Microsoft has released information for exam 70-660, TS: Windows Internals. This might be an odd sounding title to anyone who has never heard of Mark Russinovich or Sysinternals. From the MS Learning site:
This exam validates deep technical skills in the area of Windows Internals. Including troubleshooting operating systems that are not performing as expected or applications that are not working correctly, identifying code defects, and developing and debugging applications that run unmanaged code or that are tightly integrated with the operating system, such as Microsoft SQL Server, third party applications, antivirus software, and device drivers.
If that makes little sense take a look at Mark’s blog on Technet and you’ll see the type and depth of content they are talking about.
Candidates for this exam are engineers, developers, or IT staff who work with Windows at a level that requires Windows Internals knowledge. Candidates for this exam are typically in the upper echelon of the technical staff at their companies. These individuals typically hold such positions as escalation engineer, technical lead, and software design engineer. Their level of knowledge spans products both inside and outside the Microsoft Corporation. These individuals are involved in resolving problems that require deep understanding of Windows Internals rather than problems about planning and infrastructure development or how to use or configure a product that runs on Windows.
Sounds like a pretty tough exam, and the preparation looks even tougher. Though the exam is (apparently) available from October 10th this year, currently the preparation materials listed are as follows:
- Classroom Training – There is no classroom training currently available.
- Microsoft E-Learning – There is no Microsoft E-Learning training currently available.
- Microsoft Press Books – There are no Microsoft Press books currently available.
- Practice Tests – There are no practice tests currently available.
So that makes preparing for a tough exam pretty difficult. But its a pretty safe bet that the exam is going to cover the topics listed in Mark’s two books, Windows Internals 4th Edition (for 2000, XP, and 2003) and Windows Internals 5th Edition (for Vista and 2008).
