{"id":2615,"date":"2021-02-15T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2021-12-31T11:19:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T11:19:27","slug":"md100-lessons-of-a-covid-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615","title":{"rendered":"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

So, Saturday 13th February 2020 I sat the MD100 : Windows 10 Exam, and passed it with 751\/1000. This blog post will cover some of the study material I used to help prepare for the exam and what\u2019s needed for sitting a Home Exam (Something that before now, I\u2019ve never done \u2013 Always gone to a test centre).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MD100 \u2013 Installing Windows 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, not wanting to state the obvious but this exam covers the installation and configuration processes of the Windows 10 Operating System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Material Used for Exam Preperation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pluralsight \u2013 Microsoft Modern Desktop Administrator: Window 10 (MD-100)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Udemy \u2013 Microsoft MD-100 and MD-101 Practice Tests<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft Learn \u2013 Modernize your enterprise deployment with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows 10 Pro \u2013 with Hyper-V \u2013 Various Windows 10 Virtual Machines for RND and Intune Testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MCT \u2013 Media Creation Toolkit<\/a> (20H2 \u2013 at time of release)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial Steps<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, I downloaded the exam skills outline pdf file<\/a> and read through each topic heading and subsection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built a clean vanilla Windows 10 Pro Virtual Machine and got to work testing and seeing what I knew initially from configuring windows 10, having done this multiple times already over the last 5 years. I thought it might be easy! Obviously, some steps to demo from inside a virtual machine aren\u2019t possible such as Dynamic Lock with Bluetooth, which did come upon the exam. I also created some PPKG files for local user accounts and changing default settings just to understand the end to end process and see what impact it had on the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice Time \u2013 Mock Exam #1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I started the initial mock exams before Christmas, at this stage, I wasn\u2019t 100% committed to having the exam booked which I think, having chatted to people on Twitter is a definite must. it gives you a deadline to work towards, for the MD100 exam I had defined a rough outline for when I wanted to take the exam, it would be within Q1 of 2021. Anyway back to the Mock, So the actual exam is in two parts, Scenario and multiple-choice questions. The Scenario questions are broken down into four questions, but you have two or three paragraphs of data to read and digest, this can be from the domain name, configuration requirements for the company, user setup and device type\/management and needs. \u2013 The Udemy Scenario mock has 12 questions based on an A4 Scenario, this I found was easy enough to complete as all the answers have been given to you already you just have to digest the data and choose the correct answer based on the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second part is general multiple-choice questions, nothing really much else to say here, its the standard Microsoft approach of backwards leading questions and misdirection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topics I found I needed to work on, complete further learning on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PPKG \u2013 WICD \/ ADK<\/a> \u2013 Deploying and creating PPKG Files for WiFi, Local Users and End User Configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NTFS and AD Auditing<\/a> \u2013 Having never deployed AD Auditing into a production environment, I found I needed to read up on this and built a small ADDS Environment to practise the GPO Configuration and reporting to event viewer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NTFS<\/a> \u2013 General NTFS Permissions configuration, nested groups<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows Registry<\/a> \u2013 I had some questions on the exam about regedit and .reg files and changes applied based on standard users and domain\/administrator users, also managing a registry of remote computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

System Restore Points<\/a> \u2013 How they affect the system and what files don\u2019t get restores on rollback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows Updates \u2013 In includes, LTSC Builds<\/a> and Delivery Optimisation<\/a> and Update Management<\/a> and Insider Preview<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AzureAD and Local Groups and Shares<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Licensing Options \u2013 Windows 10 S<\/a> to Pro MAK\/KMS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BitLocker<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated Step.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I had brushed up on my knowledge, I sat down and ran through various labs and made notes on the options required to configure the settings to get the end result, Once I thought I was happy with the knowledge I would load up a mock exam and run through and then review the incorrect questions, and attempted to understand why I got it wrong having just completed the lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exam Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having never sat an exam at home, I wasn\u2019t really sure what was required, So having now completed one I would advise you to go here: About Online Exams<\/a> and watched the 5-minute video, which gives you a breakdown of what is required. \u2013 I would also recommend having a read of the whole web page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running a System Test<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I downloaded the test application <\/a>and ran it on both my home rig and XPS, what I found to my horror was that the mouse delay was huge! it was like many many milliseconds on both devices. So I messaged @ShabazDarr<\/a> who said that when he had sat the exam it was fine. Which I can thankfully say it was!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

System Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As stated on the PearsonVue website, you will need a WebCam and Microphone so they can hear if any noises appear during the exam and will obviously have the session recorded. You also need a pretty vanilla boot, which for most techies won\u2019t be the case with various applications and services starting in the background. What I found was I had to a complete reboot, then disabled windows updates (just to be safe, paused for 7 days) and then went through and logged off all platforms such as Teams, Discord, Skype, Slack. I also have UltraVNC Installed and it didn\u2019t like that either. For the app to run happily you also cannot have anything else open other than the taskbar the exam app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exam Check-In \u2013 30 Minutes Before.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 minutes before the exam is due to start you start the checking process, this requires you to take 4 photo\u2019s of the environment, front, back, left and right and submit them along with a picture of yourself and your Passport or Driving License. So this current desk setup, having cleared all the raspberry pi builds away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So for the exam, I had turned off all the monitors bar the one in the centre. as it made sense to me. and I knew that I wouldn\u2019t be allowed to use the extra monitors and during the system test exam, it had turned them all white anyway. However Microsoft was oh so not keen on this idea, and during the check-in process received a call asking me to show them the front of the desk with my webcam\u2026 this took about 5 minutes to un-tangle and unwrap the webcam from the centre monitor. They then proceeded to ask if they were off, which I confirmed they were but that was still not enough for them, they wanted actual proof. so I had to show the extra 4 monitors being unplugged from the back of the tower. After that, the exam prep was happy and allowed me to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also messaged me halfway through the exam, as they thought I must have been recording as I kept covering my mouth, which in truth I wasn\u2019t I was just leaning on the desk, But my advice would be opt for a t-shirt without a hoodie or jumper and don\u2019t cover your face!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exam Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the February Version of the MD100 Exam, I had 58 Questions, These were broken down into<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2x Scenarios worth 4 questions each<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 Questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrap Up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of the twitterverse, who egged me on this evening to complete this post in time for the MD101 series AND book the MD101 Exam to create 47 Days of MD101, I thank you \u2013 without your support and abuse! I wouldn\u2019t have been able to complete the exam and get this posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go follow these amazing people, they’re a part of an awesome community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shabaz Darr<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Lunn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karl Cooke<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pixel Robots<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean Ellerby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>So, Saturday 13th February 2020 I sat the MD100 : Windows 10 Exam, and passed it with 751\/1000. This blog post will cover some of the study material I used to help prepare for the exam and what\u2019s needed for sitting a Home Exam (Something that before now, I\u2019ve never done \u2013 Always gone to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-m365-modern-desktop-administrator-associate-md-100"],"yoast_head":"\nMD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reading Time: 5 minutesSo, Saturday 13th February 2020 I sat the MD100 : Windows 10 Exam, and passed it with 751\/1000. This blog post will cover some of the study material I used to help prepare for the exam and what\u2019s needed for sitting a Home Exam (Something that before now, I\u2019ve never done \u2013 Always gone to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HypervLAB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-15T11:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-31T11:19:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Simon Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/smoon_lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Simon Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615\",\"name\":\"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-15T11:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-31T11:19:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7d184970612a9c6a5f1babb8b6b4d359\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"HypervLAB\",\"description\":\"Blogging about all thing Microsoft\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7d184970612a9c6a5f1babb8b6b4d359\",\"name\":\"Simon Lee\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9473a3cf9c75192508eccfd9d072efab80adf04a45083e561d0e3065f681c34c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9473a3cf9c75192508eccfd9d072efab80adf04a45083e561d0e3065f681c34c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Simon Lee\"},\"description\":\"Hi, I'm Simon an IT Enthusiast, PowerShell Geek, Gamer, and Sound Engineer. I've been working with in the IT Industry for around 6 years and have worked across private and public sector companies. The original idea behind \\\"hypervlab\\\" was that I required an 'RnD' environment which would allow me to be able to replicate any kind of enterprise on-premise environment which I could use for learning and testing without learning in a production environment. So in 2019, I decided to branch out and use the domain for a public facing blog to be able to contribute to the IT Community about all things Microsoft.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/simon-john-lee\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/smoon_lee\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB","og_description":"Reading Time: 5 minutesSo, Saturday 13th February 2020 I sat the MD100 : Windows 10 Exam, and passed it with 751\/1000. This blog post will cover some of the study material I used to help prepare for the exam and what\u2019s needed for sitting a Home Exam (Something that before now, I\u2019ve never done \u2013 Always gone to […]","og_url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615","og_site_name":"HypervLAB","article_published_time":"2021-02-15T11:01:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-31T11:19:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Simon Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/smoon_lee","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Simon Lee","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615","url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615","name":"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam - HypervLAB","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png","datePublished":"2021-02-15T11:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-31T11:19:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7d184970612a9c6a5f1babb8b6b4d359"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cert_md100_cover.png","width":1200,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?p=2615#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MD100 \u2013 Lessons of a COVID Exam"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/","name":"HypervLAB","description":"Blogging about all thing Microsoft","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7d184970612a9c6a5f1babb8b6b4d359","name":"Simon Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9473a3cf9c75192508eccfd9d072efab80adf04a45083e561d0e3065f681c34c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9473a3cf9c75192508eccfd9d072efab80adf04a45083e561d0e3065f681c34c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Simon Lee"},"description":"Hi, I'm Simon an IT Enthusiast, PowerShell Geek, Gamer, and Sound Engineer. I've been working with in the IT Industry for around 6 years and have worked across private and public sector companies. The original idea behind \"hypervlab\" was that I required an 'RnD' environment which would allow me to be able to replicate any kind of enterprise on-premise environment which I could use for learning and testing without learning in a production environment. So in 2019, I decided to branch out and use the domain for a public facing blog to be able to contribute to the IT Community about all things Microsoft.","sameAs":["https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/simon-john-lee\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/smoon_lee"],"url":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypervlab.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}