Yesterday, during work, I had to sit through the mandatory one hour training class that is given every three or four months to employees that work at the Tier 1 help desk at the Social Security Administration.
One of the topics covered in the training class featured an extended discussion about how to rebuild a user's profile. When I heard that topic mentioned, I suddenly came back to life and eagerly started to take notes in my notebook.
Learning how to rebuild a user's profile in Windows 10 may sound mundane to some people in IT. However, to me, rebuilding a user's profile is something that I never learned enough to be confident in doing myself for an irate caller who wants to know why he or she cannot get back to work. Besides, in my five years working at the Tier 1 help desk, I have probably had less than a dozen phone calls where I had to rebuild a user's profile.
The instructions that were available for agents on how to rebuild a caller's Windows profile were poorly put together and difficult to follow. Looking at the document, I had the feeling that the instructions were primarily for, say, Windows Vista and/or Windows 7. In fact, when I started at SSA, most of the computers in SSA's inventory were still using Windows 7. For the present day, I would say 99.9% of the phone calls that I get are for Windows 10 issues.
After the training class was long over and it was time for me to go to lunch, I started up my LG tablet and opened my Amazon Kindle app. When I buy books to read, I usually use Google Books. However, I do own several books that require me to use the Kindle app. Why that is, I do not know. One of the books I purchased for the Kindle app was Ed Bott and Craig Stinson's massive tome Windows 10 Inside Out (4th Edition). I bought the book because I wanted to learn more about how to utilize Windows 10. When I was studying for both parts of CompTIA's exams for their A+ certification, it became apparent to me that I needed know more about the nuts and bolts about Windows 10. Like many computer users, I would use Windows to write a copy of my resume, save photographs from my camera, or to watch DVDs, for example, but that was about it.
In other words, when it came to Windows, I was still swimming in the shallow end of the pool.
The Windows 10 Inside Out book has rekindled (pun intended) my interest in learning more about Windows 10.
- I have never used Disk Manager to make multiple partitions on a new hard drive. I have a brand new 5TB hard drive that I bought from Amazon several weeks ago. I should connect it to my Dell laptop, open Disk Manager, and practice making some partitions.
- I have never set up a home network using Windows. Now, I should go to Chapter 13 Windows Networking and go through the steps of setting up a network on my laptop. If only to familiarize myself on how you would do such a thing.
- Now, I never used the Event Viewer until I tried to use it for work. I really should learn more about using the various troubleshooting tools available for Windows 10 in addition to using Task Manager.
- I should learn more about using Microsoft Edge than just how to type in URLs. There's so much more that Edge can do. That said, I still use Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome.
- I should learn more about changing personal settings in Windows 10.
- Heck, I never used the Command Prompt to do, well, anything. That has all changed. Now, I am willing to try to use the Command Prompt as much as I can, especially for work. [Yes, I know that I probably should really learn how to use PowerShell.]
I could add more topics to the list, but I think you get my point.
Instead of banging my head against a brick wall over and over and over with CompTIA's awful Network+ certification, I should have taken the time to learn more about Windows.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that I should have taken the time to learn more about Windows prior to studying for A+.
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