder.
Note
You do not need to configure NTFS permissions for this scenario.
Miscellaneous
Automatic Updates
As a member of the IT department, you have the responsibility for maintaining and updating your
virus protection and your Windows updates.
How do you schedule the Windows updates to run automatically?
18 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Compatibility Mode
You have recently installed the Tech Express program, and now you want to configure it to run as
a Windows 2000–compatible application.
How do you configure this program to run in Windows 2000 compatibility mode?
Map Network Drive
Your company has just been awarded a new government contract. Employees from many different
departments in many different cities will be involved in working on this project. To more effective-
ly manage company resources, the IT department has created a new shared folder named Projects,
which is located on a server named Research at corporate headquarters in Atlanta. As a member of
the New Product Development team, you need to access this folder on a regular basis, so you
decide to connect to it by mapping a network drive.
How do you map a network drive to the Projects folder on the Research server in Atlanta?
Note
Many administrators use the Run line (Start, Run) to connect to a remote computer. This, how-
ever, does not create a true mapped drive. A mapped network drive will appear as a perma-
nent connection in My Computer. Using the Run line only creates a temporary connection and,
therefore, has not been included as a solution to this scenario.
Processes
You suspect that a virus has infected your computer. You decide to look for the virus among the
various processes that are running on your computer.
How do you access a list of all the processes currently running on your computer and terminate a
process that appears to be a virus?
Note
Normally, you could press Ctrl+Alt+Del to view the processes, but in this scenario,
Ctrl+Alt+Del has not been programmed as a possible solution.
Look for an alternative way to determine which processes are running on the computer.
Repair Folder
When Windows XP was installed on your computer, copies of the registry hive files were created
and placed in the Repair folder.
Where will you find the Repair folder?
Shortcut: Location
You have recently moved the Scenario Express file from the C: drive to the D: drive, and now the
shortcut to Scenario Express (located on the desktop) does not work.
Windows XP 19
Without deleting and re-creating the shortcut on the desktop, how do you redirect this shortcut to
the new location?
Shut Down the Computer
How do you turn your computer off?
Note
Normally, you could press Ctrl+Alt+Del to shut down the computer, but in this scenario,
Ctrl+Alt+Del has not been programmed as a possible solution.
Look for an alternative way to shut down.
Run Line
Autostart: Dual Boot
You have created a second partition (drive D:) on your hard drive. Windows 2000 Professional is
currently installed on the C: drive, and now you want to create a dual-boot system by installing
Windows XP on the D: drive. You insert the Windows XP installation CD into drive E: (the CD
drive), but the Autostart feature does not work.
What could you type at the Run line to begin the installation to create a dual boot?
Note
You could also start the installation from the command line or by double-clicking the CD-
ROM. This scenario, however, specifically asks for a solution from the Run line.
Convert to NTFS
You have just upgraded your operating system from Windows 98 to Windows XP. You did not,
however, change the file system during the upgrade. You now want to convert the file system from
FAT32 to NTFS.
How do you do this?
Create an MMC
The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) enables a technician to create a customizable utility
that may be used for administrative or troubleshooting tasks. The user may add tools known as
snap-ins to customize the MMC for specific needs.
Your assignment is to create an MMC and add the Disk Management snap-in.
20 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
Install Recovery Console
The Recovery Console is an important tool when troubleshooting serious system problems on your
computer.
How do you install the Recovery Console on your Windows XP computer?
Registry
You suspect that a virus has infected your computer. You decide to examine the registry’s
Hkey_Local_Machine to try to find the virus and then to determine a course of action.
How do you gain access to the Hkey_Local_Machine?
System Information
Create Restore Point
You are about to begin a major upgrade of your system. As a precaution, you decide to create a
restore point in case your upgrade fails and you need to restore your system to its previous config-
uration.
How do you create a restore point?
Dr. Watson
One of your friends is complaining about problems he is having with a new music-editing program
that he just bought. The customer support staff for the music company has recommended that your
friend run the Dr. Watson application and then email the log results to them.
How do you run the Dr. Watson utility?
List of all IRQs
The system resources for your computer include the IRQ assignments, I/O addresses, memory
addresses, and the DMA assignments.
Where do you go to view a list of the IRQ assignments for every device on your system?
Note
You are looking for a single list that includes all IRQ assignments.
OS and Installed Service Packs
Your company has recently won a contract to perform a systemwide upgrade for a client. Your IT
manager has given you the assignment of evaluating the client’s existing network. You know that
all the system’s client computers are running Windows XP, but you are not sure whether any serv-
ice packs have been installed yet.
Windows XP 21
How could you determine whether the most recent service pack has been installed on each client?
Signature Verification
Signature verification is Microsoft’s way of assuring the customer that their device drivers have
been tested and are approved for use with the Windows operating systems.
How do you create a log file of all the Microsoft digitally signed drivers on your computer?
Type and Speed of Processor
A friend has just given you a spare computer to add to your home network. You now want to get
some basic information about your new computer.
How do you determine the type and speed of the processor in on your new computer?
System Tools
Allow Remote Desktop in Windows Firewall
Your quarterly report is due next week, and you find that you must work on it this weekend if it is
to be ready on time. Instead of coming into the office on Saturday, you decide to use the Remote
Desktop utility to enable you to work from home.
How do you configure the firewall to allow remote access from your home PC to your desktop at
work?
Automatic Updates
Your computer is currently set to download and install updates automatically.
How do you change this configuration so that updates are still downloaded automatically, but you
may now choose when to install them?
Create an ASR
Your supervisor has asked you to develop an emergency plan for the IT department. As part of that
plan, you decide to create an automated system recovery disk.
How do you create an ASR for a Windows XP Professional computer?
Backup: Differential
You are employed as a backup and restore technician in the IT department. Your supervisor has
requested that you run an additional differential backup on the C: drive.
You are to
■ Back up the C: drive.
■ Run a differential backup.
■ Verify the backup.
22 CompTIA A+ Windows Simulator
■ Append your results to earlier backup tapes.
■ Run the backup now.
How do you complete this assignment?
Backup: System State
As part of the regularly scheduled maintenance for your computer, you must run a backup of the
system state files.
How do you configure a system state backup?
Create Restore Point
You are about to begin a major upgrade of your system. As a precaution, you decide to create a
restore point in case your upgrade fails and you need to restore your system to its previous config-
uration.
How do you create a restore point?
Defragment
You have just deleted many of your old files that you no longer need, and you have run the Disk
Cleanup utility. Now you want to defragment your drive.
How do you run the Disk Defragmenter utility?
Disk Cleanup
You have just received a warning message that you are approaching the limit on your disk quota
space, so you decide to run the Disk Cleanup utility.
How do you access the Disk Cleanup utility?
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
You have just built a new computer and installed Windows XP Professional. You decide to transfer
configuration settings for Internet Explorer, Outlook, and your desktop from your old computer to
the new one.
What XP utility will automatically transfer these settings for you?
Schedule Backup
You decide to back up your files every Saturday at 12 a.m.
Use the Scheduler utility (not the Backup utility) to schedule this backup to run automatically
every week.