MCSE Windows 2000 Foundations Exam Prep (Exam: 70-210, 70-215, 70-216, 70-217, 70-240)

Aiming for your Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification? You'll find overlapping coverage quickly in many of the exams that you can take to qualify, which is great from a preparation point of view, but bad if you have to pay for several copies of the same materials in several exam-specific study guides. MCSE Windows 2000 Foundations is wise to the redundancy in the MCSE battery of tests, and presents itself as an all-in-one guide to what you need to know to pass. By and large, the book lives up to its claim, and provides ample coverage of all essential Microsoft Windows 2000 configuration and networking matters. Probably, you'll want to supplement this book with one that deals more explicitly with Active Directory, if that's a weak point in your knowledge, but it's fine for reviewing all of the general Windows 2000 information that appears on the MCSE exams.

This book is more a general reference and tutorial than an exam guide--it focuses on the facts at hand more than on the exams. The authors prefer to explain concepts in prose, which is effective. However, readers who prefer to absorb concepts visually might wish for fewer screen shots and more clarifying diagrams. Some procedures appear in the text, along with numbered sequences that describe communications between processes. About the only explicitly exam-ish feature is the selection of practice questions that wraps up each chapter. Annotated answers appear in an appendix. --David Wall

Topics covered: The subjects that you need to understand to pass Microsoft certification exams on Windows 2000 Professional (70-210), Windows 2000 Server (70-215), Network Infrastructure (70-216), and Active Directory (70-217), as well as the combined ("Accelerated") Windows 2000 exam (70-240).