Helmers Blog

Just received an e-mail from Microsoft Learning today. I passed the MCTS Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Client Virtualization exam! Strange, normally you have to check the Prometric website to see if you have passed a Microsoft exam. Probably the system is working a lot smoother then with the last exams, let’s hope it stays this way with all the upcoming exams!

It took them a while over at Prometric…but the beta code is working right now in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary and Germany…so be quick and register for the 71-693 before it’s all filled up!

Whole day long we were waiting for Prometric to fix their error, and finally they did! Check out my previous post for all the discussions about this exam.

NOTE : If you are unable to register for the exam, please also leave a comment at this MS Learning Blog Post so they will know who as unable to register

Update (11:00am CET) : Unable to register for this exam in the following countries : Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany. Probably some other European countries you’re unable to register for this exam right now.

UPDATE 2 (13:06 CET) : (thanks to Bas Steeloper) Prometric can’t take any action before 14:00 CET (that’s when the Prometric HQ will be available), but it will probably take until 20:00 CET before registration can take place for the European countries named above.

UPDATE 3 : The Beta code is working!!! Be quick and register for the 71-693 before it’s too late!

At 12:00am (EST) the 71-693 became available for registration. And also this time there will be a limited number of seats. With the last exam (71-659) it took about 8 hours before all the seats were filled. What do you think, will this exam be filled quicker?

Too bad this time the exam code for the exam isn’t working in Europe, or at least in the Netherlands! Last few times there have been some issues that had something to do with some dudes leaking the promotional codes on the internet. I asked some friends over at MS Learning, but the told me there is only one beta code available, so it should work. The strange thing is…over at Canada there was at least somebody who was able to register for the exam, with the appropriate beta code, but in Europe nobody succeeded!

  In a couple of hours (6:00AM (CET) you will be able to register for the new Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator exam (70-693 / 71-693). This is the second in the line of three new Microsoft Virtualization exams of which the last will (for what I heard ) be available in beta somewhere in the first quarter of 2010.

So December will be a busy month: Two exams, Christmas (and for the Dutchies..we also had Sinterklaas) and New Year’s Eve at the end of the month. It’s good to know that the exam period of the 71-693 will go from December 23rd, 2009 till January 15th, 2010. So this one I will schedule for the second week of the new year!

Later today I will publish a list with resources which you can use to prepare for the exam. Are you already prepared for the 71-659 (Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization)? Check out my preparation blog post!

Just to be clear. The beta exam will (probably) be available at 6:00am (CET). If you’re not in the European time zone you can check out your ‘launch time’ at this website.

Earlier today I blogged about the availability of the new Windows Server 2008 Server Virtualization beta exam. You probably want to prepare yourself for this beta exam, but (as always with a beta exam) you can’t find all the info you need. That’s normal! The preparation material for a beta exam is always limited….but there is some info available. To make it easy for you, I’ll collected some resources and I placed them below!

1. Exam Preparation Guide
2. A Free 2 Hour Windows Server 2008 R2 Training
3. Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview
4. Download a Windows Server 2008 R2 Evaluation Version
5. Windows Server 2008 R2 Product Documentation
6. Windows Server 2008 R2 Homepage

If you happen to run into some more resources, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list!