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[Focus]

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A+ Certification
A+ certification qualifies the competency of entry-level IT service technicians and is one of the most widely supported certifications in the computer industry.
 — Kurt Hudson


Adaptive Testing
Adaptive tests use a few target questions to assess a certification candidate's ability level and adjust the number of questions based on the candidate's performance during the exam. Is this format the future of certification?
 — Kurt Hudson


Beyond MCSE
Learn about Cisco's Career Certifications program, which lets you follow a network support or network design path toward achieving CCIE certification.
 — Todd Lammle


Companion Certifications for MCSEs
Find out how to set yourself apart from other MCSEs by getting a few specialized certifications to document your skills.
 — Steven W. Linthicum


Microsoft MCDBA Certification
A SQL Server professional considers the merits of Microsoft's most recent professional cerification.
 — Kalen Delaney


The Microsoft Official Curriculum
Microsoft offers eight courses to help you develop or upgrade your Win2K skills.
 — Robert McIntosh

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[Feature]

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Cross-Platform Remote NT Administration
The good newsis that you can remotely administer NT tasks from non-Windows systems. The better news is that a variety of methods exist to do so. Here's a sampling.
 — Vijay Sankar


SED
Learn how the SED batch-file utility simplifies taking input from a user at a command prompt, retrieving values from text files and assigning them to environment variables, and parsing text files for different stages of an automated installation to use.
 — Charles Kerekes


Service Pack 5
Discover the features of SP5 and determine whether you need to install service pack.
 — Mark Joseph Edwards


Using Posting Acceptor in Site Server Express 3.0
Learn how to use Posting Acceptor to post information from a browser or other clients to a Web site.
 — Ken Spencer


Where NT Stores Passwords
Learn about where NT stores passwords and how to protect your system.
 — Mark Joseph Edwards , et al.


Windows 2000 ZAW Update
ZAW has grown into CCM and looks like it will have one of the most useful sets of features in Win2K.
 — Mark Minasi

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[Reader Challenge]

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Reader Challenge
Solve this month's Windows NT problem and get the change to win $100 or a copy of one of the author's books about NT. Prior month's winner is announced at bottom of page.
 — Kathy Ivens

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[Reader to Reader]

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Reader to Reader - August 1999
Share your NT discoveries, comments, problems, solutions, and experiences with products and reach out to other Windows NT Magazine readers (including Microsoft).
 — Readers

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[Editorial]

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Applications: Rent or Build?
Learn how to rent time, space, and applications on a centralized computer and let the landlord handle the maintenance.
 — Mark Smith

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[ForefroNT]

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Windows CE Devices
What does it take to sync Handheld PCs with NT?
 — David Chernicoff

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[En Garde]

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Windows' 9 Lives
Microsoft annouces Windows 98's successor.
 — Mark Minasi

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[Internals]

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Inside Win2K Reliablity Enhancements, Part 1
Discover powerful new system-recovery tools.
 — Mark Russinovich

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[Product Reviews]

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bv-Web
Access BindView EMS data from a Web browser.
 — Mark Joseph Edwards


Conversions Plus 4.6
Learn how to open almost any file with Conversions Plus 4.6.
 — William Wong


Gateway E-5250 450
A dual-Pentium II Xeon workstation for graphics and high-end applications.
 — John Green


HP NetServer LH 4
A well-designed server with solid performance.
 — John Green


NetworkCharter Pro
Document your network with NetworkCharter Pro.
 — Jeremy Moskowitz


Service Pack Management
Get a handle on service pack and hotfix complexity with Service Pack Management.
 — David Chernicoff


WatchDog-IP 3.0
Monitor your systems with WatchDog-IP 3.0.
 — Jonathan Cragle


WebTrends Security Analyzer 2.0
Securing your Windows NT systems is tedious, and without a good security scanner you might overlook vulnerabilities that you need to correct. WebTrends Security Ananlyzer 2.0 helps ensure that you don't leave security-related items unchecked.
 — Mark Joseph Edwards

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[Lab Notes]

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A Benchmark by Any Other Name
The Lab Guys want to know what you think about product reviews.
 — David Chernicoff

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[Inside Out]

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Understanding Terminal Server Licensing
Terminal Server's licensing requirements can be complex, but Mark provides a refresher course on when you need a license and when you don't.
 — Mark Minasi

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[Getting Started with NT]

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Help Desk on a Budget
If you need to administer several computers remotely but can't justify the time or cost to use SMS, try using NT's tools. You might be surprized at how much you can do.
 — Michael D. Reilly

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[Scripting Solutions]

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Scripting 101, Part 3
Learn how to create and work with objects in WSH scripts.
 — Bob Wells

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[SQL Server Savvy]

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Questions, Answers, and Tips About SQL Server
Learn about add-ins for OLAP Services, SQL Server 7.0 parallel bcp, the bcp QUERYOUT option, system stored procedures' output format, VBSQL and ADO, and SQL Server log truncation.
 — Brian Moran , et al.

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[Watch Your RAS]

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Securing a RAS Proxy Server
Learn how to make RAS, Proxy Server, and PPTP work together on one server.
 — Sean Daily

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[This Old Resource Kit]

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Group-Aware Logon Scripts
You can use Ifmember and KiXtart to make your logon batch scripts respond differently to different groups of users.
 — Mark Minasi

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[Tricks & Traps]

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Ask Dr. Bob Your NT Questions
Learn about loading NT onto notebooks, directing unattended installations to a drive other than C, removing POSIX and OS2 from a server installation, tracking APIs and DLLs, changing the schedule of NT's password-expiration message, and more.
 — Bob Chronister

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[News Analysis]

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1998 Database Market
Most analysts expected the database market to shrink in 1998. Find out why the were wrong.


Microsoft BizTalk Initiative
At the March Commerce Solutions Briefing in San Francisco, California, Microsoft briefed the press on its Internet product strategy for the next year or two that uses a new Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based commerce architecture named BizTalk.


When More Means Less
In June 1998, Intel released its long-awaited Profusion chipset to vendors for development and set in motion the release of a generation of SMP 8-way servers.

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[TOP 10]

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NT's Command Prompt Window
The author shares tips for using this customizable and user-friendly window.
 — Michael Otey

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[Buyer's Guide]

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Tape Backup Hardware
Review a list of available backup hardware devices.
 — Editors