With a new crop of Microsoft Windows servers comes a new assortment of related Microsoft exams. Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment for an MCSA Certified on Windows 2000 helps prepare you for the title exam by going through the exam's published objectives one by one, reviewing key concepts, facts, and procedures. As well, the book (and its accompanying CD-ROM) provide sample questions in the style of the exam. These come in handy for diagnostic purposes, and for visualizing the test day in advance. The only problem with the questions is that their answers appear (with discussion, to the credit of the authors) on the same page, making it hard to test yourself without sneaking a peek in advance.

Bruce Parrish and Kirk Hausman — under the supervision of Ed Tittel, who started the Exam Cram series — assume that you have either some relevant experience or a lab environment on which to practice. They point out key features of the environment they're teaching without wasting time on subjects that aren't covered on the exam, making this more of a guided tour of highlights than a comprehensive manual. They also assume that the reader is going for an upgrade, and so note how various aspects of Windows 2003 are different from similar parts of Windows 2000 (it's a "delta book," one that focuses on what's changed since the last version, in other words). When they include a procedure — how to set up a DNS server, for example — their style relies heavily on steps to follow, and usually has an illustration to reassure the reader that the right thing is appearing on-screen.