Category Archives: EdFiles

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Dell 7080 Micro Performance Amazes

November 18, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Well, shut the front door, please! Just for grins I started running some of my desultory benchmarks and speed tests on the Dell Micro 7080 I just bought to replace the old mini-ITX box. When you see the numbers and screencaps I’ll be sharing in the following ‘graphs, you’ll understand why my title for this item is “Dell 7080 Micro Performance Amazes.”

Why say: Dell 7080 Micro Performance Amazes?

The numbers do not lie. They’re all pretty incredible, too. Here are some start/boot numbers, with the 7080 left and the (much more expensive) P-5550 numbers right:

Table 1: Shutdown, cold Boot, Restart Times
Description	Action	7080 Micro	P-5550
Desktop to machine off	Shutdown	7.92 sec	13.02 sec
Turned off to desktop	Cold boot	10.46 sec	16.01 sec
Desktop to desktop	Restart	21.26 sec	30.01 sec

Across the board, then, the $1,200 7080 Micro is significantly faster than the $4K-plus Precision 5550 Workstation. Of course, this takes no account of the more expensive unit’s Radeon Pro GPU. The 7080 Micro simply relies on its built-in Intel UHD Graphics 630 circuitry to render bits on its Dell 2717D UltraSharp monitor, and does so reasonably well. But this comparison is unfair to the P-5550 because UHD 630 is not like a dedicated GPU, especially a professional-grade one like the P-5550’s Nvidia Quadro T2000.

But Wait, There’s More…

The CrystalDiskMark results are also mostly faster than those from the P-5550. The lead-in screenshot shows the 7080 Micro’s CDM results. Compare those for the P-5550 and you get the following, where I’ve bolded the best times in each category so you can see that the 7080 Micro beats the P-5550 in 6 out of 8 categories.

Table 2: CrystalDiskMark Comparisons
CDM Label	Action	7080 Micro	P-5550
SEQ1M/Q8T1	Read	3364.8	3373.64
	Write	2790.49	2334.67
SEQ1M/Q1T1	Read	2147.04	1716.39
	Write	2800.90	2056.88
RND4K/Q32T16	Read	1972.38	630.64
	Write	2152.12	358.26
RND4K/Q1T1	Read	60.54	41.21
	Write	108.21	119.34

I’m particularly impressed with the 4K Random write numbers with queue depth of 32 and thread count of 16, at which the 7080 Micro kills the P-5550 (read is more than 3 times faster; write is more than 6 times faster). With a queue depth and thread counts of 1 each, it’s a split decision: the 7080 Micro is almost 50% faster at reads, and the P-5550 is about 10% faster at writes. Even when the P-5550 comes out ahead it’s by less than 10% in both cases. To me, that puts the 7080 Micro way, way ahead of the P-5550, especially considering the price differential.

Am I happy with my 7080 Micro purchase? So far, heck yes! More to come as I have more time to do benchmarking. This week is jammed up, but maybe Thanksgiving week I’ll find more time. Stay tuned.

EdFiles, Hardware Reviews, Letters from the Ed, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10

Astonishing Dell Precision 5550 Workstation Encounter

November 15, 2020 Ed Tittel 3 Comments

OK, then. Just yesterday, I noticed that Windows Update offered the Dell review unit I’ve got the 20H2 upgrade/enablement package. What happened next surely qualifies as an astonishing Dell Precision 5550 Workstation encounter. Bottom line: it took less than TWO MINUTES to download, install and process the enablement package for 20H2. This is easily 3 times faster than on any other machine on which I’ve run that package, including my brand-new Dell 7080 Micro PC. I knew this machine was fast and capable, but this takes the cake. Really.

It’s odd to see 16 hyperthreads/8 cores show up on a laptop. Apparently, they’re all ready (if not actually thirsty) for work.
[Image is shown 2x actual size for readability. CPU Meter Gadget.]

After Astonishing Dell Precision 5550 Workstation Encounter, Then What?

