IT Support & Help Desk: Practical Skills for IT Support Technicians

Topics covered

• Class 1 (free trial class): Your first support tickets
• Class objective: See what IT support work is really like, and solve your first real tickets on your own computer. Instructor-led content: Introductions and course goals. What help desk, desktop support and service desk teams do; the first, second and third lines of support. Career paths and real job postings. How a ticket travels from the user's call to a verified fix. The course lab and the help desk tool used in every class. Hands-on work: Sign in to the course help desk and open your first ticket. Solve three common problems on your own computer: no internet, a frozen application and a full disk. Record the cause and the fix in each ticket. Student deliverable: Three resolved tickets with clear notes. Between-class practice: Find two IT support job postings in your country and list the skills they ask for.
• Class 2: Tickets, priorities and service levels
• Class objective: Handle a ticket from start to finish the way a professional service desk does. Instructor-led content: The ticket lifecycle: new, assigned, in progress, waiting, resolved and closed. Incidents, service requests, problems and changes, with ITIL terms at a practical level. Priority from impact and urgency. Service level agreements: response and resolution times. Escalating and handing a ticket to another team. Hands-on work: Classify ten sample requests and set their priority. Calculate SLA deadlines for three tickets. Rewrite three poor ticket notes into clear, professional ones. Student deliverable: Classification worksheet and three rewritten ticket notes. Between-class practice: Create your own ticket-note template and use it in every lab.

Topics covered

• Class 3: Talking to users: phone, chat, email and remote sessions
• Class objective: Communicate so that users trust you, even when they are frustrated. Instructor-led content: Greeting, verifying identity and asking good questions. Listening, summarizing and setting expectations. Explaining technical steps in plain language. Handling an upset user and saying no politely. Chat replies, status updates and closing messages. Hands-on work: Role-play three user calls, including one with an upset user. Verify a caller's identity with a sample procedure. Write a status update and a closing email for the same ticket. Student deliverable: Call notes and two written user messages. Between-class practice: Explain one technical idea to someone who isn't technical and note which words confused them.
• Class 4: A troubleshooting method and the knowledge base
• Class objective: Replace guessing with a method you can repeat, and share what you learn with the team. Instructor-led content: Identify the problem, find the likely cause, test it, fix it, verify and document. Questions that narrow a problem down: who is affected, what changed, when it started. Evidence: error messages, screenshots, logs and steps to reproduce. Writing a knowledge-base article another technician can follow. Hands-on work: Diagnose three prepared problems with the method worksheet. Find the missing evidence in two incomplete tickets. Write a knowledge-base article for one problem you solved. Student deliverable: Troubleshooting worksheet and one knowledge-base article. Between-class practice: Use the method on one harmless problem at home or at work and record it as a ticket.

Topics covered

• Class 5: Virtual machines and installing Windows 11
• Class objective: Build the first computer of your lab and install Windows the way support teams do. Instructor-led content: What a virtual machine and a hypervisor are, and why support teams use them. Hyper-V on Windows Pro. Windows 11 requirements: TPM, Secure Boot, editions and activation. Clean install, upgrade and reset. Checkpoints as a safety net before every change. Hands-on work: Turn on Hyper-V and create the CLIENT01 virtual machine. Install Windows 11 and complete a new-starter setup checklist. Take a checkpoint you can return to. Student deliverable: A working Windows 11 virtual machine and the completed checklist. Between-class practice: Repeat the setup checklist from memory and note any steps you missed.
• Class 6: Your company domain: Windows Server and Active Directory
• Class objective: Build a small company network with a domain, as most workplaces have. Instructor-led content: Workgroups vs. domains, and why companies use Active Directory. Domain controllers, DNS and DHCP. Users, computers and organizational units. Joining a computer to a domain and signing in with a domain account. Hands-on work: Create the DC01 virtual machine and install Windows Server. Promote it to a domain controller with DNS and DHCP. Join CLIENT01 to the domain and sign in as a domain user. Student deliverable: A domain controller and a domain-joined Windows 11 computer. Between-class practice: Following the lab guide, create OUs and five test users for a fictional company.

