TechTips - Free MOSS 2007 SharePoint Training in a Virtual Lab

MOSS 2007 is huge lately in the information technology division of so many companies, so the more experience or training you can get the better. The problem is SharePoint training classes can be very expensive, sometimes upwards of $2000 dollars! Well if you are like me you don't want to spend that kind of money for training there is an alternative. Free online training, and don't let the "free" scare you away, the training is decent. TechNet SharePoint Virtual Training Labs is a great place to start your free online training.

The site is brought to you by the makers of SharePoint; Microsoft gives you access to an actual test environment of a MOSS 2007 SharePoint instance. It's a set of virtual labs that gives you step by step instructions that walk you through important setup and configurations of MOSS 2007. Not only do you get written instructions on how to do all of the steps, you literally get to walk through the steps on a MOSS 2007 virtual test server. So you get to see and do all of the steps, instead of just reading about them. This is by far the best tutorial site for MOSS 2007 that I found; well at least the best free one.

The only thing that I didn't like about this virtual lab is you have to register for it, which means a Microsoft Representative will call you as a follow up to see how you liked the course. Then they try to sell you everything Microsoft. To avoid the call I put in an old number so they never got a chance to harass me. To access the Virtual Lab they also ask other personal info be entered. So far I haven't received any emails or other spam from them so I wouldn't worry too much about filling out the forms with valid info. You can always make it up just to be safe if you really just don't want contacted by Microsoft.

Once you are registered it will take you to a page with a link to the Virtual Lab that you signed up for. There are several different ones you can choose from. When you click on it, a short test runs to make sure your system can run the lab. You might be prompted to install the ActivX controls, don't be alarmed they are safe. Once your system is tested and verified the course will load in a virtual environment. Now all you have to do is follow along with the instructions and learn how to configure your first MOSS 2007 SharePoint Server.

So how is the site and training?

Let's start with the good; the training is very descriptive and accurate. It shows you literally every step needed from start to finish for configuring your MOSS 2007 SharePoint Server in a virtual environment, so when you have to do it on a real server its almost identical. More good, the training is made by the makers of the software; you can trust the source and know you are being trained properly. Another great thing about the module is they give you the option to download the manuals to save for later use (for your production environment!). Don't forget that this is totally free as well, huge plus point.

Now the not so good, the interface is not perfect, it's a virtual environment and depending on your computer specifications it might run a little slow. The instructions are written in very small print, you can adjust this some with your screen resolution but it would be nice if you could change the font size in the interface, having said that the training module also gives you downloadable manuals, so this isn't really that big of an issue.

Overall this is one of my favorite training sites, hands on learning, virtual environment to learn in, and downloadable instructions to save for later use. You can't beat this training; I love the hands on element. I still don't love the slowness of the interface, but as I said before it could be due to my slower system. Overall this training is well worth a look and of course it's free!