Good question! I need to run a bunch of benchmarks on this system, then gather up those results for publication here. But in the meantime, this system has taken everything I’ve thrown at it, and simply KILLED it. As you can see from the preceding CPU Meter gadget screencap, this machine comes equipped with an i7-10875H CPU and 32 GB of RAM. So far, I haven’t been able to slow it down much, if at all, by throwing work at it. Desultory benchmarks, like CrystalDiskMark, are frankly breathtaking (this is far and away the fastest system in my house right now). Even CrystalDiskMark turns in some pretty impressive read/write numbers:

By comparison, CrystalDiskMark results from my production desktop with its i7-6700, Asrock Z170 Extreme7+, and a Samsung 950 Pro 512GB SSD, are mostly lower. The top line reads: 1954 (read) and 1459 (write): 58% and 62%, respectively. The second line reads 1550 (read) and 855 (write): 90% and 41%, respectively. This changes in line 3 which reads: 1230 (read) and 391 (write): 194% and 109%, respectively. The two bottom lines are nearly identical, with a 42.49 (read) and 98.99 (write): 103% and 83%, respectively. There’s no question that newer-generation M.2 PCIe technology is faster on bulk reads and writes. And as you’d expect, random reads and writes being shorter and scattered about, those metrics don’t vary overmuch.

Performance Theory, As Usual, Beats Practice

According to its specifications, The P-5550’s SSD is an SK Hynix PC601A 1TB SSD. It’s a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe device with theoretical maximum of 958 MB/sec per lane, or 3,832 MB/sec for all four lanes. The actual performance is always slower, as the top-line numbers from the preceding CrystalDiskMark output show. But it’s not half-bad and is, in fact, the best-performing NVMe SSD currently at my disposal. At over US$4K for this laptop as configured, it’s pretty pricey: but you do get a lot for the money.

The Cold Boot/Restart Numbers

Here’s a set of average times, taken across three sets of measurements for typical PC on/off maneuvers:

+ From desktop to machine turned off (shutdown): 13.02 sec
+ From turned off to desktop prompt (cold boot): 16.01 sec
+ From desktop to desktop (restart): 30.01 sec

Across the rest of my stable of PCs, these times are at least 50% faster than anything else I’ve got. I still have don’t these measurements for the Dell 7080 Micro PCs, though. Given that they’re also brand-new and have similar CPUs and NVMe drives, i’m expecting numbers more like than unlike the preceding ones. Stay tuned! I’ll report that soon in another post.

For the moment, suffice it to say that the “Workstation” in the Precision 5550 product name is not just wishful thinking. This system delivers speed, graphics and compute power, in a beautiful, compact package.

EdFiles, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

KB4589212 Offers Intel Microcode Updates

November 13, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

On November 10, Microsoft rolled out KB4589212. That support note is entitled “Intel microcode updates for Windows 10, version 2004 and 20H2, and Windows Server, version 2004 and 20H2.” It is currently available only from the Microsoft Update Catalog, where a search on KB4589212 provides links to related downloads. As you can see from the following screencap, KB4589212 offers Intel microcode updates as downloads that apply to Windows Server and Windows 10 for X64 and X86 systems, versions 20H2 and 2004.

If you read the note, you’ll see this update applies to all Intel processors back to Ivy Bridge (circa 2011-2012).
[Click image for full-sized view.]

If KB4589212 Offers Intel Microcode Updates, What’s Covered?

In addition to covering most Intel processors still in use back to Ivy Bridge (which is as old as anything I’ve got, from the 2012 mini-ITX box), this microcode update covers 7 different CVE items (3 from 2018, 2 from 2019, 3 from 2020). Here’s that table of items, plucked verbatim from the Microsoft Support note:

CVE number	CVE title
CVE-2018-12126	Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling (MSBDS)
CVE-2018-12127	Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling (MLPDS)
CVE-2018-12130	Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling (MFBDS)
CVE-2019-11091	Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory (MDSUM)
CVE-2020-8695	Intel® Running Average Power Limit (RAPL) Interface
CVE-2020-8696	Vector Register Sampling active
CVE-2020-8698	Fast store forward predictor

I’ve run this on half-a-dozen different 20H2 PCs of all vintages from 2012 to 2019 with no ill effects. This one’s definitely worth downloading and installing sooner, rather than later. That said, note that microcode vulernabilities do require physical access to PCs to foist. Once foisted, though. they’re mostly indetectible and difficult to remove, too. Take no chances: schedule this update for your next maintenance window. You can access the CVE links in the preceding table to learn more about the vulnerabilities involved. In fact, the most recent CVE is fascinating: it decrypts data based on detailed voltage consumption over time simply by carefully monitoring and plotting CPU power usage. Zounds!

