Helpdesk & junior IT admins
Build confidence handling common work without relying on guesswork.
Everyday IT · Flagship learning path
Office IT Admin Survival Guide
New Users, AD, Email & Everyday Troubleshooting, Real-World Edition. Practical admin, not certification training.
Who this is for
People who are already touching real systems and need a safe, understandable way to do the work.
MSP technicians
Useful for L1 technicians growing toward L2 responsibility and stronger troubleshooting habits.
Office admins who inherited IT
Understand what you can safely handle and where the environment needs deeper technical support.
Anyone afraid to break AD or M365
Learn the mental models, checks, and boundaries that make routine changes less intimidating.
The outcome
By the end, a student should be able to onboard a new user, set up email, assign common access, work through routine office IT failures, and recognize when a change needs escalation.
Course outline
The first version is organized around common support work, then builds toward troubleshooting judgment and safe escalation.
Module 0
How Office IT Actually Works
What this course is and is not, safe changes versus dangerous ones, how to use the material on the job, and the core Users → Groups → Access mental model.
Module 1
New Hires
New employee checklist, creating users safely, naming conventions, copying a working user, AD properties, licensing, access, email, and what people forget.
Module 2
Active Directory & Permissions
OUs, users, groups, security groups, distribution lists, group-based access, NTFS versus share permissions, access denied, account lockouts, and logon issues.
Module 3
Microsoft 365 & Email
Licensing basics, user versus shared mailboxes, distribution lists, common license mistakes, mail-flow symptoms, and an introduction to message trace.
Module 4
Printers
Finding the correct driver, PCL versus PS, universal drivers, fast installs, ports, test prints, common failures, and why a printer may work on one PC but not another.
Module 5
SharePoint & OneDrive
SharePoint versus OneDrive versus file servers, group-based access, adding users correctly, sync issues, and browser-versus-Explorer behavior.
Module 6
Passwords, MFA & Authentication
Password reset failures, cached credentials, lockouts, sync delays, common MFA problems, safe recovery concepts, mobile-versus-desktop symptoms, and Microsoft MFA/Duo basics.
Module 7
Everyday Troubleshooting Playbook
What changed, one user versus everyone, account versus device versus network versus cloud, checking before changing, testing the result, and documenting what happened.
Module 8
When NOT to Touch It
Red flags, blast radius, when to stop, and changes that should not be made casually, including domain controllers, DNS, Conditional Access, mail flow rules, firewall changes, mass permissions, backups, and production servers.
Confidence comes from knowing what to check, not from pretending you know everything.
This course is meant to shorten the gap between textbook knowledge and the first months of real IT work.