70-623 A Windows Vista Configuring Exam for Consumer Support Techs

10/14/2007 — Exam 70-623 PRO: stands alone as a Microsoft certification. The exam targets IT professionals who work within the consumer market supporting end users. Familiar with The Geek Squad? Well, that’s the target audience. Exam 70-623 gives this group a way to prove their knowledge supporting users with installation, configuration and troubleshooting retail versions of Windows Vista installed on consumers’ machines.

Besides this exam, Microsoft has released four other Microsoft Windows Vista exams:

70-620 TS: Configuring Windows Vista (reviewed here)
70-624 TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista and 2007 Office System Desktops
70-621 Pro: Upgrading your MCDST Certification to MCITP Enterprise Support
70-622 Pro: Supporting and Troubleshooting Applications on Windows Vista for Enterprise Support Technicians (reviewed here)
The 70-621 and 70-622 exams are aimed at testing candidates’ knowledge of Vista installations at business and enterprise-class environments and qualify for the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist and Microsoft Certified IT Professional certifications.

I took the 70-623 beta, which had 77 questions and was timed at 190 minutes. The final version of the exam is limited to 90-120 minutes, but has somewhere around 50 questions.

This exam was wide in scope and tested the candidate’s knowledge of all aspects of supporting users of Windows Vista in the consumer market in these key areas:

Install, upgrade Windows Vista
Post-Installation customization and configuration
Configuring Vista security
Configuring, troubleshoot, repairing networking
Installing, configuring, troubleshooting devices
Troubleshooting, repairing Vista
My first recommendation for study falls under the category of hands-on — if you’re new to Vista, you need some time at the controls, and it’s always time well spent!