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Networking, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 10

VPN Works Around Weird Credit Union Access Issue

November 11, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Suddenly, the usual login prompt from my Credit Union, where my wife and I both bank, has become inaccessible on my local network. No PC, no browser, no nothing will open the login URL. Errors proliferate like mushrooms after the rain instead. What gives?

Credit Union Access Issue. VPN login works, other access doesn't. — VPN Works Around Weird Credit Union Access Issue. VPN login works, other access doesn’t.

I’ve been working in and around IP networks professionally since 1988, and with IP networks since 1979. I’ve seen many weird things, and now have another to add to that list. From my LAN right now, no PCs can login to our credit union on the web. Nobody, that is, unless I go through a VPN link. Otherwise, when we (my wife and I bank together) try to access the login page, a raft of error messages presents. Only the VPN works around weird credit union access issue, which throws up beacoup HTTP error codes. (Explanatory text verbatim from Wikipedia.):

400 Bad Request: The server cannot or will not process the request due to an apparent client error (e.g., malformed request syntax, size too large, invalid request message framing, or deceptive request routing).
401 Unauthorized: Similar to 403 Forbidden, but specifically for use when authentication is required and has failed or has not yet been provided.
403 Forbidden: The request contained valid data and was understood by the server, but the server is refusing action.
404 Not Found: The requested resource could not be found [(aka “File not found/Page not found”)].
501 Not Implemented: Server either does not recognize the request method, or it lacks the ability to fulfill the request.
502 Bad Gateway: The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and received an invalid response from the upstream server

How VPN Works Around Weird Credit Union Access Issue

I can only assume that the address resolution for the specific login URL is somehow malformed or invalid. Changing DNS server assignments at the Windows 10 clients (in the TCP v4 Interface properties) does not help. When I switch to VPN, though, that bypasses the local DNS infrastructure. That connection uses the VPN provider’s DNS infrastructure instead. Then, we have no problems accessing the bank URL.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. I can’t remember the login credentials for the Spectrum device that acts as a Wi-Fi AP and router at the network boundary. Thus, I can’t check the DNS situation on that device, which is where DHCP tells all my Windows 10 machines to get their DNS information from. I’ve got a call into Spectrum to see if they can help me break into my router without having to do a factory reset. In the meantime, we’re using the VPN to access the credit union stuff, and plain-vanilla networking for everything else. It’s strange and unfathomable, but at least there’s a workaround.

For Want of a Nail…

Last night, I drove to the nearby Spectrum outlet and swapped my Technicolor cable modem/VoIP device for an identical replacement unit. The theory was that something about this device was behind the issue. It was sheer hell trying to get back online because Spectrum’s activation drill requires providing account, password, and other identity characteristics. I keep all that stuff in Norton Password Vault, and I couldn’t get access to that info through my iPhone nor did I have another path onto the Internet to grab the necessary data. I eventually had to spend another 45 minutes on the phone with tech support as they FINALLY activated our Internet service, TV, and VoIP phone. Reminded me too much of Catch-22 “How can you see you’ve got flies in your eyes when you’ve got flies in your eyes?” Last night, I couldn’t see much of anything for far too long!

Because our son attends school online, doing without Internet is impossible. Thus, I ordered a 5G hotspot from Verizon last night, so we have a medium performing fallback. They tell me the hotspot I ordered delivers about 200 Mbps downstream and 25 Mbps upstream in our neighborhood. I’ll be finding out — and making sure the fallback works — when it shows up via USPS early next week. Sigh.

Router Reset Solves Resolution Hiccup [Added 1 Day Later]

With a little more time to think about what could cause my problem, I formulated a hypothesis about the cause — and a likely fix — for my troubles. All nodes on my LAN had an issue with that one specific URL. But neither the site operator nor my ISP could replicate that problem. Thus it had to be on the boundary between my LAN and the ISP’s aggregation network. That means only one possible culprit: the Spectrum router. It sits at my network boundary. It also provides DHCP to the nodes on the LAN and acts as the DNS server for all internal nodes.

