Yesterday I passed the exam 70-698 Installing and Configuring Windows 10. With that I received my MCSA Windows 10 as I previously passed the exam 70-697 Configuring Windows Devices.
I used the Microsoft reference books to study for these exams, and I passed both on first try. But it’s my impression that these books unfortunately don’t go deep enough into the subjects to pass the exams. I have taken several MS certifications, and the books used to be 800-1000+ pages, and these are only at about 400 pages each. Now the books have a lot of references to specific Technet articles, and you need to look those up and study them as well in order to pass.
The exams will test your skills on both GUI and Powershell. So you need to know exactly where and how to perform the operations and the how to do the exact same thing with Powershell.
It only took a few hours from passing the exams until they showed up in my MCP profile, which is a huge improvement earlier where it could take several days.
70-697 Configuring Windows Devices
Exam reference book: https://www.amazon.com/Exam-70-697-Configuring-Windows-Devices/dp/1509303014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488367290&sr=8-1&keywords=70-697
- Manage Identity (10-15%)
- Plan desktop and device deployment (10-15%)
- Plan and implement a Microsoft Intune device management solution (10-15%)
- Configure networking (10-15%)
- Manage data access and protection (10-15%)
- Manage remote access (10-15%)
- Manage apps (10-15%)
- Manage updates and recovery (10-15%)
You need to know how to manage users and groups from Intune, as well as patching and deploying software to devices. My test also had several questions about storage pools, work folders and file history and I strongly advice you to read up on this, and play around with this functionality before taking the test.
The exam prep “70-697 Configuring Windows Devices” from Ignite 2016 quickly goes through the major topics and have some example questions that could appear on the exam.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRbVdVGwKLE[/embedyt]
70-698 Installing and Configuring Windows 10
Exam reference book: https://www.amazon.com/Exam-70-698-Installing-Configuring-Windows/dp/1509302956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488367352&sr=8-1&keywords=70-698
Microsoft will test you on the following subjects
- Implement Windows (30-35%)
- Configure and support core services (30-35%)
- Manage and maintain Windows (30-35%)
You need to know your way around Windows Deployment Services, Assesment and Deployment kit, Application Compability Toolkit. User state migration tools and answer files are also something you should now quite well. Know the difference between performance monitor and resource monitor, and when to use them.
The manage and maintain Windows part overlaps some parts of the 70-697 exam, and you will see some questions that are similar from that exam.
There are also several commands where you need to know what they do, and how to use them.
- bcdboot.exe
- bcdedit.exe
- bootcfg.exe
- bootsect.exe
- drvload.exe
- pnputil.exe
Exam prep session “70-698 Installing and Configuring Windows 10” from Ignite 2016.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRp69ZkNARI[/embedyt]
Pass both exams and you can proudly title yourself MCSA Windows 10.
Hi, Thanks for your suggestion. I want to go ahead with these exams on similar lines. I saw in one of the MCSA guides that you need to pass 70-698 first. Is that true? Or is it fine to go ahead with 70-697 first and then 70-698? Also, let me know about any reference video trainings that are helpful to pass exams. I know that some of the topics have been added since the time you wrote the exams. Now, the exams are more focused on cloud technology like Azure, Office 365.
Hi Sagar. That is a great question. Despite what some may say, there is no required (or even suggested) order in which to take these exams. This has not changed in the 16 years I have been taking exams. You can take either 70-697 or 70-698 first. Good luck to you! -MDG
Thanks for your reply. Do you know any reference video trainings?
Anders, I wanted to take a minute to let you know that I liked and appreciated this article. Thank you for posting it! -MDG