Infrastructure · Beginner

IT Support and Windows Troubleshooting

Work IT support the way a good technician does: turn a request into a ticket and solve Windows problems with a method (define, reproduce, isolate, fix, verify, document) instead of guessing.

About this course

This course turns a careful beginner into someone a helpdesk can rely on. You learn the shape of the IT-support job — the ticket lifecycle, how to ask the questions that actually narrow a problem, and a repeatable troubleshooting method you apply to every incident: **define, reproduce, isolate, fix, verify, document**. From there you go inside a Windows machine and learn where support answers live: users and profiles, services, processes, Task Manager, and the Event Viewer logs that tell you what really happened. You work through the problems that fill a real queue — hardware and drivers in Device Manager; networking faults (IP, DNS, gateway, DHCP and the tell-tale APIPA address, `ping`/`tracert`/`nslookup`, name-versus-IP); accounts, passwords, lockouts, and NTFS/share permissions on the principle of least privilege; installing and repairing applications and surviving Windows Update; slow machines, full disks, and resource bottlenecks; and a calm, safe first response to a suspected phishing or malware incident that does not destroy evidence. You finish with the craft that separates a technician from a fire-fighter: a clear knowledge-base article and a clean escalation and shift handover. Every PowerShell diagnostic that can run cross-platform was executed in PowerShell 7 and its real output is shown. Windows-only steps — Event Viewer, Device Manager, Services, Task Manager, Settings, and the Windows-native cmdlets — are written out precisely with a screenshot placeholder, so the reasoning stands on its own before the hosted lab is available. The final project is a set of realistic support tickets you work end to end and hand off.

Content time
11 h
Lessons
10
Lab
Yes
provisioned for you
Certificate
Yes
on completion
Choose a career path

Lesson 1 is free. Enroll in a career path to access its full courses.

Lesson 1 is a free preview — read it without an account.

Infrastructure — the kind of infrastructure this course is practised on

Outline

Lessons

10 lessons · 11 h

  1. Lesson 1: The support role, the ticket, and a method that worksFree preview

    What IT support really does, how a ticket moves from request to closure, and the six-step method you apply to every problem.

    45 min

  2. Lesson 2: Gathering information and asking good questions

    The intake questions that turn a vague report into a reproducible problem — what, when, who, and what changed — and how to collect evidence without collecting a person.

    55 min

  3. Lesson 3: The Windows environment — users, services, processes, and logs

    Where support answers live inside Windows — user profiles, services, processes and Task Manager, and the Event Viewer logs that record what actually happened.

    1 h 15 min

  4. Lesson 4: Hardware and drivers

    Diagnosing devices that don't work — Device Manager and its problem codes, driver update and rollback, and the disk, memory, and peripheral basics behind hardware faults.

    1 h 5 min

  5. Lesson 5: Networking troubleshooting

    The layered method for "I have no internet" — address, gateway, DNS — with ipconfig, ping, tracert and nslookup, the APIPA tell-tale, and the difference between a name problem and a reachability problem.

    1 h 20 min

  6. Lesson 6: Accounts, passwords, and permissions

    Sign-in problems and access problems are different — local versus domain accounts, lockouts, and NTFS and share permissions on the principle of least privilege.

    1 h 15 min

  7. Lesson 7: Applications and updates

    Installing, repairing, and removing applications cleanly, and surviving Windows Update — pending reboots, failed updates, and compatibility.

    1 h 5 min

  8. Lesson 8: Performance and storage

    A method for "my computer is slow" — find the bottleneck (CPU, memory, disk), tame startup items, and recognise the full system drive that breaks everything before anything else.

    1 h 10 min

  9. Lesson 9: Security incidents at the helpdesk

    The helpdesk is the front line — spotting phishing and malware, a calm safe first response, preserving evidence rather than destroying it, and escalating without overstepping.

    1 h 10 min

  10. Lesson 10: Documentation, the knowledge base, and handover

    The craft that scales a helpdesk — a knowledge-base article the next person can follow, and a clean escalation and shift handover that preserves scope and evidence.

    1 h

Hands-on

Your lab

Real virtual machines on the Ultiblob cluster, reached from your browser. You administer them; we provision and destroy them.

  1. vm-01win01windows

Provisioned for you when you launch the lab from the course. The machines are yours for the access window; release them and launch again whenever you like.

Where it leads

Part of these career paths