http://www.careercert.info/2009/06/interview-questions-for-desktop-support.html http://www.geekinterview.

com/Interview-Questions/Help-Desk/Desktops

List of Probable questions

1. What are the types of Operating System?
Real-time, Single user, Multi user, Multitasking, Single tasking, Distributed, Embedded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system
2. Give examples of NOS (Network Operating System) and SOS (Server Operating System) NOC: Windows NT, XP, Vista, 7, Linux, Mac SOS: Windows 2000, Windows 2003, 2008, Unix 3. Difference between FAT and NTFS

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779002(v=ws.10).aspx http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm
FAT FAT32 provides very little security. A user with access to a drive using FAT32 has access to the files on that drive. NTFS NTFS allows the use of NTFS Permissions. It's much more difficult to implement, but folder and file access can be controlled individually, down to an an extreme degree if necessary. The down side of using NTFS Permissions is the chance for error and screwing up the system is greatly magnified.

FAT and FAT32 volumes can be converted to NTFS volumes. FAT32 does not support file compression

FAT32 drives are much more susceptible to disk errors.

NTFS cannot be converted to FAT32 without reformatting. Not recognized by OS ME & older NTFS supports disk quotas, allowing you to control the amount of disk usage on a per user basis. NTFS volumes have the ability to recover from errors more readily than similar FAT32 volumes. Log files are created under NTFS which can be used for automatic file system repairs. NTFS supports dynamic cluster remapping for bad sectors and prevent them from being used in the future.

4. Enhancements in Windows 2003 from Windows 2000

5. Enhancements in Windows 2003 from Windows NT

6. What is Active Directory ? A central component of the Windows platform, Active Directory service provides the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. For example we can create, manage and administrator users, computers and printers in the network from active directory. 7. What is DNS? Why it is used? What is "forward lookup" and "reverse lookup" in DNS? What are A records and mx records? a. DNS is domain naming service and is used for resolving names to IP address and IP addresses to names. The computer understands only numbers while we can easily remember names. So to make it easier for us what we do is we assign names to computers and websites. When we use these names (Like yahoo.com) the computer uses DNS to convert to IP address (number) and it executes our request. b. Forward lookup: Converting names to IP address is called forward lookup. c. Reverse lookup: Resolving IP address to names is called reverse lookup. d. 'A' record: Its called host record and it has the mapping of a name to IP address. This is the record in DNS with the help of which DNS can find out the IP address of a name. e. 'MX' Record: its called mail exchanger record. Its the record needed to locate the mail servers in the network. This record is also found in DNS. 8. What is DHCP? Why it is used? What are scopes and super scopes? DHCP: Dynamic host configuration protocol. Its used to allocate IP addresses to large number of PCs in a network environment. This makes the IP management very easy. Scope: Scope contains IP address like subnet mask, gateway IP, DNS server IP and exclusion range which a client can use to communicate with the other PCs in the network. Superscope: When we combine two or more scopes together its called super scope. 9. What are the types of LAN cables used? What is a cross cable? Types of LAN cables that are in use are "Cat 5" and "Cat 6". "Cat 5" can support 100 Mbps of speed and "CAT 6" can support 1Gbps of speed. Cross cable: Its used to connect same type of devices without using a switch/hub so that they can communicate. 10. What is the difference between a normal LAN cable and cross cable? What could be the maximum length of the LAN cable?

The way the paired wires are connected to the connector (RJ45) is different in cross cable and normal LAN cable. The theoretical length is 100 meters but after 80 meters you may see drop in speed due to loss of signal. 11. What would you use to connect two computers without using switches? Cross cable. 12. What is IPCONFIG command? Why it is used? IPCONFIG command is used to display the IP information assigned to a computer. From the output we can find out the IP address, DNS IP address, gateway IP address assigned to that computer. 13. What is APIPA IP address? Or what IP address is assigned to the computer when the DHCP server is not available? When DHCP server is not available the Windows client computer assigns an automatic IP address to itself so that it can communicate with the network computers. This ip address is called APIPA. ITs in the range of 169.254.X.X. APIPA stands for Automatic private IP addressing. Its in the range of 169.254.X.X. 14. What is a DOMAIN? What is the difference between a domain and a workgroup? Domain is created when we install Active Directory. It's a security boundary which is used to manage computers inside the boundary. Domain can be used to centrally administrator computers and we can govern them using common policies called group policies. We can't do the same with workgroup. 15. Do you know how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003 for a user? Please visit the link below to find out how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003. IT: Help Desk: Quick Guide: Configuring Outlook 2003 for Exchange Server 16. What is a PST file and what is the difference between a PST file and OST file? What file is used by outlook express? PST file is used to store the mails locally when using outlook 2000 or 2003. OST file is used when we use outlook in cached exchanged mode. Outlook express used odb file. 17. What is BSOD? What do you do when you get blue screen in a computer? How do you troubleshoot it? BSOD stands for blue screen of Death. when there is a hardware or OS fault due to which the windows OS can run it give a blue screen with a code. Best way to resolve it is to boot the computer is "Last known good configuration". If this doesn't work than boot the computer in safe mode. If it boots up than the problems with one of the devices or drivers.

