Comptia A+ 1102 Exam C by Professor Messer with complete accurate questions and answers ( 2025-2026 latest release )

C1. A Windows administrator would like to query the local DNS server to

view the IP address for www.professormesser.com. Use a command line

utility to view this information.

C:\>nslookup www.professormesser.com

nslookup (name server lookup)

command can query a DNS server for

information about IP addresses, fully qualified domain names, email server

addresses, and other important name services.

mv (move)

Linux command used to "move" a file from one location to another,

or from one name to another.

The pwd (Print Working Directory)

Linux command used to display the current working directory path.

The chmod (Change Mode)

Linux command which allows the user to change the access

(mode) of a file to read, write, execute, or a combination of those permissions.

The man (manual)

Linux command used to view documentation for a Linux

command or utility.

The cat (concatenate)linux utility used to link files together in a series. This can be used to view multiple files to the screen or to save multiple files into one single large file.

The chown (Change Owner)

Linux command used to modify the file owner or

group owner assignment.

The sudo

Linux command which will allow the user to execute a command as the superuser or as another account on the system.

C3. A user has contacted the help desk because they are not able to browse any

websites. The technician suspects a fault with the server that converts fully

qualified domain names to IP addresses. What command line would

confirm connectivity to this server?

C:\>ping

ping

Linux command that is the easiest way to confirm the connectivity of the device.

The ext4 file system (Fourth extended file system)

is commonly associated with

Linux and the Android operating systems.

exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)

is a Microsoft file system designed for

USB flash drives and similar removable flash storage.

The Windows operating system

runs optimally using the NTFS (NT File

System), and most Windows devices will be configured with NTFS by default.

macOS APFS

The APFS (Apple File System)

is optimized for solid-state storage devices and

include support for encryption, snapshots, and increased data integrity.

The User Accounts applet

is used to modify user rights, passwords, certificate

information, and more.

The Windows 10 File Explorer Options

control the general operation of File

Explorer, the file viewing options, and search engine configurations.

The Indexing Options

can speed up the search process by customizing specific

folders and locations to be indexed.

Device Manager

the central management view of all hardware and devices

connected to the system. All device drivers can be enabled and disabled from

the Device Manager applet.

BitLocker

provides full disk encryption for Windows volumes.

The Content tab of the Internet Options applet

can be used to manage

browser certificates.

The Performance Settings

can manage the size of the paging file automatically

or allow for manual configuration settings.

Multiple Choice Questions

C6. A technician has been called to resolve an issue with a

desktop computer in a training facility. The computer

appears to boot properly to the desktop, but applications

take five minutes to load. While using the application,

pop-up messages and other windows appear on the

desktop. Which of the following should be the best

NEXT troubleshooting step?

❍ C. Remove the computer from the network

C7. A system administrator would like to remove the TFTP

Client in Windows 10. Which of the following Control

Panel options would be the BEST choice for this task?

❍ A. Programs and Features

C8. A user has noticed that a Bluetooth device is currently

connected to their tablet, but they don't recognize the

make or model of the connected device. Which of the

following would be the FIRST step for troubleshooting

this issue?

❍ D. Remove the Bluetooth device

C9. A user has recently been assigned a new tablet, but each

time she tries to read emails the tablet reboots. The user

has reinstalled the email client, but the problem continues

to occur. Which of the following would be the best

NEXT troubleshooting step?

❍ C. Run a hardware diagnostic

C10. A computer technician has been asked to verify a set of

new Group Policy settings on computers at a remote site.

Which of the following commands should be used to

validate the last policy update on the systems?

❍ C. gpresult

C11. A system administrator needs to modify the Linux group

associated with a file. Which of the following would

provide this functionality?

❍ C. chown

C12. A user has brought their laptop to the help desk because

of an issue during startup. The laptop screen remains

black when powering on, and no status lights appear on

the system. The user is traveling tomorrow to a remote

site in another country and needs the laptop while they

are on the road. Which of the following would be the

best NEXT choice?

❍ A. Provide the user with the option to repair,

replace, or rent a new system

C13. A home user provides numerous online presentations

during the day, but the power in their area is not stable

and there will often be short power outages. Which of

the following would help with this issue?

❍ C. Battery backup

C14. A system administrator is planning to upgrade two

physical servers in the corporate data center to external

cloud-based platforms. Which of the following would

provide information on connectivity and the plans for

remote site access?

❍ A. Change scope

C15. A system administrator is concerned about the security

of devices in the field and would like to encrypt all data

on company laptops. Which of these Windows features

would provide this functionality?

