MCSE 70-270 free study notes

Since we posted MCSE 70-270 exam TechNotes(1) about installing XP Professional,it has been a long time .However ,on that post ,we did not list or post all of  the explanation to the topic areas for this exam .When you read through that post , you still can not pass MCSA 70-270 exam for sure.Although we once post an article about 70-270 study guide ,there are just some common questions such as passing score, how to choose best materials or resources ,which practice tests are better,and so on.To help us better understand XP technology or get high scores in this exam ,we will post all of my study notes to all objectives.If you are confused or have problems ,you can tell us or you can via  Microsoft TechNet to get better answers .

Implementing and Conducting Administration of Resources

FILE SYSTEMS    

Windows XP support the following file systems:

FAT   

Disks formatted with the FAT file system can be accessed by MS-DOS, all versions of Windows, and OS/2. The maximum supported volume size is 4 GB, the maximum file size is 2 GB.

This file system should only be used on removable media such as floppy disks and hard disks smaller than 512 MB.
FAT32    

The faster file system FAT32, is often used in multi-boot situations with operating systems that do not support NTFS. Disks formatted with the FAT32 file system are supported by

Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 and ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Windows NT 4 and earlier cannot access FAT32 volumes. The maximum supported volume size for FAT32 is 2 TB, but

Windows XP can format up to 32 GB only. The maximum file size is 4 GB. The minimum size for a FAT32 volume is 512 MB. You cannot format removable media such as floppy disks with

FAT32.
NTFS    

Disks formatted with NTFS version 5 can only be accessed by Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or higher, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. NTFS supports a volume size over 2 TB and

the maximum file size is limited only by the available free space. You cannot format removable media such as floppy disks with NTFS. Besides being able to handle large disks,

NTFS is the preferred file system for Windows 2000 and XP because of the extra features it offers, including:
- File and folder permissions – (discussed below)
- File and folder compression – (discussed below)
- Encrypted File System (EFS) – (see EFS TechNotes)
- Disk Quotas – Allows quotas to be assigned to users for disk space usages per volume. Quotas are only available on NTFS volumes and can be enabled and configured on the Quota

tab on a volume’s Properties sheet.
CDFS   
This is the file system used on compact discs. You cannot format regular disks with this file system.
Converting File Systems 

You can convert FAT file systems to NTFS using the following command: convert c: /fs:ntfs
The convert utility cannot be used to convert from NTFS to another file system. For example if you converted a FAT32 partition to NTFS and you want to revert it back to FAT32,

you will have to create a full backup, reformat the drive with FAT32, and restore the backup.
FILE AND FOLDER COMPRESSION    

NTFS Compression    

NTFS Compression allows compression of individual files and folders, as well as entire NTFS drives. The process of compression and decompression is transparent to the user. For example, when a user opens a document from a NTFS compressed disk, the document is decompressed automatically, when the user saves the document it is compressed again. This

process might decrease your computer’s performance; it’s best to compress static data and only if it really saves space, you don’t want to waste CPU cycles compressing a ZIP

file for example. An NTFS-compressed file cannot be encrypted, and an encrypted file cannot be compressed. If you do enable compression for an encrypted file, the file will lose

it’s encryption attribute before it is compressed.

You can enable compression for a volume when you format it. To enable compression on an existing volume, right-click it and choose Properties from the context menu, on the

General tab enable the option Compress drive to save disk space. To compress a file or folder, right-click it and choose Properties from the context menu, click the Advanced

button and below Compress and Encrypt attributes enable the option Compress contents to save disk space. When you enable compression on a folder or volume, Windows will ask if

you want to enable compression for all the files and subfolders in the folder or volume as well. Besides using Windows Exporer, you can also use the command compact to compress

or decompress a file or folder.

When you copy a compressed file to a folder on the same, or a different volume, it inherits the compression state of the target folder. This works also vice versa; when you copy

an uncompressed file to a folder with compression enabled, the file will inherit the the target’s compression state and thus it will be compressed.