18. What is RIS? What is Imaging/ghosting? RIS stands for remote installation services. You save the installed image on a windows server and then we use RIS to install the configured on in the new hardware. We can use it to deploy both server and client OS. Imaging or ghosting also does the same job of capturing an installed image and then install it on a new hardware when there is a need. We go for RIS or imaging/ghosting because installing OS every time using a CD can be a very time consuming task. So to save that time we can go for RIS/Ghosting/imaging. 19. What is VPN and how to configure it? VPN stands for Virtual private network. VPN is used to connect to the corporate network to access the resources like mail and files in the LAN. VPN can be configured using the steps mentioned in the KB: How to configure a VPN connection to your corporate network in Windows XP Professional 20. Your computer slowly drops out of network. A reboot of the computer fixes the problem. What to do to resolve this issue? Update the network card driver. 21. Your system is infected with Virus? How to recover the data? Install another system. Install the OS with the latest patches, Antivirus with latest updates. Connect the infected HDD as secondary drive in the system. Once done scan and clean the secondary HDD. Once done copy the files to the new system. 22. How to join a system to the domain? What type of user can add a system to the domain? Please visit the article below and read "Adding the Workstation to the Domain" http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...003/technol/directory/ 23. What is the difference between a switch and a hub? Switch sends the traffic to the port to which its meant for. Hub sends the traffic to all the ports. 24. What is a router? Why we use it? Router is a switch which uses routing protocols to process and send the traffic. It also receives the traffic and sends it across but it uses the routing protocols to do so. 25. What are manageable and non manageable switches? Switches which can be administered are called manageable switches. For example we can create VLAN for on such switch. On no manageable switches we can't do so. 26. Types of Firewall Network level Application level 27. Difference between Hardware and Software Firewall

Hardware firewall is a small metal box filled with plug openings, or ports. You hook your computer network into the box then set it up on your computer, just as you would a new printer or other peripheral. Because it's not physically on your machine, a hardware firewall is less vulnerable than a software firewall. Software firewalls give you the level of protection you need to keep safe from hackers and other unwanted intrusions because software is far easier for computer novices to customize. The features are suited to smaller home networks. Some top software firewall packages also include antispam, antivirus, even anti-popup ad software. Some software firewalls include parental controls to manage what kinds of websites your children visit. Some packages allow you to block photos and specific text content that you do not want your children to view. Hardware firewalls are best suited to businesses and large networks. IT professionals often have hardware firewalls in their homes. But for average consumers, software firewalls are best suited for home use.

28.

Name the seven layers of OSI model

a. Layer 7 Application The Application layer provides the interface to the user. Any user application that requires network communication accesses the communication resources through this layer. This layer also is responsible for finding and determining the availability of communication partners. Typical applications in the TCP/IP protocols are Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Telnet, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). b. Layer 6 Presentation The Presentation layer is responsible for encoding and decoding data that is passed from the application layer to another station on the internetwork. This layer is responsible for encoding data in a format that the receiving station can interpret and for decoding data received from other stations. Data compression and encryption are accomplished at this layer. Typical coding schemes include ASCII, EBCDIC, MPEG, GIF, and JPEG. c. Layer 5 Session The session layer is responsible for creating, managing and termination sessions that are used by entities at the presentation layer. The session layer is responsible for coordinating

