Exam 70-160
Microsoft^® Windows^® Architecture I

This certification exam measures your ability to design, build, and implement business solutions by using Microsoft tools and technologies.Before taking the exam, you should be proficient in the following job skills.

Component Technologies

• Explain the benefits of the Component Object Model (COM) as a model for the developing of software.
• Discuss the use of the ActiveX™ and the OLE technologies as implementations of the COM.
• Explain the implementation of Automation in the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
• Identify situations in which Remote Automation is an appropriate technology to use in order to provide a desirable solution.
• Compare component architectures on the basis of performance, maintainability, and extensibility.
• Identify which ActiveX technologies are appropriate for use in implementing a given business solution.
• Assess structured storage as a component of a given solution.
• Discuss the use of Uniform Data Transfer (UDT) as part of a component solution.
• Evaluate the use of one or more of the following in a given component solution: compound documents, OLE embedding and linking, and OLE drag and drop.
• Evaluate the use of Active Documents as a component of a solution for a given business problem.
• Identify the appropriate use of ActiveX controls within component solutions.

Database Access Technologies

• Given a scenario, choose the appropriate data access tool.
• Evaluate Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) as a component of a given business solution.
• Compare solutions that use ODBC, on the basis of performance, maintainability, and interoperability.
• Explain the benefits of Active Data Objects (ADO).
• Explain the benefits of Remote Data Objects (RDO).
• Compare Data Access Objects (DAO) with other potential components of a solution, such as ODBC or RDO.
• Explain the benefits of SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO).
• Compare OLE Database (OLE DB) with the ODBC API and with native APIs as a means of retrieving data in a given scenario.

Operating System Awareness

• Identify situations in which it is appropriate to store persisted data in the registry.
• Identify key architectural differences between Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows NT®.
• Describe the architecture of Windows Open Services Architecture (WOSA) technologies, including Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs), memory management, and scheduling.
• Describe how the Windows operating systems manage threads, processes, and scheduling.
• Given a scenario, identify the appropriate type of inter-process communication to use. Types of inter-process communication include:
  • DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange)
  • NetDDE (Network Dynamic Data Exchange)
  • Windows Sockets
  • Named pipes
  • Memory-mapped files
  • NetBIOS
• Choose from 16-bit Windows operating systems, Windows 95, Windows NT Workstation, and Windows NT Server for satisfying a set of requirements.

Choosing Development Tools

• Identify situations in which elements of Microsoft Office, Microsoft BackOffice™, and Microsoft Visual Tool Suite are components of an appropriate solution.
• Choose appropriate objects from within Microsoft Office, Microsoft BackOffice, and Microsoft Visual Tool Suite as components for a given solution.
• Choose a development system to use as a tool to provide a solution for a given business problem. Development systems include:
  • Microsoft Visual Basic^®
  • Microsoft Visual J++™
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Visual C++^®
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro™

Development Methodologies

• Given a scenario, discuss the use of the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) to guide development, testing, and deployment of a business solution.
• Identify strategies for using source-code control to help manage the development process in a given development environment.

Internet and Intranet

• Choose the appropriate protocol for a given application on the Internet or on an intranet.
• Choose an appropriate design for content for an intranet or for the Internet, based on bandwidth and latency considerations.
• Use Internet Data Connector (IDC), Active Server Pages (ASP), or Microsoft FrontPage™ to provide Internet or intranet database connectivity.
• Choose the appropriate ActiveX technologies for a given Web-based application.
• Given a scenario, evaluate a Web-based client application.