“Aha” I thought, “I bet resetting the router will fix this issue because it reloads — or repopulates, rather — the DNS cache.” I was right. After powering off the router, letting it sit for a minute or two, then powering it back on, our name resolution issue was gone. Glad to have it fixed because it was deucedly inconvenient without credit union account access. Ultimately, it was the “VPN trick” that led me to the solution. Sigh again.

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

Audible Clues When 8TB Backup Drive Goes South

November 10, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

This morning, I noticed something different just after 9 AM. That’s when the usual scheduled backup job on my production desktop fires off, and about 2 minutes later the drive starts clunking away. Check the timestamps for the Macrium Image (mrimg) files in the lead-in graphic in File Explorer. Except for today — November 10 — all the other jobs show a stamp in a range from 9:02 – 9:21 AM. What was different this morning? No drive clunking provided audible clues when 8TB backup drive goes south. And sure enough, when I checked Explorer at first, the drive was MIA. In fact, Disk Management showed a drive with neither GPT nor MBR disk layout.

After Audible Clues When 8TB Backup Drive Goes South, Time for Repairs

Luckily, I’ve got a commercial license for MiniTool Partition Wizard (MTPW). It includes both Data Recovery and Partition Recovery capabilities. So first, I let MTPW define the drive layout as GPT (as it must for a drive bigger than 2TB). Next, I ran the program’s Partition Recovery capability. About 30 seconds later, the drive’s contents were visible in the MTPW Partition Explorer. But I still had to assign a drive letter before repairs were complete. Immediately thereafter, I ran a manual image backup using Macrium Reflect to make up for the backup I’d missed along with the 8TB drive. As you can see from the most recent timestamp for the top file in the lead-in graphic, today’s belated backup is stored with all its predecessors.

A Bit of Insurance Against Recurrence

I also finally switched in my brand-new Wavlink USB 3.0 docking station (Model: ML-ST3334U) for the old Intatek unit I’d been using. Turns out the Inatek couldn’t handle even a 4 TB and and 8TB drive. Given that I’ve had problems with this dock before, I’d been waiting for the “next fault” to force the swap. I think that’s what happened this morning. I also think the Inatek can’t really handle ONE 8TB drive without power issues. The Wavlink, OTOH, is rated to handle 2 8TB drives. That’s why I bought it, and why I hope this means I won’t see my big backup drive go bye-bye again soon.

But weirder things have happened on my production PC, and may happen again. As we all know, that’s just the way things sometimes go (or go south) in Windows World. Count on me to keep you posted as and when such weirdness happens.

EdFiles, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

Impatience Prompts Production PC Forced 20H2 Upgrade

November 9, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK then, I admit it: I just flat-out got tired of waiting. It’s been 20 days since 20H2 went GA, and my production PC still hadn’t gotten “the offer” from Windows Update. Having long ago downloaded the ISO for 20H2 using the Media Creation Tool, I used it. The process took almost 40 minutes from start to finish. That’s much longer than it took my PCs that did get “the offer” to finish the task. At least 4 times as long. Right now, I’m pausing for this blog post. Next, I’ll do my usual post-upgrade cleanup, now that impatience prompts production PC forced 20H2 upgrade is done.

After Because Impatience Prompts Production PC Forced 20H2 Upgrade, Then What?

My usual post-upgrade cleanup routine of course. This consists of:

Running TheBookIsClosed/Albacore’s Managed Disk Clean (mdiskclean.exe) utility to get rid of Windows.old and other stuff
Using Josh Cell’s nifty (but increasingly dated) UnCleaner tool to get rid of about 310 MB of junk files.
Running Macrium Reflect to capture an image of this pristine OS update
Getting on with business as usual

Just for grins, I ran DriverStore Explorer to see if it would find any outmoded drivers. As you’d expect, everything was ship-shape. Ditto for DISM ... /analyzecomponentstore, which tells me no updates since the GA date of October 22 have left old, orphaned packages behind. And because this kind of upgrade really is like starting over, Reliability Monitor gets a clean slate (in fact, it’s “dead empty” right now):

Right after a feature upgrade (which is what happens when you install from setup.exe), Reliability Monitor is devoid of data, and runs only forward from there.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

Status: 2004 to 20H2 Upgrades at Chez Tittel

This is the last and final machine to transition from 2004 to 20H2. My upgrades are done. One profound impetus for this change came from the three new Dell PCs — two review units, and one new purchase — that showed up over the past two weeks. All of those new 11th-gen PCs got “the offer” as soon as they booted up for the first time. I know that my production PC is solid and reliable and I’ve long since worked out any driver kinks on this machine. Seeing the Dell units transition painlessly (and incredibly quickly), I bet that the production PC would also get over the hump. But while it worked, I can’t say it was fast. But all too often that’s how things go here in Windows World. Stay tuned!