❍ D. BitLocker

C16. A user has just installed a driver update from a laptop

manufacturer. After restarting, their system shows

a Windows Stop Error before the login prompt is

displayed. Each subsequent reboot causes the same error

to be displayed. Which of the following should the

Quick

system administrator follow to BEST resolve this issue?

❍ C. Perform a System Restore

C17. The available storage space on a user's workstation

is running low, and some updates are failing due to

insufficient drive space. Which of the following would

be the BEST way to increase drive space until a larger

storage drive can be installed?

❍ D. Set the paging file size to zero

C18. A technician is troubleshooting a Windows 10 computer

that is performing very slowly when moving from one

application to another. Which of the following utilities

would allow the technician to view real-time resource

activity?

❍ B. Task Manager

C19. An attacker has gained access to a password hash file.

Which of the following will the attacker use to obtain

the passwords?

❍ C. Brute force

C20. A server administrator needs to create a folder on a

Windows server to store weekly status report documents.

Which of the following command-line tools would

provide this functionality?

❍ A. md

C21. A desktop administrator is troubleshooting a laptop

computer experiencing slowdowns and delays during

normal operation. There are many icons displayed in the

Windows taskbar, and an error message on the screen

shows "Out of memory or system resources." Which of

the following troubleshooting steps would be the BEST

way to address this issue?

❍ A. Use Task Manager to close applications

C22. A desktop administrator is removing a virus from a

laptop computer in a shared lab. The computer has been

removed from the network and the System Restore

feature has been disabled. When the administrator

attempts to update to the latest anti-virus signatures, the

anti-virus utility disables itself. Which of the following

would be the best NEXT step?

❍ A. Boot to Safe Mode and use signatures

downloaded from a separate computer

C23. A Windows 10 computer is displaying a series of error

messages during the startup process. A technician

has been dispatched and would like to view more

information about the errors without restarting the

computer. Which of the following utilities would provide

the technician with more details?

❍ D. eventvwr

C24. An app on a user's corporate smartphone has stopped

updating. Which of the following would be the BEST

way to resolve this issue?

❍ B. Restart the smartphone

C25. A technician has been asked to replace a faulty adapter

card in a server. The technician doesn't have an anti-static

strap, but they have removed the server from a power

source. Which of the following would be the BEST way

to safely complete this repair?

❍ B. Periodically touch the server's metal chassis

C26. Which of the following would be the BEST choice for

a system administrator to manage an Active Directory

database?

❍ B. PowerShell

C27. A user has started their computer and received this

message on the screen:

"Your important files are encrypted. If you want to

decrypt all of your files, you need to pay."

A desktop administrator has confirmed the user can

no longer access his desktop, and none of his installed

applications are available in the system menus. Sam

notices that a payment link is posted at the bottom of the

screen. Which of the following would BEST describe

this scenario?

❍ D. Ransomware

C28. A desktop technician has received a complaint that

a remotely-hosted application has stopped working.

The technician believes that a network outage at the

application provider is the root cause of the issue. Which

of the following tools would be the BEST choice to

confirm the location of the outage?

❍ D. traceroute

C29. Users on the corporate network authenticate once at

the beginning of the day, and are not prompted again

for authentication until the following day. Which of the

following would BEST describe this functionality?

❍ A. NTFS

❍ B. SSO

❍ C. Inherited permissions

❍ D. EFS

C30. A server technician is removing the memory from a

web server and adding new memory modules to the

motherboard. The old memory modules will be used to

upgrade a server in a different data center. Which of the

following would be the BEST way to protect the old

memory modules?

❍ B. Cotton fabric

C31. A Linux administrator is using the grep command

while monitoring a database application. Which of the

following would BEST describe

this activity?

❍ D. View the name of the working directory

C32. A Windows 10 application includes the installation of a

service during the setup process. Which of the following

would be the MOST important consideration during the

application setup?

❍ D. User permissions

C33. A medical center's hospital staff uses shared computer

systems installed in hallways and patient rooms.

However, hospital administrators are concerned that

patient information might be visible if someone leaves

the computer without logging out. Which of the

following would help prevent this type of issue?

❍ D. Screensaver passwords

C34. George, a user, has a smartphone to assist with maps and

directions when traveling to other company locations.

At a remote site, George finds his phone is attempting

to contact a third-party website to share location

information. Which of the following would be the BEST

way to address this issue?

❍ C. Run an anti-malware scan

C35. A company requires all users to authenticate to a proxy

before communicating to external websites. Which of

the following should be used to integrate the proxy

authentication with the existing Active Directory

credentials?

