1) OS & Application Installation

Question 1

Vendor-Specific Limitations: End-of-Life

Answer 1

When the manufacturer no longer supports the hardware

Question 2

Windows 7 Main Takeaways

Answer 2

Home Premium: No domain/no BitLocker/no EFS
Up to 16GB RAM & 2 Physical Processors

Ultimate: Domain support, EFS, Bitlocker
Up to 192GB RAM x64
Basically Enterprise for Home user

Professional: Domain, Remote Desktop, EFS, NO BitLocker
Up to 192GB RAM x64

Enterprise has everything.

x86 = 1GB RAM | 16GB free disk space
x64 = 2GB RAM | 20GB free disk space

Question 3

Windows 8/8.1 Main Takeaways

Answer 3

Windows 8/8.1 Core: Home Edition
Microsoft account integration & Windows Defender
x86 & x64 | Windows Media Player
Max RAM 128GB

Windows 8/8.1 Pro
Similar to Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate
Full disk/file-level encryption (BitLocker & EFS)
Ability to join Domain (Group Policy support)
Max RAM 512GB

Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise
AppLocker, Windows To Go, DirectAccess, BranchCache
Max RAM 512GB

Requirements:
PAE (Physical Address Extension)
32-bit CPUs can use more than 4GB of physical RAM
NX Bit (Protects against malicious software)
SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2)
1Ghz CPU (must support the above)
x86 = 1GB RAM & 16GB disk| x64 = 2GB RAM & 20GB disk)

Question 4

Windows 10 Main Takeaways

Answer 4

Windows 10 Home
Home user | Integrates with Microsoft account
OneDrive | Windows Defender | Cortana
Max RAM 128GB

Windows 10 Pro
Business version of Windows (additional management features)
Remote Desktop host (remote control each computer)
BitLocker (FDE) | Domain support
Max RAM 2048GB

Windows 10 Education/Enterprise
Very similar features in both
AppLocker (admin can determine application whitelist)
BranchCache (remote site file caching)
UX (Granular User Experience) Control
^ Define user environment (great for kiosks)
Max RAM 2048GB

Requirements:
Hardware requirements are exactly the same as 8/8.1
PAE (Physical Address Extension)
NX-Bit
SSE2

Question 5

Unattended Installation

Answer 5

An installation in which the user does not have to be near the computer.

Utilizes an “answer file”, which answers installation questions automatically.

Question 6

In-Place Upgrade

Answer 6

The new OS installs into the same folders as the old OS (new installs on top of the old).

New OS replaces the old OS, but:
Retains data & applications
Inherits all of the personal settings (font styles, desktop themes, etc)

Question 7

Clean Install

Answer 7

An installation of an OS in which the entire drive is wiped clean and no files/settings are kept.

Question 8

Repair Installation

Answer 8

An installation that can repair broken operating system/boot files while preserving personal files, settings, & applications.

Question 9

Remote Network Installation

Answer 9

OS source files are placed in a shared directory on a network server.

Whenever tech needs to install an OS, he/she can boot up the computer, connect to the source location, on the network, and start the installation from there.

Has many variations:
Can be automated with special scripts that automatically select the options/components needed.

Question 10

Image Deployment

Answer 10

Image: A complete copy of a hard drive volume on which an operating system & any desired application software programs have been preinstalled.

Images can be stored on special network servers in which case the tech connects to the image server by using special software that copies the image from the server to the local HDD/SSD (Ex: Norton Ghost)

Question 11

Recovery Partition

Answer 11

A hidden partition that contains a restorable copy of an installed OS.

Question 12

Swap Partition

Answer 12

A partition on a drive used for virtual memory (Linux/UNIX)

Windows: Page File

Question 13

Refresh/Restore

Answer 13

Refresh: In Windows 8/8.1, reinstalls OS but keeps files
Windows 10: Reset & Keep my files

Restore: Reverts back to a saved restore point.

Question 14

Partitioning: Dynamic

Answer 14

Technically partitions, but can do things a regular partition can’t.