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

WU Gives 1903 Users Forced Upgrades

November 9, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s not quite the apocalypse, but the end of support for Window 10 version 1903 is approaching on December 8, 2020. Thus, MS is now force upgrading PCs still running that OS through Windows Update (WU). Of course, 1903 has been out for some time, having gone GA in May 2019. It’s also been succeeded by three subsequent versions — namely 1909, 2004 and just recently 20H2. When end of support hits, MS stops issuing security updates, which makes machines running such an OS vulnerable to new security threats that won’t be patched. Not good! Time to upgrade then, which explains why WU gives 1903 users forced upgrades these days.

When WU Gives 1903 Users Forced Upgrades, Then What?

The funny thing is, Microsoft is upgrading these 1903 PCs to version 1909. What makes that funny is that this version (for Home and Pro users, anyway) will itself go out of support in May of next year (2021). Thus, those who go through an automatic upgrade through WU will have to repeat the process next May when 1909 itself runs into the same wall. Other, newer ISO versions of Windows 10 are readily available through various sources. The Media Creation Tool for 20H2 is available through the Download Windows 10 page. Or, you can use AveYo’s excellent MediaCreationTool.bat script to access ISOs for most known Windows 10 versions. (I wrote about this for Win10.Guru on November 2, 2020.)

Given that 20H2 is still in the trickle-out process and hasn’t gone into wide distribution, it may make sense to upgrade from 1903 to 2004. In that case, you can use the afore-linked script to grab just what you need. Other good sources for 2004 include UUPdump.ml and the HeiDoc Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download tool. Either one will also let you pick a version for the ISO you download, including 2004.

Moving Up from 1903

If you must upgrade from 1903 to some newer version — and I agree with Microsoft that it’s time to get cracking — I think 2004 makes most sense. Hopefully, these various sources for an ISO will help. And remember, to use an ISO for installation mount it as a virtual drive, then run the file named setup.exe from the root of that mounted drive to get the process underway. The Windows 10 Installer will do the rest. Cheers!

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 10

{WED} DISM /Resetbase Bites Back

March 6, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’m a profound fan of the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) command. But I found myself surprised by the behavior of the /resetbase parameter today. For the record, the complete command syntax is DISM /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup /resetbase. Silly me: I understood that /resetbase would not allow changes to the base established. But I thought the /startcomponentcleanup would run first, and then the base would be reset. Wrong! Today, I tried it on my Surface Pro 3, and DISM /resetbase bites back: the two reclaimable packages I thought would be cleaned up are now frozen into my runtime image. Sigh. Here’s some illustrative PowerShell output, made after I’d already used the /resetbase option:

Notice that even though I ran a /startcomponentcleanup command between a pair of /analyzecomponentstore commands, the 2 reclaimable packages cheerfully persist. Sigh.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

Normally, running the dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup command would result in the second /analyzecomponentstore output reciting zero reclaimable packages, and no recommendation for component store cleanup. But I have no one but myself to blame for this, because I ran the /resetbase myself, not knowing it would freeze first and then fail to clean up at all. That’s why I like playing with test machines: not much real harm results even when things don’t work. Or when they don’t work the way I expect them to…

If DISM /Resetbase Bites Back, What to Do?

Not much, actually. I can either restore my most recent backup and do things right, or I can wait for 2004 and start afresh after that feature upgrade. Doing things right means: run dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup on the restored OS, then run the /resetbase version of that command to freeze the cleaned-up component store. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort, what with 2004 due out in the next month or two. OTOH, the Surface Pro 3 is a test machine and I won’t lose anything except time if I restore the latest Macrium backup, apply pending updates, and try again (the right way).

But now I know something important: if you want to use the /resetbase option in DISM, you should run the DISM /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup command first. That will clean up anything reclaimable. Then, when the number of reclaimable packages is zero, use the /resetbase option. Now, I know. Hopefully, you too can learn from my mistake. And so it goes, here in Windows-World!