When you move a compressed file to a folder without compression on the same volume, the file retains its compression attribute. When data is moved within the same volume, the data is not actually relocated, just the pointer to it, this is why it retains the compression attribute. When you move a compressed file to a folder without compression on a different NTFS volume, the file inherits the compression state of the target folder. If the target is not compressed, or is a FAT or floppy disk, the file will be uncompressed.

A move between volumes is actually considered a copy; after the source file is copied to the target volume the source file is deleted.

By default, compressed files and folders are displayed in a different color, you can change this by choosing Folder Options in the Tools menu of My Computer/Windows Explorer.

Click on the View tab and enable the option: Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
Compressed (zipped) Folders   

A new feature introduced in Windows XP is Compressed Folders. These are ZIP files that can be used like regular folders, with some limitations and some advantages. The main limitation is that many programs can’t be run directly from the ZIP file because they might depend on files outside the Compressed Folder. Also you cannot save files to a compressed folder (zip file), you have to use drag and drop or copy and paste. Some advantages of Compressed (zipped) Folders are that they can easily be transported on removable media and the Internet, they can be used on FAT partitions, and they can be protected with a password. Compressed Folders are not available on Windows XP 64-Bit Edition.

The easiest way to create a Compressed Folder is by right-clicking the desktop, point to New, and then select Compressed (zipped) Folder. You can also use the File menu in My Computer. A Compressed Folder is represented by a Folder icon with a zipper.
NTFS FILE PERMISSIONS    

One of the main reasons to use NTFS is the possibility to assign permissions for individual files and folders. Each file and folder on an NTFS volume contains an Access Control List (ACL). This list is filled with entries for groups and individual user accounts and their corresponding permissions. When a user tries to access a resource, Windows XP checks the ACL if the user is listed and what level of permission is assigned.

The following permissions can be assigned for files and folders:

Read  Allows user read files and list the contents of folders, subfolders and volumes, including the attributes, permissions and ownership of the files.
Write Allows the same as Read and additionally allows the user to modify and create files and (sub-)folders as well as changing attributes.
Read and Execute Allows the same as Read and additionally allows users to run applications.
Modify  Same as Read plus Write and and additionally allows executing applications as well.
Full Control Allows everything permitted by the other permissions and and additionally a user with Full Control can change permissions and take ownership of file. 

For folders only, the following additional permission can be assigned:

List Contents  Allows user to read files and list the contents of folders and volumes, user with this permissions can only see the files and folders, not read or change them.

To assign NTFS permissions in Windows Explorer/My Computer, right-click a file, folder, or drive, and click Properties and then the Security tab. If your computer is not a member of a domain, you have to disable the option Use simple file sharing on the View tab of Folder Options before you can see the Security tab.

Under Group or user names: on the Security tab, select or add a group or user, and allow or deny one of the permissions listed in the table above. Denying permissions is usually only done to make an exception, for example, you could allow Modify permission for the Sales group and deny the same permission for certain user account in the Sales group.
 

When you share a folder, you can set a User limit to set a maximum amount of users that can connect to the share simultaneously.

There are three different share permissions that can be assigned to groups and individual user accounts. These permissions apply only when connecting to the share over the network. The share permissions do not apply to users who log on to the local machine. If you want local security use NTFS file and folder permissions.

Share permissions:
Read Allows user to read files and list the contents of folders and volumes. This allows executing applications as well.
Change Allows the same as Read and allows the user to modify and create files and folders.
Full Control
 Allows the same as Change and allows the user to modify Share permissions as well.

When you set permissions you can either Allow or Deny them to a user or group. Typically you would allow a group share permissions and deny the same permissions to certain members of that group. The default permissions for new shares is Read to Everyone.

When you combine NTFS permissions and share permissions the most restrictive permission counts. For example, if you create a folder with files and assign them Full Control NTFS permissions to Everyone and share the same folder and assign the share permission Read to Everyone, users connecting through the network will have Read permissions.

