certification and a little help

Hi, as for the 95 OS, you'll need to pick up a copy of the operating system. Rather than visiting your local retail outlet,you may want to price the product at the following sites: http://www.cheapsoftware.com; http://www.computersurplusdirect.com; http://www.egghead.com. You might want to consult with classmates and see if someone had the OS for sale (just make sure you don't get a pirated version). You'll need a full version of the software or you could do a 95 upgrade (cheaper) if you had 3.1 for example. You can get a 9.x bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com. As for employment concerning A+, in-house repairs (tech shop) is one option or field service is another. You'd get a great deal of hands-on experience this way (more than at a help desk)- installing, troubleshooting, reviving drives, etc. Help desk positions are valuable in so far as you need to be able to walk someone through diagnosing a problem (taking a very logical approach) and increases your skills in visualizing and thinking through troubleshooting scenarios. Hope this helps. Good luck.

As for Win95, I would chuck it and go with 98 second edition; just a personal preference since I have had a few problems with 95 and things have gotten much better since I have used 98 SE. My advice for job experience is similar to the previous, but you should also consider temp work if you alreay have a job. You can do weekend or evening work here and there to get experience and find out what you enjoy. Many companies also have temp to hire programs and some job placement services can help. They get paid a percentage of your starting salary, so it is in thier best interest to get you the highest paying job they can. DO NOT go through a service that you have to pay for; they won't care about you or your starting salary. Look in the yellow pages for some of these companies. Most of all, go into any new position with confidence, but not the "I'm certified and I know it all" attitude. Companies mainly want someone that will fit in with the other workers. Attitude is vital! Job knowledge can be taught, but attitude can't. Remember, opinions are like armipts; everyone has a couple and they generally stink. Take any advice, including mine, with a wary eye and Good Luck!!!!

You can get a copy of Win95 on Haggle.com right now for $35.00. You shouldnt expect a super high paying job at first since you don't have a lot of experience. Search around for an entry level position that pays enough for you to live on. Keep learning as much as you can. It will really pay off after a few years.

Before purchasing a new edition on Win 95 (which, as was noted before, isn't really a good idea - Win 98 would be preferred), check for the windows cabs on your computer - a imple find with *.cab should work. They are generally in the c:\windows\options\cabs directory. If they are there, look for setup.exe in the same directory. If that's the case, write down your product ID number from the system manager, then copy that directory to your D: drive. From there you can format your C: drive, then reboot with a boot disk and install Windows fresh from the directory containing the cab files and the setup program.

This question was closed by the author