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

{WED} Offline Samsung NWP2850 Misconfiguration Fix

March 3, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

If only I knew why this happens, I’d be happier living with this occasional gotcha. Alas, it seems that some Windows Update items reset the TCP port associated with my Samsung monochrome laser printer (NWP2850). When that happens, the printer shows up offline. Bizarrely, Printers and Devices reports the device as offline but offers no further help. I’ve learned to visit the right-click item named “Printer properties” when that happens. Resetting its IP port usually brings the printer back online. That’s what I offer up here, as an offline Samsung NWP2850 misconfiguration fix. Here’s what that properties window looks like with its Ports tab on display:

From time to time a port named “SamsungNWP” with no IP address shows up checked here. This screencap shows the correct assignment.

What Is the Offline Samsung NWP2850 Misconfiguration Fix?

First, I have to rigure out the IP address assigned to my Samsung printer. NWP stands for “networked printer” BTW, so I have to scan my local network to find its current IP address assignment. For that purpose, I use NirSoft’s excellent NetBScanner. It produces a listing that tells me just what I need to know, as shown here:

The Samsung printer shows up about half-way down the list at IP address 192.168.1.126. That’s why I checked the corresponding box in the previous window.
[Click item for full-sized view.]

It’s nice to run into a simple network problem that’s easy to fix in Windows 10. If only, if only, I didn’t have to run into it so often! But that’s the way things go sometimes. I’ve learned to live with it.

EdFiles, Letters from the Ed, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

{WED} Another End of an Era: MS Announces Impending Final MCSA MCSE MCSD Retirements

March 1, 2020 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Thanks to a rare weekend post from Martin Brinkmann at ghacks.net, I can share some big news. I now know MS Learning has a date for official retirement of its-big name 4LA (four-letter acronym) certs. This comes from an MS Learning Blog post and Alex Payne, GM of Global Technical Learning. Alas, these old stalwarts are all headed for retirement. Yes, that’s right: MS announces impending final MCSA MCSE MCSD retirements for June 30, 2020. Although I knew it was coming, it still has a big impact. In fact, rampant popularity of the MCSA and MCSE propelled me into the certification game. (I remember: this happened between 1994 and 1997). And 1997, of course, is when Exam Cram launched at Coriolis Press. (Pearson took it over in 2002, where it remains a pretty big deal today).

Here’s a quote straight from the blog post:

Since we announced our focus on role-based training and certifications in September 2018, we’ve added a total of 34 certifications to our portfolio across Azure, Modern Workplace, and Business Applications. As we continue to expand on role-based learning offerings, all remaining exams associated with Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) will retire on June 30, 2020.

When MS Announces Impending MCSA MCSE MCSD Retirements, Then What?

Of course, this shift has been underway at Microsoft Learning since September 2018. MS is axing its big-name, freestanding certs, and promoting role-based certifications. There are a lot of them around (34, according to the preceding quote). In fact, MS now lumps them together with MTA and MOS certs. (Explanation: MTA = Microsoft Technology Associate, and MOS = Microsoft Office Specialist.) All fall under various job roles at the “Browse all certifications” page at MS Learning. Overall, these include:

AI Engineer	DevOps Engineer	Messaging Administrator
Administrator	Developer	Modern Desktop Administrator
Data Analyst	Enterprise Administrator	Security Engineer
Data Scientist	Finance & Operations Consultant	Solutions Architect
Database Administrator	Fundamental Skills (MTA)	Teamwork Administrator

Heads-up: that’s 15 roles in all, if you’d care to count them.

Thus, when retirement rolls around at mid-year in 2020, MS certification finishes its total make-over. Truly, I’m a little saddened and nostalgic about this evolution, but it’s inevitable for many reasons. Of course, Azure leads this new parade. It proves the importance of virtualization and (or in) the cloud. Get ready: It’s almost time to say hello to a brave new world.

Cheers!

MS Announces Impending Final MCSA MCSE MCSD Retirements.table — The first 16 of 79 role-based MS certs (including MTA and MOS items).

Above, you’ll find the first 16 (of 70-plus items) that show under “Browse all certifications” at MS Learning right now. It’s downright fascinating…