PC Hardware

 What is FSB?
 What are Vcore and Vi/o?
 On what type of socket can you install a Pentium 4 CPU?
 What is SMP?
 Which Intel and AMD processors support SMP?
 How do LGA sockets differ from PGA and SEC?
 What is the difference between Pentium 4 and Pentium Core 2 Duo? Explain the new
technology.
 How does IRQ priority works?
 What technology enables you to upgrade your computer's BIOS by simply using a
software?
 What happens if you dissemble the battery located  on the Mother-Board?
 How do L1, L2, and L3 work?
 How should we install RAM on a Dual-Channel Motherboard?
 What is the advantage of serial over parallel bus?
 Is USB using serial or parallel bus? What about Firewire?
 How much power is supplied to each USB port?
 When should you change your bus-powered USB hub to a self-powered USB hub?
 What is a UPS?
 What is the difference between standby and online UPS?
 What is LBA (in Hard-Disks)?
 How many Hard Disks can you install on an E-IDE controller?
 Can you configure two hard disks to use the Master setting on the same PC?
 What is the difference between Narrow-SCSI and Wide-SCSI?
 What is SAS?
 What are the three main reasons for using RAID?
 Is RAID 0 considered to be a redundant Solution?  Why?
 How many disks can be used for RAID 1?
 How RAID 5 works?
 What is the smallest number of disks required for RAID5?
 What other types of RAID do you know?
 What are the six steps for laser printing?
 What is the difference between PCI-EX x1 and PCI-EX x16?

Microsoft-based Operating Systems

 What is the difference between a workgroup and a domain?
 What are the major advantages of working in a domain model?
 What types of operating system installation methods do you know?
 What is an answer file?
 How would you create an answer file for Windows  XP? How would you create one
for Windows Vista?
 How do you perform an unattended installation on Windows XP?
 What is Sysprep?
 How do you use Sysprep?
 What is the major difference between Newsid and Sysprep?
 What is the function of the pagefile.sys file?
  What is the function of the hiberfil.sys file?
 What is the Registry?
 How can you edit the Registry? Name at least 3 ways of doing that.
 What should you do if you receive a message stating: "The following file is missing
or corrupt: 'WINDOWS'SYSTEM32'CONFIG'SYSTEM"?
 How would you repair an unsuccessful driver update?
 When should you use each of the fallowing tools: System Restore, LKGC and
Recovery Console?
 How do you set different print priority for different users?
 How can you reset user's passwords if you don't know his current password?
 What's the difference between changing a user's password and resetting it?
 You want to grant a user the right to perform backups – should you add him to the
administrators group?
 What is MMC?
 What is gpedit.msc?
 How would you use the MMC to manage other servers on your network?
 You set a local policy for your Stand-alone XP Professional – would the local policy
effects the administrators group?
 What new in the Windows Vista Local Policy?
 What is the difference between User Privileges and User Permissions?
 What is Safe Mode?
 Which logs can be found in Event Viewer?
 What is msconfig? On which OS can it be found?
 Can you upgrade XP Home Edition to Server 2003?
 Which permission will you grant a user for a folder he need to be able to create and
delete files in, if you do not want him to be able to change permissions for the folder?
 What is the difference between clearing the "allow" permission and checking the
"deny"?

Networking
 What is a NIC?
 What is a MAC Address?
 When would you use a crosslink cable?
 What are the main advantages and disadvantages of Fiber-Optic-based networks?
 What is the difference between a Hub and a Switch?
 On which OSI layer can a router be found?
 What is CSMA/CD?
 What is multicast?
 What is Broadcast?
 What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
 Describe some of the settings that are added by TCP and by UDP to the packet's
header.
 What are TCP Ports? Name a few.
 What is a TCP Session?
 What three elements make up a socket?
 What will happen if you leave the default gateway information empty while manually
configuring TCP/IP?
 What will happen if you execute the following command: "arp –d *"?
 What is ICMP?
  When would you use the ping command with the "-t" switch?
 What command-line tool would help you discover for which port numbers your
computer is listening?
 What is APIPA? How would you recognize it?
 What is a Cyclic Redundancy Check?
 What would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP settings for the
computer that you are sitting at?
 What command would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP address of the
remote computer?
 What is the W Value for class B?
 What is the Net ID of an IP Address of 18.9.25.3 with Subnet Mask of 255.0.0.0?
 What is CIDR?
 What is 255.255.255.255 used for?
 What is the maximum number of hosts for a Class B Network?
 What is the (default) class type of 195.152.12.1?
 What is the subnet mask for 10.0.10.1/17?
 What is the result when changing from a subnet mask of 255.255.224.0 to a subnet
mask of 255.255.240.0?
 How can you access a shared folder from a remote computer? Name at least 3
methods.

Technical Interview Questions – Active Directory

 What is Active Directory?
 What is LDAP?
 Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few
options.
 Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?
 What is the SYSVOL folder?
 Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC
 What are application partitions? When do I use them
 How do you create a new application partition
 How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?
 What is the Global Catalog?
 How do you view all the GCs in the forest?
 Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?
 Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?
 What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?
 What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What
is REPADMIN?
 What are sites? What are they used for?
 What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?
 What is the KCC?
 What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?
 What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?
 What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow
WAN link?
 How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? • Can I
get user passwords from the AD database?
 What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?
 Name some OU design considerations.
 What is tombstone lifetime attribute?
 What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 DC in a Windows 2000 AD?
 What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 R2 DC in a Windows 2003 AD?
 How would you find all users that have not logged on since last month?
 What are the DS* commands?
 What's the difference between LDIFDE and CSVDE? Usage considerations?
 What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one
fails?
 What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?
 I want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do I do?
 What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one
should you NOT seize? Why?
 How do you configure a "stand-by operation master" for any of the roles?
 How do you backup AD?
 How do you restore AD?
 How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
 Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 4 months ago?
 What are GPOs?
 What is the order in which GPOs are applied?
 Name a few benefits of using GPMC.
 What are the GPC and the GPT? Where can I find them?
 What are GPO links? What special things can I do to them?
 What can I do to prevent inheritance from above?
 How can I override blocking of inheritance?
 How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few
ways to do that.
 A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the
right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?
 Name a few differences in Vista GPOs
 Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.
 What are administrative templates?
 What's the difference between software publishing and assigning?
 Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?
 You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start
menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that?