Can implement RAID, span volumes over multiple drives, extend volumes on 1+ drives

Question 15

Partitioning: Primary

Answer 15

Partition where OS is stored.

The only “active partition” (system uses to determine where to boot to)

Question 16

BranchCache

Answer 16

A technology used to cache central data to remote or branch offices in order to reduce network traffic & optimize WAN utilization.

Question 17

Partitioning: Logical

Answer 17

A drive can be split into multiple drive letters, turning one drive into multiple “logical drives/partitions”.

Question 18

Partitioning: GPT

Answer 18

GUID Partition Table
GUID = Globally Unique Identifier
Up to 128 partitions on a single drive
No size limitations (1 Billion Terabytes)

LBA (Logical Block Addressing)
LBA0 = Protective MBR GPT starts at LBA1

LBA1 = Primary GPT Header
Stores necessary info for partitions

LBA2 = Secondary GPT Header
Copy of Primary, used as backup
Can rebuild all partitions

You can convert an MBR drive to GPT

Question 19

Partitioning: MBR

Answer 19

Master Boot Record Partitioning
The oldest type of partitioning

LBA0 Sector = Computer automatically reads
Broken into 5 Sections:
Boot Loader (Points to the beginning of one of the partitions on the partition table.
Up to 4 Partition tables

If you need more than 4 partitions on a single drive, you create an extended partition & add logical drives

Question 20

File Systems: ExFAT

Answer 20

exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
Newer file system used for flash drives
Works on most operating systems
Breaks FAT32's limitation of 4GB size
Theoretical partition limit of 64ZB
Partition sizes up to 512TB
Extends to 64-bit cluster entries

Question 21

File Systems: FAT32

Answer 21

FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32-bit)
Each block stores up to 4096 bytes of data
Up to 2GB partition size

Basically a two-column spreadsheet that keeps track of which clusters store the various parts of a file.
Hexadecimal system (4 bits each)

Bad block = 0000FFF7
Good block = 00000000
End of file = 0000FFFF

If file is larger than 1 cluster, Windows places next cluster location in the status area.

Question 22

File Systems: NTFS

Answer 22

NTFS (New Technology File System)
6 Improvements:
Redundancy, security, compression, encryption, disk quotas, cluster sizing

Uses MFT (master file table)
Partitions keep a backup copy of most critical parts
Reduces chance that a serious drive error can wipe out both the MFT & the copy

ACL (Access Control List)
Views files/folders as objects and provides security for them.

Encryption = EFS

Disk quotas allow admins to set space usage limits

Question 23

File Systems: CDFS

Answer 23

CDFS (Compact Disc File System)
Works on Blu-Ray & DVD as well
File system for optical discs
Up to 4GiB files

Question 24

File Systems: NFS

Answer 24

NFS (Network File System: Linux/UNIX)

Similar file system to SMB, but older & for Linux

Question 25

File Systems: ext3 & ext4

Answer 25

Third/Fourth Extended File System (Linux)

ext4: Volumes up to 1EB
File sizes up to 16TB
Backwards compatible with ext2 & ext3

ext3: Volumes up to 32TiB
File sizes up to 2GiB

Question 26

File Systems: HFS+

Answer 26

Hierarchical File System Plus (macOS)
Volumes up to 8EiB
Files sizes up to 8EiB

Question 27

Quick Format vs. Full Format

Answer 27

Quick Format: Takes a few seconds
Removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors.

Full Format: Can take up to several hours
Hard disk is scanned for bad sectors & files are removed.

Question 28

Workgroup vs. Domain

Answer 28

Workgroup: The default Windows network infrastructure.
No computers in the workgroup have control over others.
Home/small business/LAN

Domain: Centralized network infrastructure.
Best for larger organizations
All accounts can be managed by a network admin
Most tightly controlled

Question 29

Factory Recovery Partition

Answer 29

A partition containing a copy of the OS & boot files

Usually built in to OEM machines