Topics covered

• Class 7: PC hardware, diagnostics and safe repairs
• Class objective: Find which part of a computer is failing and recommend the right action. Instructor-led content: CPU, memory, storage (HDD, SSD and NVMe), motherboard, power supply and cooling. Signs of failing memory, disks, power and overheating. BIOS/UEFI information, built-in diagnostics and manufacturer tools. Static safety, safe handling, and when to replace instead of repair. Hands-on work: Collect hardware details with System Information and PowerShell. Check disk health and memory use. Match symptoms to the most likely failing part in five scenarios. Student deliverable: Hardware inventory and diagnosis sheet. Between-class practice: Document the full hardware specification of your own computer.
• Class 8: Printers, peripherals and mobile devices
• Class objective: Fix the device problems a help desk sees every day. Instructor-led content: Printer types, drivers, print queues, network printers and the print spooler. Monitors, docking stations, USB devices, audio and webcams. Device Manager: updating and rolling back drivers. Smartphones and tablets: email setup, sync and basic device management. Hands-on work: Clear a stuck print queue and restart the print spooler. Add a network printer and set it as the default. Roll back a driver and record the result. Student deliverable: Printer and device ticket set. Between-class practice: Write a knowledge-base article: "The printer shows as offline".

Topics covered

• Class 9: Windows settings, updates and recovery tools
• Class objective: Use the configuration and recovery tools technicians rely on. Instructor-led content: Settings, Control Panel and Computer Management. Windows Update, update history and failed updates. System Restore, Safe Mode, the Windows Recovery Environment and Reset this PC. Disk Management, storage cleanup and BitLocker recovery keys. Hands-on work: Create a restore point and roll back a test change. Start CLIENT01 in Safe Mode and in the Recovery Environment. Investigate a failed update from its history. Student deliverable: Recovery tools lab evidence. Between-class practice: Write a decision guide: restart, restore, reset or reinstall.
• Class 10: Slow computers, crashing apps and Windows logs
• Class objective: Solve "my computer is slow" and "the app won't open" with evidence instead of guesses. Instructor-led content: Startup problems and the boot process. Task Manager, Resource Monitor, startup apps and services. Repairing, resetting and reinstalling apps safely. Corrupt and temporary user profiles. Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor: finding the event that explains a failure. Hands-on work: Find the cause of a prepared high-CPU problem. Disable an unnecessary startup item and measure the difference. Find the events that explain a prepared service failure and attach them to a ticket. Student deliverable: Performance ticket with before-and-after evidence and log extracts. Between-class practice: Review Reliability Monitor on your own computer and explain the last critical event.

Topics covered

• Class 11: IP, DHCP, DNS and Wi-Fi for support technicians
• Class objective: Build a working picture of networks so you can reason about connection problems. Instructor-led content: IP addresses, subnet masks and the default gateway. Private and public addresses. DHCP leases, and what an address starting with 169.254 means. DNS lookups, the DNS cache and common DNS failures. Wi-Fi bands, signal and authentication; VPN basics. Hands-on work: Read and explain the ipconfig /all output on CLIENT01. Release and renew a DHCP lease and flush the DNS cache. Draw the network path of a small office. Student deliverable: Annotated ipconfig output and network diagram. Between-class practice: Find the IP address, gateway and DNS servers on two different networks you use.
• Class 12: Network troubleshooting from the command line
• Class objective: Use evidence to tell local, network, DNS and service problems apart. Instructor-led content: ping, tracert, nslookup, Resolve-DnsName and Test-NetConnection. A bottom-up connection checklist. Proxy, firewall and VPN problems from the user's side. What to collect before escalating to the network team. Hands-on work: Solve prepared no-internet, wrong-DNS and blocked-port scenarios in the lab. Save command output as ticket evidence. Write an escalation note for the network team. Student deliverable: Network ticket with command evidence. Between-class practice: Repeat the connection checklist until you can do it without notes.

Topics covered

• Class 13: Active Directory users, groups and password resets
• Class objective: Handle account requests, a large share of help desk work, safely and correctly. Instructor-led content: Active Directory Users and Computers: users, groups and OUs. Password resets and locked accounts, always after verifying identity. New starters, role changes and leavers. Why support staff use separate admin accounts. Hands-on work: Create users and groups for the fictional company. Unlock an account and reset a password following the verification procedure. Disable a leaver's account with a checklist. Student deliverable: New-starter and leaver tickets with evidence. Between-class practice: Write a password-reset procedure that includes identity checks.
• Class 14: Shared folders, permissions and Group Policy
• Class objective: Fix "access denied" without giving anyone more access than they need. Instructor-led content: Share permissions vs. NTFS permissions, and effective access. Group-based access and least privilege. Mapped drives and UNC paths. Group Policy basics: mapping drives and applying settings; gpupdate and gpresult. Approval before granting access. Hands-on work: Create a department share with group-based permissions on DC01. Diagnose a prepared "access denied" ticket with effective access. Map a drive for a department with Group Policy and check it with gpresult. Student deliverable: Access request ticket with permission evidence. Between-class practice: Plan groups and permissions for an office with three departments.