❍ C. RADIUS

C36. A desktop administrator has been tasked with removing

malware from an executive's laptop computer. The system

has been removed from the network, but the Windows

startup process shows a Stop Error before rebooting into

a repeating cycle. Which of the following would be the

best NEXT step in the malware removal process?

❍ B. Boot with a pre-installation environment

C37. A security administrator is deploying a new application

to users in the field, but the administrator is concerned

that simply using a username and password does not

provide enough security. Which of the following would

be the BEST way to address this issue?

❍ D. Require multi-factor authentication

C38. A system administrator would like to upgrade a user's

Windows video editing application to the latest version,

but the upgrade utility fails with the error "Not enough

free space." Which of the following utilities would allow

the system administrator to resolve this issue?

❍ A. cleanmgr

C39. A user in the shipping department is using a tracking

app on a tablet. The app normally takes 10 seconds to

load, but is now taking over a minute before it can be

used. Tracking searches that normally take seconds are

taking almost a minute to show the tracking details.

Other tablets are not experiencing this slowdown.

Which of the following would be the best NEXT

troubleshooting step?

❍ D. Perform a reboot

C40. Which of the following fire extinguishers would be most

appropriate to use in a data center?

❍ B. Carbon Dioxide

C41. The Human Resources department is installing a shared

computer in the company lobby to use for electronic

job applications. The kiosk should start automatically

without requiring any network login prompt, and the

kiosk should only have access to the job application

modules. Which of the following account types would be

the BEST choice for this system?

❍ C. Guest

C42. A Windows administrator needs to define a minimum

password length for all network users. Which of the

following should be used to complete this task?

❍ C. Group Policy Editor

C43. A user in the shipping department is able to view order

information, but they cannot modify or delete any order

details. Which of the following would best describe this

security principle?

❍ B. Least privilege

C44. A user is receiving this message on their Windows

desktop: "The controller does not have enough resources

for this device." Which of the following would be the

MOST likely reason for this issue?

❍ C. USB endpoints are exceeded

C45. A small office is located in a large office building with

over fifty different companies. A network administrator

would like to limit the possibility of someone else in

the building accidentally connecting to their wireless

network. Which of these configuration settings would

prevent their wireless network from appearing in a list of

available networks?

❍ D. Disabling SSID broadcasts

C46. A manager in the accounting department would like to

upgrade to Windows 10, but she doesn't want to lose

access to any of the currently installed applications or

data. Which of the following methods would be the

BEST choice for these requirements?

❍ D. In-place upgrade

C47. A network administrator has modified all wireless access

points to use WPA3 instead of WPA2. Which of the

following would be a reason for this change?

❍ D. Stronger encryption

C48. A help desk is receiving reports that a group of devices is

not able to communicate outside of their local IP subnet.

A technician can ping devices on the same network, but

does not receive a response when pinging the IP address

of external devices. Which of the following would be the

MOST likely cause of this issue?

❍ A. Default gateway

C49. A network technician has been tasked with preventing

corporate laptops from connecting to a training room's

wireless network. Which of the following would be the

BEST way to accomplish this?

❍ A. Enable MAC filtering

C50. While working at a customer's desk, a technician's

mobile phone begins to ring. Which of the following

would be the MOST appropriate response?

❍ C. Send the call to voicemail and apologize for

the interruption

C51. A user's workstation has been identified as participating

in a DDoS to a large Internet service provider. The

computer has been powered down and stored in a

locked area until investigators arrive. Which of these

procedures would be the MOST important to follow in

the meantime?

❍ D. Maintain integrity of the workstation data

C52. A system administrator has configured EFS on a user's

workstation. Which of the following would describe this

functionality?

❍ A. Encryption of individual files and folders

C53. An application update has been installed to all computers

in the accounting department. A user starts the updated

application for the first time but nothing appears on the

screen. Which of the following would be the best NEXT

troubleshooting step?

❍ D. Check the Event Viewer

C54. A technician has been asked to work on an urgent

computer repair while the user is at lunch. When the

technician arrives, they notice paperwork on the desk

that may contain private customer information. Which

of the following would be the BEST next step?

❍ B. Ask an associate in the department for assistance

C55. A company has recently been the victim of a storm with

large-scale flooding, and all systems and backups at the

corporate data center were completely destroyed. Which

of the following would be the BEST way to avoid this

loss of data in the future?

❍ B. Cloud storage

C56. A user commonly stores large graphic image files in a

shared folder on a network server. After logging in one

morning, the user notices that the shared folders are no

longer in the list of available storage drives. The user

confirms they are logged in properly to the Windows

Domain. Which of the following would be the MOST

likely reason for this issue?

