9/4/2002 -- Even if you've already passed all the previous Windows professional exams, the XP exam can be challenging. Although there's an appearance change between the Win2K and XP, most professionals quickly learn that XP has more in common with Win2K than not. However, the devil is always in the details. Windows XP's new features are easy to miss if you don't dig into those details. While I can't cover everything in this one article, the following study points should give those you with good foundation in Win2K a clear view of what you'll need to know to pass this exam. They should also help if you have a lot of Windows XP experience and want to brush up before taking the plunge.

Tip #1: Entangled For Sure or Encrypting File System
Today more professionals are traveling with their computers, making it more important than ever that electronic files aren't stolen. With Win2K, Microsoft introduced the encrypting file system (EFS) that allowed files to be encrypted while stored on the hard disk. This eliminated the vulnerability of files stored on the hard drive being accessed from another version of the operating system than the one that created the security.

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Although this allowed you to prevent others from gaining access to your files even if the computer was stolen, you could only have one user with access and one "recovery agent" -- one person besides the original user who could decript the file. This was put in place just in case the user wasn't available. This works fine for those situations where you needed to have one user with the file -- however, it prevents a lot of situations where more than one user needed access to the file. Windows XP fixed this limitation by allowing multiple users and multiple recovery agents. Know how this works in Windows XP as well as how to configure it.

Tip #2: Capable and Compatible
One of the big pushes for Windows XP was compatibility. To that end Microsoft installed properties that can be changed in the shortcuts of an application that allow you to control the way the system interacts with the application when it runs it.

These options break down into two main groups. The first group controls the APIs visible to the application. Windows XP pretends to be a different operating system by using the DLLs that originally shipped with those operating systems. If the application doesn't like XP natively, it can always pretend to be someone else.

The other group of controls allow Windows XP to change the video display to something that the application might find more palatable. Many applications were designed when 800 x 600 in 256 colors was considered high-end graphics. Windows XP's graphic options allow it to change the display to suit older applications.

For this exam, Microsoft expect you to understand how to troubleshoot legacy options and use the compatibility options to get them running.

Tip #3: Offline Files
Traveling professionals can have their files and since Windows 2000, they've been able to keep copies of the files on the network as well. Offline Folders allow the traveling professional to keep a synchronized copy of the network files with them.

There are two basic ways that Offline files work. By default, offline files will keep copies of the files opened most recently. The number of files the system keeps is based on the cache size for offline files. In addition, however, you can specify files or folders that you want to have available offline.

Before you sit this exam, be sure to know how offline files work in Windows XP, how they are cached and how to synchronize.

Tip # 4: Policy Priority
Just in case you missed the memo, Microsoft wants you to think about group policy. Despite the exam's focus on workstations, you still need to know the basics of how group policies work.

Group policies are applied at the local machine, at the site level, at the domain level, and finally through each of the organizational units necessary to get to the machine. You'll need to know what happens when those policies conflict including the options to block inheritance and to prevent settings from being inherited.

Tip #5: Get Prepared with SYSPREP
Anyone who has taken Microsoft's previous workstation-level tests for Windows NT Workstation or Win2K Pro will tell you that Microsoft puts a strong emphasis on rolling out large deployments. For Windows XP Professional, that means both SYSPrep and RIPrep. RIPrep is the tool that is used to create images for Remote Installation Services deployment. RIPrep is more or less unchanged from Win2K Pro.

SYSPrep has, however, changed quite a bit. In addition to the options that SYSPrep offered in Windows 2000, you'll find new options that allow you to make an intermediary image. This can be done so that the image can be reopened and tweaked later. This simplifies the process of updates through multiple parties and updating images over time.

Tip # 6: Configuration Calamity with IPConfig
Most everyone in this industry knows that IPConfig is the primary utility to view IP configuration information. However, IPConfig also serves other functions as well. In particular, IPConfig is responsible for DHCP and DDNS control.

You may know about IPCONFIG's /RELEASE and /RENEW parameters. They release an IP address leased from a DHCP server and renew or get a IP address from a DHCP server respectively. These options have been around since Windows NT.

In addition to the /RELEASE and /RENEW options, there are other options related to DDNS that you should be aware of. The first, the /FLUSHDNS parameter, causes the local DNS resolver cache to be flushed. This is useful when the machine may have received bad information back from a DNS server.

The /REGISTERDNS command will force the system to reregister its DNS information with the DDNS server. This will clean up any invalid entries that may exist for the current system.

Microsoft expects those tacking this exam to know how all of the IPConfig options work and when to use them.

Tip #7: Plug and Play or Plug and Pray?
Plug and play was introduced back in Windows 95. When it was initially introduced there was a joke running around the industry that it was more like "plug and pray." Today plug and play is real, but it does still occasionally get out of whack. Microsoft expects you to know how plug and play works and how to troubleshoot it when things go wrong.

Plug and play can become confused when you have legacy devices, but it also can be touchy about interconnecting hubs and power abnormalities. Knowing how to eliminate the potential causes of problems for plug and play is critical to troubleshooting these sorts of problems.

Tip #8:Open Sesame
If you're like me, you have administrative control over your workstation. Despite the fact that it's a bad idea to have administrative privileges with an account you use all the time, I do it because it's easier. The problem comes in that I rarely know what groups can do what, and what permissions you must give to perform operations.

The ability to take ownership of a file (anyone with full control and administrators) and the ability to log on locally (Administrators by default on servers) have never been that difficult to remember, but some of the finer details like who can format a hard disk on a workstation or who can, by default, create directories in the root of the drive have always been a struggle.

This was one are where the exam beat me. Don't make my mistake -- make sure you have permissions down cold before you walk into that testing center.

Tip #9: Protect your PC
It's an unfortunate reality today that your computer must have protection. Microsoft has included both Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). ICS has been with Windows for a while. It allows one computer to connect to the Internet and for other computers on the local network to share the same connection. Internet Connection Firewall is another story. ICF is new with Windows XP and offers the basic "stateful" protection against attacks from the Internet. Microsoft expects its certified XP professionals to understand how these two Internet-related features differ and the kinds of problems they can cause when enabled.

Tip #10: Swiss Army FSUTIL
A new command to Windows XP is the FSUTIL command. This command allows you to do almost anything with drives and volumes. It supports changing and fixing all of those "little" things that can sometimes go wrong with a file system that were difficult to fix before. You should think of FSUTIL as a combination scalpel and sledgehammer. Be sure to understand it so that you can understand the file systems better.

Questions? Comments? Tips of your own to share? Post your thoughts below!

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