Topics covered

• Class 15: Microsoft 365 accounts, licences and MFA
• Class objective: Support cloud accounts the way modern workplaces need. Instructor-led content: The Microsoft 365 admin center: users, licences and admin roles at support level. Microsoft Entra ID sign-in problems, self-service password reset and sign-in logs. MFA registration, lost phones and registering again. How on-premises and cloud accounts connect, in brief. Hands-on work: Create a user and assign a licence in the course training tenant. Read a sign-in log to explain a failed sign-in. Guide a role-played user through MFA registration on a new phone. Student deliverable: Cloud account ticket set. Between-class practice: Write a user guide: "Setting up MFA on a new phone".
• Class 16: Outlook, Teams and OneDrive support
• Class objective: Fix the everyday productivity problems users report most. Instructor-led content: Outlook profiles, mailbox size, shared mailboxes and calendar permissions. Teams sign-in, audio and video, meetings and channel access. OneDrive sync errors, backing up Desktop and Documents, and restoring deleted files. When to clear a cache, repair Office or rebuild a profile. Hands-on work: Rebuild an Outlook profile. Fix a prepared OneDrive sync conflict. Restore a deleted file from the OneDrive recycle bin. Student deliverable: Microsoft 365 application ticket set. Between-class practice: Write knowledge-base articles for two problems solved in class.

Topics covered

• Class 17: Security incidents, malware and phishing reports
• Class objective: Take the right first steps when a user reports a security problem. Instructor-led content: Microsoft Defender, firewall status and keeping devices updated. Signs of malware and the isolate, report, escalate response. Handling reported phishing and compromised accounts. Admin rights requests and approved software. Hands-on work: Check Defender and firewall status on CLIENT01. Work through a compromised-account scenario with a response checklist. Analyze three reported emails and decide the right action. Student deliverable: Security incident ticket and response checklist. Between-class practice: Write a one-page user guide: "What to do if you clicked a suspicious link".
• Class 18: Remote support, PowerShell and restoring data
• Class objective: Work faster with remote tools and simple scripts. Instructor-led content: Quick Assist and Remote Desktop; asking for consent and protecting privacy. PowerShell for support: Get-Service, Get-Process, Get-ComputerInfo and Get-WinEvent. Running scripts safely: read before you run. File History, previous versions and OneDrive for restoring user data. Hands-on work: Run a Quick Assist session with a classmate. Use PowerShell to produce a system report for a ticket. Restore a previous version of a file. Student deliverable: PowerShell system report and remote session notes. Between-class practice: Add one more useful check to your PowerShell report.

Topics covered

• Class 19: Capstone: a simulated support shift
• Class objective: Work a realistic shift where several tickets compete for your time. Instructor-led content: The capstone scenario and acceptance criteria. Asset management: inventory, assigning and returning devices. Change requests, and why technicians never make unapproved changes. Managing a queue by priority and SLA, and writing a shift handover. Hands-on work: Work a timed queue of mixed tickets in the course help desk, covering Windows, hardware, network, accounts, Microsoft 365 and security. Escalate one ticket with complete evidence. Write a shift handover note. Student deliverable: Shift ticket log and handover note. Between-class practice: Fix any ticket that didn't meet the acceptance criteria.
• Class 20: Capstone: live user call, final review and next steps
• Class objective: Prove you can support a user from first contact to verified fix, and plan your next step. Instructor-led content: A live role-played user call, from greeting to closure. Review of the capstone tickets and knowledge-base articles. Certification options such as CompTIA A+ and Microsoft 365 fundamentals. Next steps, including the SQL Server DBA course. Hands-on work: Handle the live call, fix the problem in your lab and close the ticket. Present your three best tickets and one knowledge-base article. Start your interview preparation with the tutor. Student deliverable: Final capstone report and portfolio. Between-class practice: Final feedback and a recommendation for the next course.