Tested Skills and Suggested Practices

The skills that you need to successfully master the Configuring and Troubleshooting the Desktop and User Environments objective domain on the Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System exam include the following:

• Configure the user environment.

  • Practice 1: Right-click a blank portion of the taskbar, and select Properties from the menu. Note the options in the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box. Experiment with checking and clearing the check boxes in the Taskbar appearance section, and observe the effect of these actions on the taskbar menu. You should practice locking the taskbar, hiding it, keeping it on the top of all windows, and grouping similar taskbar buttons on it.

  • Practice 2: Click the Start button, and select Control Panel from the menu. From the Pick A Category list, click Accessibility Options. Note the options available on the Accessibility Options screen. Select Accessibility Options, and look at the Accessibility Options dialog box. Practice configuring StickyKeys, FilterKeys, and ToggleKeys.

  • Practice 3: From Control Panel, select User Accounts. From the Select Logon And Logoff Options screen, note the options Use The Welcome Screen and Use Fast User Switching.

• Configure support for multiple languages or multiple locations.

  • Practice 1: From Control Panel, select Date, Time, Language, And Regional Options. Note all of the options listed under the Pick A Task heading. Select Change The Format Of Numbers, Dates and Times, and look at the options available in the Regional And Language Options dialog box. Select French (France) from the drop-down menu, and note the changes made to the date, currency, and other information in the dialog box. Click Cancel to end without applying your changes.

  • Practice 2: From Control Panel, select Date, Time, Language And Regional Options. From the Pick A Task list, select Add Other Languages. Note the options available in the Regional And Language Options dialog box. Practice adding another language to your computer.

• Troubleshoot security settings and local security policy.

  • Practice 1: From Control Panel, select Performance And Maintenance. Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Local Security Policy. Expand the Account Policies and Local Policies nodes. Select an option from the details pane, and double-click it. Select Account Lockout Policy, and change the Account Lockout Threshold from 0 to 3.

• Configure and troubleshoot local user and group accounts.

  • Practice 1: From Control Panel, select Performance And Maintenance. Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Expand the Local Users And Groups node. Right-click the Users folder, and select New User. Practice creating several different local accounts.

  • Practice 2: From Control Panel, select Performance And Maintenance. Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Expand the Local Users And Groups node. Right-click the Groups folder, and select New Group. Practice creating several different local groups, and add members to the groups.

• Troubleshoot system startup and user logon problems

  • Practice 1: From a Windows XP Professional workstation, log on using an account you created. Enter an incorrect password, and observe the error message you receive after three attempts.

• Monitor and analyze system performance.

  • Practice 1: Activate Task Manager by right-clicking a clear area of the taskbar and selecting Task Manager. Click the Performance tab, and observe the CPU and memory usage. Click the Processes tab to see the processes that are running on your system and the resources that they are consuming.