To assign share permissions in Windows Explorer/My Computer right-click the folder or drive, and then click Properties and then the Permissions button on the Sharing tab. Under Group or user names: select or add a group or user, and allow or deny one of the permissions listed in the table above.

By default, Windows XP creates several hidden administrative shares:

Share Purpose
Admin$ This is the system root, usually C:\Windows, Administrators are assigned Full Control share permissions.
Print$ This is the %systemroot%\System32\Spool\Drivers folder, this folder is created when printers are shared to allow clients to automatically download the printer drivers. Administrators and Power users are assigned Full Control share permissions, Everyone is assigned Read permission.
C$, D$, E$, etc.
 Each volume on a hard disk is shared. to provide easy access of the entire volume to Administrators. Administrators are assigned Full Control share permissions.

You can also create hidden shares yourself by adding a $ sign to the end of the share’s name.

Users can connect to a share in several ways, for example:
1. Using My Network Places/Windows Explorer you can browse to the share or use the Add Network Place wizard.
2. Using a direct UNC path, for example: //FileServer12/ShareX
3. Using My Network Places/Windows Explorer or the net use command to map a drive letter to a share.

Offline Files     

Offline Folder allows user to cache the contents of a share and make it available offline, so they can access the files and some programs, even when they are not connected to the network. To allow a shared folder to be cached offline, in Windows Explorer/My Computer right-click the folder or drive, click Properties and then the Caching button on the Sharing tab.

If you enable the option Allow caching of files in this shared folder you can choose one of the following three settings:

Manual caching of documents This is the the default setting when you enable caching. Users will be able to manually select the files they want to make available offline.
Automatic caching of documents Each file that is opened from this share will automatically be copied to the Offline Files folder.
Automatic caching of programs and documents
 This setting allows caching of files that are read-only such as program files.
To enable and configure the Offline Files feature on a client computer, from the Tools menu in My Computer choose Folder Options and click the Offline Files tab. Here you can disable/enable Offline Files, configure synchronization at logon and/or logoff, enable encryption for all offline files, and set the maximum amount of disk space used for offline files (default is 10% of drive space). When you click the Advanced button, you can also view and delete the offline files, and configure what action should be taken when the network connection is lost.

Before files are actually cached on your client, you need to select the shares you wish to make available offline. You can do this simply by right-clicking a drive mapping, and choosing Make available offline.

 Printing
Covers Windows XP local and network printing. Creating, configuring, sharing, securing and connecting to printers.

 Desktop Environment
Covers User Profiles, multiple langauges and locations, local settings and Windows Installer packages.

 Storage
Covers storage types, dynamic and basic, spanning, striping, removable media and disk management tasks.

 Backup, Restore, Repair, and Recover
Covers Backup, Restore, System State Data, ASR, System Restore, Safe Mode, Last Know Good, Device Driver Roll Back and more.

 Devices and Drivers
Covers Device Manager, display devices, ACPI, driver signing, multi-processor configuration, and installing various I/O devices.

 Introduction to ADS
Covers Windows 2000 Active Directory basics and terminology.

 Remote Assistance and Remote Dekstop
Covers Remote Assitance and Remote Dekstop, invitations, offers and troubleshooting.

 Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF)
Covers Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF).

 Internet Information Services (IIS)
Covers Internet Internet Information services, home directories, virtual directories, web sharing, permissions and troubleshooting.

 Encrypted Files System (EFS)
Covers Encrypted File System (EFS), Recovery Agents, and CIPHER command.

 Auditing *NEW*
Covers local Audit Policy and Event Viewer’s security log configuration.

 Performance *NEW*
Covers memory, processor, disk, and application performance, Task Manager, System Monitor and Performance Logs and Alerts, Disk Defragmenter, Scheduled Tasks, and Visual Effects.

 Local User and Group Accounts *NEW*
Covers Local Users and Groups, account settings, account policies, and user rights assignment.

 Internet Explorer *NEW*
Covers Internet explorer security settings and access to resources. 

This is from http://www.techexams.net/technotes/xp/administration.shtml