Help Desk Essentials

• Become familiar with service management as far as it concerns a help desk
• Understand the components in a modern IT environment
• Look at troubleshooting methods and tools
• Understand the basics of networking
• Understand on premise and cloud based users, groups and resource access
• Understand on premise and cloud based device administration
• Understand essential security guidelines for IT

This is an entry level course so no pre-requisites other than being familiar generally with the Windows operating system and experience of a help desk or service desk environment. There will be opportunities for learners to practise what they are learning and they will be encouraged to get involved with discussions and sharing their own experiences. They will also be regularly asked to consider, in certain scenarios what information should be gathered to aid them in the early steps of troubleshooting.

Target Audience

This course is intended for those starting out in IT working on a help desk or service desk in a primarily Microsoft environment.

Module 1 Overview of Service Management for help desk

This module introduces concept of Service Management and the elements relevant to the help desk.

• What is Service Management?
• What is the purpose of a help desk?
• Service Management for help desk.
• Exercise - Logging calls

Module 2 Overview of the modern IT environment

Here, learners will be asked to think about their own IT environment, and to have a birds eye view of what is under control of IT. They will consider:

• Hardware
• Software
• Network Infrastructure
• Data Storage and Management
• Security Measures
• Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Cloud Computing
• Role Based Access Control concepts

There is no exercise for this module, instead a number of discussions around understanding the learners own infrastructure.

Module 3 Tools for troubleshooting and support

• Troubleshooting steps
• Troubleshooting tools – Windows
• Troubleshooting tools – Other operating systems
• Remote Tools
• Exercise: Using troubleshooting tools

Module 4 Basics of networking for a help desk

• Understanding client networking and settings
• Understanding client networking
• Understanding name resolution
• Exercise: Troubleshooting networking issues and name resolution

Module 5 Understanding user and group administration for a help desk

• Introduction to users and groups
• User and group account creation
• Managing user accounts
• Managing access to resources
• Recognising sign in issues
• Exercise Creating and managing users, groups and access to resources

Module 6 Understanding device management for a help desk

• Overview of devices managed by a help desk
• Understanding Group Policy and how to troubleshoot
• Understanding Intune device management and how to troubleshoot
• Exercise: Device Administration

Module 7 Security in the help desk

• Why is this so important for the helpdesk?
• What are the types of attack?
• What are the standards?
• How does this affect the helpdesk?
• Configuring Security in Windows
• Overview of Microsoft 365 security and compliance
• Exercise: Reviewing security features for on premises and cloud