Posted 09/10/2009 at 06:52:55pm

There's nothing wrong with what Microsoft is trying to do with these training courses. They're designed to push sales through getting retail associates more knowledgeable  with selling their products. I wouldn't call this MS Propaganda or anything like that because every company tries to make themselves stand out from their competition by driving sales and making their product look good. Most of the major Tech and PC Brands have their own retail training sites; Intel has their Retail Edge Program, AMD has their own, so does HP, Netgear, Symantec and a few others (If Apple Products were sold in more places other than Best Buy and Apple Stores, they would probably have a site like this too). All of which trade product knowledge and sales tips for cool stuff like processor bundles (Intel and AMD) , Free Software or other deals/swag. I work at Staples, so I've gone through these MS courses already, including a lot from Intel and Symantec, and I'm happy to do maybe an hour's worth of training here and there for free stuff and sweet deals, and it helps me sell their product better so I get a bigger paycheck. These courses aren't really that bad; It took me about an hour to do all 10 parts, and it shows you some cool stuff about Windows 7 in the process. These sites actually give out some really good deals; MS gives you Win. 7 Ultimate for $10 after you do these training sets, Intel had a Core i7, DX58SO MB and Vista Ultimate/Win 7 Ultimate bundle for $300, AMD had a Phenom X4 deal, and Symantec gives you free copies of most of their software.

Posted 11/28/2008 at 12:39:02pm

Here's the actuall video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL-hNMJvcyI&eur