the service requests and responses generated and received by a station when it is communication with other entities on the internetwork. d. Layer 4 Transport The Transport layer implements reliable internetwork data transport services that are transparent to upper-layer protocols. The services include flow control, multiplexing, and error checking and recovery. If virtual circuits are needed for the communication to be accomplished, they are built and maintained at this layer. Flow control is responsible for making sure that a sending station does not transmit data faster than the receiving station can process it. Multiplexing allows multiple applications to share a common network interface. Error checking is implemented to discover errors on transmission and to provide a recovery mechanism when errors are found. Typical error recovery includes retransmission of the data. e. Layer 3 Network The Network layer defines routing services that allow multiple data links to be combined into an internetwork. The Network layer defines network-addressing schemes that logically identify network devices. The logical network addresses are different from the physical addresses defined at the MAC layer, and are used by routing protocols running at this level to transfer packets from one network to another. The most common network addressing protocols are IP, IPX, and AppleTalk. Typical routing protocols that run at this level are RIP, OSPF, IGRP, and NLSP. f. Layer 2 Data Link The Data Link layer provides reliable transit of data across a physical network link. The Data Link layer also defines the physical network-addressing scheme, such as the MAC Address on network interface cards in a workstation connected to a LAN. The Data Link layer also defines the topology of the network (bus, star, dual ring, and so on). Flow control at the Data Link layer is defined to ensure receiving stations are not overrun with data before they can process data already received. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has redefined the Data Link layer into two sublayers. The sublayers are the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The LLC and MAC sublayers are defined in the IEEE 802.2 standards. The LLC manages communications between devices over a single link of a network. The MAC sublayer manages access to the physical medium from multiple upper-level protocols. The MAC layer also defines the MAC address, which uniquely identifies devices at the Data Link layer. g. Layer 1 Physical The Physical layer defines the parameters necessary to build, maintain, and break the physical link connections. It defines the characteristics of the connectors, data transmission rates and distances, and the interface voltages.

29. How to enable Firewall in Windows XP Control Panel Windows Firewall Or

Click Start, click Run, type Firewall.cpl, and then click OK. On the General tab, click On (recommended). Click OK.

30. How to Disable Firewall in Windows XP Control Panel Windows Firewall Or

Click Start, click Run, type Firewall.cpl, and then click OK. On the General tab, click Off.

Click OK.

31. Minimum System requirement of Windows XP, Vista, 2003 and 2008
XP Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended) At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended) At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution Sound card Speakers or headphones Vista 800 megahertz (MHz) processor and 512 MB of system memory 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space Support for Super VGA graphics CD-ROM drive Windows 2003

Windows Number of Server 2003 Processors Edition

Web 12

Processor Speed

RAM

Available Monitor Disk Space (for Setup)

1.5 gigabytes (GB) Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) or higher; Super VGA (SVGA) (800 600) or higher recommended

133 megahertz (MHz) minimum; 550 MHz recommended

128 megabytes (MB) minimum; 256 MB recommended; 2 GB maximum 128 MB minimum; 256 MB recommended; 4 GB maximum 128 MB minimum; 256 MB recommended; 32 GB maximum 512 MB minimum; 64 GB maximum

Standard

14

133 MHz minimum; 550 MHz recommended

1.5 GB

VGA or higher; SVGA (800 600) or higher recommended

Enterprise

18

133 MHz minimum; 550 MHz recommended

1.5 GB

VGA or higher; SVGA (800 600) or higher recommended

Datacenter

832

400 MHz minimum

1.5 GB

VGA or higher; SVGA (800 600)

Windows 2008
Component Processor Requirement Minimum: 1 GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4 GHz (x64 processor)

Component

Requirement Recommended: 2 GHz or faster Note: An Intel Itanium 2 processor is required for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems.

Memory

Minimum: 512 MB RAM Recommended: 2 GB RAM or greater Maximum (32-bit systems): 4 GB (Standard) or 64 GB (Enterprise and Datacenter) Maximum (64-bit systems): 32 GB (Standard) or 1 TB (Enterprise and Datacenter) or 2 TB (Itanium-Based Systems) Minimum: 10 GB Recommended: 40 GB or greater Note: Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files.

Available Disk Space

Drive Display and Peripherals

DVD-ROM drive Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor Keyboard Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

32. Explain ping command

Ping (packet internet groper) is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer. The name comes from active sonar terminology which sends a pulse of sound and listens for the echo. Ping operates by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to the target host and waiting for an ICMP response. In the process it measures the time from transmission to reception and records any packet loss.

33. Explain Cookies Cookies are small files which are stored on a user's computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer. This allows the server to deliver a page tailored to a particular user, or the page itself can contain some script which is aware of the data in the cookie and so is able to carry information from one visit to the website (or related site) to the next. http://www.whatarecookies.com/

34. How to boot the computer in Safe mode Press F8 on startup

35. Types of printer

http://www.cleverace.com/Printer_types.htm

36. Explain Last Known Good Configuration

It's a Windows startup option that uses the most recent system settings that worked correctly. Every time you turn your computer off and Windows shuts down successfully, important system settings are saved in the registry. You can use those settings to start your computer if a problem occurs. For example, if a new driver for your video card is causing problems, or an incorrect registry setting is preventing Windows from starting correctly, you can restart your computer using Last Known Good Configuration.

