Lesson #36 - It's A Windows World

While maintaining it's grasp on the past (DOS), the A+ exam has evolved over the past year to include more and more content that is up-to-date. (Windows 98, 2000)  As what exactly in on the current A+ OS section has become more and more confusing, here is a list of what you must know to pass the A+ Windows/DOS section of the exam.

Section 1: Identify the operating system’s functions, structure, and major system files to navigate the operating system and how to get to needed technical information.

Content may include the following:

Major Operating System functions, Creating folders, Checking OS Version, Major Operating System components, Explorer, My Computer, Control Panel, Contrasts between Windows 9X and Windows 2000

Major system files: what they are, where they are located, how they are used and what they contain:

System, Configuration, and User Interface files;

IO.SYS, BOOT.INI, WIN.COM, MSDOS.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, COMMAND LINE PROMPT

Memory management

Conventional, Extended/upper memory, High memory, Virtual memory, HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.exe

Windows 9x

IO.SYS, WIN.INI, USER.DAT, SYSEDIT, SYSTEM.INI, SETVER.EXE, SMARTDRV.EXE, MSCONFIG (98), COMMAND.COM, DOSSTART.BAT, REGEDIT.EXE, SYSTEM.DAT, RUN COMMAND, DriveSpace

Windows 2000

Computer Management

BOOT.INI, REGEDT32, REGEDIT, RUN CMD, NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, NTBOOTDD.SYS

Command Prompt Procedures (Command syntax)

DIR, ATTRIB, VER, MEM, SCANDISK, DEFRAG, EDIT, XCOPY, COPY, FORMAT, FDISK, MSCDEX, SETVER, SCANREG

Section 2 Identify basic concepts and procedures for creating, viewing and managing files, directories and disks. This includes procedures for changing file attributes and the ramifications of those changes (for example, security issues).

Content may include the following:

File attributes - Read Only, Hidden, System, and Archive attributes, File naming conventions (Most common extensions), Windows 2000 COMPRESS, ENCRYPT, IDE/SCSI, Internal/External, Backup/Restore, Partitioning/Formatting/File System, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS4, NTFS5, HPFS, Windows-based utilities, ScanDisk, Device manager, System Manager, Computer Manager, MSCONFIG.EXE, REGEDIT.EXE (View information/Backup registry), REGEDT32.EXE, ATTRIB.EXE, EXTRACT.EXE, DEFRAG.EXE, EDIT.COM, FDISK.EXE, SYSEDIT.EXE, SCANREG, WSCRIPT.EXE, HWINFO.EXE, ASD.EXE (Automatic Skip Driver), Cvt1.EXE (Drive Converter FAT16 to FAT32)

Next week we'll start taking a look at these items one-by-one.