Microsoft Corporation: love it, hate it, or make it the focus of paranoid persecution fantasies, but there is simply no escaping it. In the business software market especially, Microsoft has no credible competitors in several product domains. To survive, corporations worldwide have been forced to adopt, at minimum, Microsoft operating systems like Windows 95 or Windows NT, and the company has capitalized brilliantly on this massive installed base to bootstrap its other software offerings into workplace ubiquity.

The enormous weight that Microsoft now throws around is no better illustrated than by the rapid growth of the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program. A system of four professional certifications based on specific areas of technical expertise, MCP certification has become an extremely valuable method for computer specialists of all stripes to prove their competency in a measurable way. Microsoft Certified Product Specialists (MCPS), Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solution Developers (MCSD), and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCT) all benefit from direct access to technical information from Microsoft, invitations to Microsoft conferences, technical training sessions and special events, exclusive publications with news about the MCP program, and perhaps most importantly, the right to use the official MCP logo and the appropriate certification acronym along with their name.

According to Kevin Brice, vice-president and general manager of ExecuTrain Corporation, writing in the introduction to Windows NT 4.0 MCSE Study Guide “When you become an MCP, you are recognized as an expert and are sought by employers industry-wide. Technical managers recognize the MCP designation as a mark of quality – one that ensures that an employee or a consultant has proven experience.”

A fifth certification category, Certified Microsoft Office User (CMOU), is on the way and the company reportedly expects to certify more than two million professionals as CMOUs within a year.

The career and business-enhancing boost that comes along with this type of certification has led to a mini-boom in MCP exam-preparation books. Daunting cinder-block-sized tomes – more manual than book, really – these volumes are generally quite readable, and most will more than adequately perform their basic function: helping the user pass the MCP exams. A few titles are broader in scope and can be used outside the context of the certification process as general reference books on the software product at hand.

The latter is definitely true of Microsoft Windows NT Technical Support, published by Microsoft Press. Subtitled “Hands-On, Self-Paced Training for Supporting Version 4.0,” the book is just that – a training guide for the working Windows NT systems administrator who may also wish to become certified as an MCP. The book is very clearly designed and written, with alternate work flow paths provided for users with different goals. It comes complete with a series of exercises the aspiring MCP-candidate can practice with, but that are easily bypassed by the working professional.

Microsoft Press uses its insider status to full advantage to make this volume stand out from the crowd. It not only comes complete with well-integrated multimedia instructional materials on CD-ROM, it also includes 120-day working copies of Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0. The utility of having hands-on access to both versions of NT while studying the operating system cannot be overstated, and it’s a bonus none of the competitive publishers are likely to be able to match.

On the other hand, as a Microsoft publication, Microsoft Windows NT Technical Support sometimes skirts controversial issues or problem areas, a definite handicap in certain instances. In contrast, Alan R. Carter’s Windows NT 4.0 MCSE Study Guide features “In the Real World” sidebars that compare and contrast Microsoft-stated program specifications with Carter’s own experiences as a technician on the ground. Nothing he says is terribly earth-
shattering (Windows 95 will not really run with less than 8 MB of RAM – surprise, surprise!), but it’s something the Microsoft-published book simply does not do. Nevertheless, the Microsoft Windows NT Technical Support is a general, in-depth manual that will retain its utility long after the user has passed his or her MCP exams.

Carter’s book is a very different type of publication. The cover copy says it all: “Learn directly from a Microsoft-certified expert what you need to know to pass exams #70-67, #70-68, and #70-73.” It’s purely a study guide, a whopping BIG study guide, weighing in at more than 1,300 pages, and it has much to recommend it.

It’s a lighter, more breezily written book than Microsoft Windows NT Technical Support, and by virtue of having a single author rather than a committee, the tone is more direct and personal. Carter is not afraid of first-person singular, which he uses throughout. A certified MCSE and MCT, Carter is also surprisingly brief and to-the-point in such an oversized book, clearly delineating his intended audience from the outset. If you know this, he essentially says, you’re ready to use this book. If you don’t, go away and prepare yourself first.

From a technical standpoint, Carter gets off to an excellent start with an honest comparative assessment of all three current Windows 4.0 operating systems: Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, and Windows NT 4.0 Server. Microsoft Windows NT Technical Support only contrasts the two flavours of NT, sending readers to the dungeons of the CD-ROM appendixes for any discussion of Windows 95. Again, Carter is also far more up-front than Microsoft about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the three operating systems. Lab exercises test the user’s knowledge at every stage of the process, and the bound-in CD-ROM boasts a variety of features, including practice exams and Microsoft Training and Assessment Offline, which also features assessment tests.

Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Exam Guide by Steve Kaczmarek of Productivity Point International is directly comparable to the Carter book except in one important area: it only covers Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer exam #70-68, as opposed to Carter’s book, which also covers exams #70-67 and #70-73. This is not necessarily a minus. Kaczmarek is as good an instructor and writer as Carter, and for users only interested in exam #70-68, his book is perhaps better focused. On the other hand, this Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Exam Guide retails for $140.95 while Carter’s Windows NT 4.0 MCSE Study Guide will only set buyers back $124.99. The arithmetic is obvious and brutal. There is less material here for more money.

NT Server 4 Exam Cram by Ed Tittel, Kurt Hudson, and J. Michael Stewart is quite distinct from the other books reviewed here. As the title implies, and the relatively minuscule length (300 pages) confirms, the authors have absolutely no interest in providing an all-purpose manual, or even a multi-purpose guidebook. The first title from Coriolis Group’s new Certification Solutions Press imprint, NT Server 4 Exam Cram is designed to be used as a workbook with the companion NT Server Exam Prep or, one assumes, with other books of the type reviewed here. It’s a quick, well-written, down-and-dirty guide to Windows NT that provides the reader with nothing but the information necessary to pass the MCP exams. “Exam Alert” sidebars even warn about trick questions and little-known facts often featured in MCP exams (for example, Windows NT installation on non-Intel platforms). Purists might question the pedagogical value of such a study guide, but as the millions who have graduated from high school with the aid of Coles Notes know, their utility cannot be denied.

New Riders Publishing’s MCSE Study Guide: Windows 95 & Networking Essentials prepares the user for the Windows 95 MCSE exam #70-63, and the MCSE Networking Essentials exam #71-58. Readers should be aware that the MCP certification structure and classifications have changed somewhat since this book was published in 1996, but this is a minor issue. Overall the book is much like its Windows NT cousins, covering a huge body of Windows 95 and networking arcana in a fairly reasonable 905 pages. Again, it’s accompanied by a bound-in CD-ROM, this time containing MCP Endeavor, a test engine with hundreds of sample questions. Its structure is virtually identical to the books reviewed above with lesson modules followed by review quizzes. Overall it’s clear, clean, and to the point. It may lack some of Alan Carter’s charm, but it will more than do the job.