37. What is Disk clean up, Disk Defragmentation, Device manager and System Restore
The Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) tool helps you free up space on your hard disk by searching your disk for files that you can safely delete. You can choose to delete some or all of the files. Use Disk Cleanup to perform any of the following tasks to free up space on your hard disk: Remove temporary Internet files. Remove downloaded program files. For example, ActiveX controls and Java applets that are downloaded from the Internet. Empty the Recycle Bin. Remove Windows temporary files. Remove optional Windows components that you are not using. Remove installed programs that you no longer use. You can start Disk Cleanup, by doing any of the following: Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type cleanmgr, and then click OK. -orClick Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. -orIn Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, click Properties, click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup. Disk Defragmenter is a utility in Microsoft Windows designed to increase access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, a technique called defragmentation. Defragmenting a disk minimizes head travel, which reduces the time it takes to read files from and write files to the disk. (Dfrg.msc). Device Manager provides you with information about how the hardware on your computer is installed and configured, and how the hardware interacts with your computer's programs With Device Manager, you can update the device drivers for hardware installed on your computer, modify hardware settings, and troubleshoot problems. System Restore helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos.

38. USB port Vs Firewire port

FireWire is another versatile port that you can use for connecting many peripherals. This way, it competes with the USB port. While USB ports seem to have more of a market share currently, the FireWire port is much faster. It is also known as the IEEE-1394 port or i-Link port. Because of its speed, it is often replacing USB in devices that require large amounts of data transferred fast, such as external hard drives, CD-ROM's and video and audio devices.

Today, two FireWire standards exist: FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. But today's laptops mainly come with FireWire 400 built-in. THE FIREW IRE PORT IS TWICE AS FAST! FireWire 800 can transfer data at up to 800 Mbps (megabits per second), and so it's twice faster than the USB 2.0. That means you can send more than a CDs worth of data every ten seconds. And it is 30 times faster than the USB 1.1. USB 1.1 - 1.5MB/sec USB 2.0 - 60MB/sec FireWire 400 - 50MB/sec FireWire 800 - 100MB/sec (800Mbps/sec)

39. How to install a printer in Windows XP

Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes. Double-click Add Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard, and then click Next. Click Local printer, clear the Automatically detect and install check box, and then click Next. Click Create a new port, and then click Local Port in the Port type section. In the Port Name box, type the path to the printer in the following format, where server is the name of the print server and printer is the name of the printer: \\server\printer Click Next, and then select a Windows 2000 or Windows XP driver for your printer. Click Next, and then follow the instructions to finish the wizard.

40. What is a Browser and name any 5 browsers ? IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera 41. Serial port Vs Parallel port 42. What is a port number ? 43. Where is the HOSTS file located 44. Explain different RAID levels 45. Explain APIPA, IP address and Subnet mask
A feature of Microsoft Windows, APIPA is a DHCP failover mechanism for local networks. With APIPA, DHCP clients can obtain IP addresses when DHCP servers are non-functional. APIPA exists in all modern versions of Windows except Windows NT.When a DHCP server fails, APIPA allocates IP addresses in the private range 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254. Clients verify their address is unique on the network using ARP. When the DHCP server is again able to service requests, clients update their addresses automatically.In APIPA, all devices use the default network mask 255.255.0.0 and all reside on the samesubnet. APIPA is enabled on all DHCP

clients in Windows unless the computer's Registry is modified to disable it. APIPA can be enabled on individual network adapters. Also Known As: Automatic Private IP Addressing; AutoNet Examples: Because APIPA uses IP addresses in the private Class B space, APIPA is a feature generally only useful on home or other small intranet LANs.

46. Difference between IP v4 and IP v6 47. How to remove virus from a computer 48. How to make a computer run faster 49. What is attrib command ?
Attrib allows a user to change the properties of a specified file.

50. What is edit command ?

Edit allows a user to view, create, or modify their computer files in DOS editor.

51. How to copy a file or folder using copy command 52. How to format the hard disk using command line utilities 53. Explain mkdir, rmdir and chdir commands 54. Types of hard disk 55. Difference between primary and secondary partition 56. Types of backups in Window OS 57. Differential Backup Vs Incremental Backup Vs Copy backup 58. What is remote desktop. 59. Recovery Console Vs Automated System Recovery 60. What is NTLDR file
NTLDR (abbreviation of NT loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

61. How to tackle "missing NTLDR file" error

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
62. How many bytes are there in MAC address 6 63. Range of Class A IP address 64. Range of Class B IP address 65. Range of Class C IP address 66. Default subnet mask of Class A, Class B and Class C IP address 67. What is BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and how to overcome it 68. Difference between Preferred DNS and Alternate DNS server

69. Transmission speed of T1 carrier