BlackBelt – Troubleshooting the Windows OS
Let a true blackbelter and internationally acclaimed speaker, Sami Laiho, teach you his coolest troubleshooting stunts in this BlackBelt course.
Training duration: 32 academic hours, all of which are theoretical and practical work (4 days).
Early bird price: 1280€ + VAT (when registering by 30 November 2025 inclusive).
Target audience: The course is intended for experienced Windows technicians and IT professionals, who need to sharpen their troubleshooting skills through proper methodology and in-depth OS knowledge.
Prerequisites: As a participant you need to have a general understanding of Windows OS and networking. You will benefit from Active Directory skills, but this isn’t a requirement to take the course.
Contents of this training
The best way to become a great troubleshooter is to learn from the ground up. This BlackBelt course teaches you how the OS really works and how to troubleshoot it. It is applicable to all current Windows OS versions, and at least ten years back – both servers and clients. Learn to troubleshoot the hardest errors and raise your abilities above others!
In this four-day BlackBelt Troubleshooting course, you will deepen your knowledge of Windows operating systems and learn how to effectively troubleshoot problems – from NT 4 to Windows 10/11 – for both servers and clients. This BlackBelt course is aimed at experienced administrators who want to take their troubleshooting skills to a new level. It’s ideal for IT professionals who already have extensive Windows knowledge and want to solve complex errors with confidence. Level 400 – no beginners!
Sami Laiho– instructor and industry expert.
Sami has been working with and teaching OS troubleshooting, management, and security since 1995. He has been auditing and implementing security solutions, specializing in Principle of Least Privilege, Application Control and Privileged Access Workstations, since 2002 and has deployed solutions for companies with between 1-550000 endpoints.
Since 2019 Sami has been chosen by TiVi-magazine as one of the top 100 influencers in IT in Finland. He is in the TOP10 most followed people in his field in Finland. At Ignite 2018, Sami’s “Behind the Scenes: How to build a conference winning session” and “Sami Laiho: 45 Life Hacks of Windows OS in 45 minutes” sessions were ranked as #1 and #2 out of 1708 sessions! This was the first time in the history of the conference that anyone has been able to do this.
Before that, at Ignite 2017, the world’s biggest Microsoft event, Sami was evaluated as the Best External Speaker! Also, Sami’s sessions were evaluated as the Best session in TechEd North America, Europe and Australia in 2014, and Nordic Infrastructure Conference in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The training is conducted in collaboration with Adminize.com 
Specific course content
Troubleshooting methodology
- What are we against?
- How to isolate the error
- How to document the error
Tools and procedures for troubleshooting Windows
- Most important tools for troubleshooting
- Appropriate permissions
OS Internals
- Windows modes
- Processes and threads
- Services and programs
Registry Internals
- Registry structure
- How to manage the registry
Troubleshooting of the SLOW
- Slow startup/logon
- Slow operations
- Memory/Disk/CPU bottlenecks
Troubleshooting security related issues
- Security internals of Windows
- How to troubleshoot issues related to permissions
- How to troubleshoot issues related to domains
Troubleshooting network issues
- Best practises to troubleshooting network issues
- Monitoring network activity
Unbootable machine troubleshooting
- Safe modes and other advanced startup modes
- Windows PE/RE internals
- Tools for fixing an unbootable OS
Troubleshooting device drivers
- How Windows uses its Driver Store
- How to troubleshoot device drivers
Unbootable machine troubleshooting
- Safe modes and other advanced startup modes
- Windows PE/RE internals
- Tools for fixing an unbootable OS
Basics of debugging and debuggers
- How to debug a machine
- When to debug a machine with an actual debugger
BSOD internals
- How BSOD works and how to make one
- How to analyze memory dumps
Training objective
The objective of this training course is to deepen your knowledge of Windows operating systems and learn how to effectively troubleshoot problems – from NT 4 to Windows 10/11 – for both servers and clients.
Intended outcome
Learning objectives:
Upon the successful completion of this training course, you:
- have deepened the knowledge of Windows operating systems;
- know how to effectively troubleshoot problems – from NT 4 to Windows 10/11 – for both servers and clients.
The price includes:
- the training center provides a prepared workstation with the necessary hardware and software in the classroom. For participants attending the training in the online environment, remote access to the required software is provided if needed;
- the training is delivered by an instructor who holds at least level 5 of an adult educator qualification and has relevant work experience in the respective field;
We also offer:
- hot beverages with cookies;
- lunch on each training day;
- free parking (please register your parking with our office manager upon arrival for the training on each training day).
Continuing Education Curriculum Group: Database and Network Design and Management (0612 ISCED)
Trainer
-
Sami LaihoTrainer and one of the World’s leading professionals in the Windows OS and SecuritySami Laiho is one of the world’s leading professionals in the Windows OS and Security. Sami has been working with and teaching OS troubleshooting, management, and security since 1995.
Sami has been auditing and implementing security solutions, specializing in Principle of Least Privilege, Application Control and Privileged Access Workstations, since 2002. Sami has deployed solutions for companies with between 1-550000 endpoints.
Since 2019 Sami has been chosen by TiVi-magazine as one of the top 100 influencers in IT in Finland. He is in the TOP10 most followed people in his field in Finland.
At Ignite 2018, Sami’s “Behind the Scenes: How to build a conference winning session” and “Sami Laiho: 45 Life Hacks of Windows OS in 45 minutes” sessions were ranked as #1 and #2 out of 1708 sessions!! This was the first time in the history of the conference that anyone has been able to do this.
Before that, at Ignite 2017, the world’s biggest Microsoft event, Sami was evaluated as the Best External Speaker! Also, Sami’s sessions were evaluated as the Best session in TechEd North America, Europe and Australia in 2014, and Nordic Infrastructure Conference in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