❍ A. User's permissions have been modified

C57. A company deploys a suite of commercial software onto

every workstation in the organization. Which of the

following would BEST describe this licensing?

❍ B. Corporate license

C58. A client's desktop computer is randomly rebooting

throughout the workday without any warnings or error

messages. Which of the following would be the BEST

next troubleshooting step?

❍ D. Perform a full system diagnostic

C59. A user is working with a .dmg file on their macOS

desktop. Which of the following would describe the

contents of this file?

❍ B. Disk image

C60. A member of the accounting department has been

infected with malware, and the technician has just

completed the removal process. Which of the following

would be the BEST way to verify the integrity of the

core operating system files?

❍ B. Run the system file check utility

C61. A user has noticed his computer begins to slow down

during daily use and eventually locks up completely.

During the lock up, the keyboard and mouse do

not respond and the screen does not show any error

messages. Which of the following tasks should a

technician follow to BEST troubleshoot this issue?

(Choose TWO)

❍ B. Perform a hardware diagnostic

❍ F. Scan for viruses and malware

C62. A user receives this message each time they visit a secure

website: "The site's security certificate is not trusted." A

technician investigates the issue and finds the problem

only occurs on this user's computer and not with other

computers in the same office. Which of the following

Quick

would be the best NEXT troubleshooting task?

❍ C. Check the date and time on the user's computer

C63. A user's smartphone contains company confidential

information that should not be shared outside of the

organization. Which of the following would be the

BEST way to limit access to this data if the smartphone

was lost or stolen?

❍ B. Remote wipe

C64. A user would like to configure their local printer to be

accessible to anyone on the corporate network. Which of

the following would be the BEST way to configure this

connection?

❍ B. Create a share name in printer properties

C65. A computer on a manufacturing floor has a virus, and the

system administrator has removed the system from the

company network. Which of the following virus removal

tasks should occur NEXT?

❍ D. Disable System Restore

C66. A user in the marketing department needs to move data

between macOS and Windows computers using a USB

flash drive. Which of the following file systems would

be the BEST way to easily transfer files between these

operating systems?

❍ A. exFAT

C67. When a user starts their desktop computer, the Windows

splash screen is shown with a rotating circle, but the

login screen is never displayed. A technician researches

the issue and finds the computer was just updated to the

latest set of Windows patches. Which of the following

would be the NEXT step the technician should follow to

help solve this issue?

❍ B. Perform a Startup Repair

C68. A desktop technician is moving hard drives from one

set of training room computers to another. Which of

the following would allow the drives to be used in the

new computers but prevent any of the existing data from

being recovered?

❍ D. Standard format

C69. A workstation technician manages a training center

with thirty student computers in each room. All of

the computers have the same hardware configurations.

Which of these installation methods would be the BEST

choice for quickly resetting the training rooms at the end

of each week?

❍ B. Image installation

C70. A user would like to use their smartphone for a payment

during checkout at the grocery store, but the smartphone

is not seen by the payment system. Which of the

following would be the BEST next troubleshooting step?

❍ A. Restart the smartphone

C71. A technician is troubleshooting a problem with user's

laptop and very high utilization, even with no activity

on the screen or user input to the operating system.

Task Manager shows the CPU is operating at 100%

utilization, memory utilization is slightly elevated,

and there is a large amount of outbound network

communication. Which of the following would be the

MOST likely reason for these issues?

❍ C. Laptop is part of a DDoS attack

C72. A user's smartphone app shows a splash screen but

disappears after a few seconds. Which of the following

would be the BEST way for the a technician use to view

logs and memory statistics for the app?

❍ A. Developer mode

C73. A company has created an internal process to ensure

that all PII is encrypted. Which of the following would

be the MOST likely reason for adding this additional

security?

❍ A. Helps prevent identity theft

C74. A system administrator is installing a file server into the

corporate data center. Which of the following would be

the BEST way to improve security of the file sharing

service? (Select TWO)

❍ D. Disable guest account

❍ F. Enable password complexity

C75. A user has purchased a computer that uses a 32-bit

version of an operating system. Which of the following

would be the maximum amount of RAM supported in

this OS?

❍ E. 4 GB

C76. A financial services company is upgrading the storage

drives on their SAN and need to dispose of one hundred

older storage drives. The security administrator would

like to permanently disable the drive and guarantee

the data on the drives could not be recovered. Which

of the following methods would be the BEST way to

accomplish this goal?

❍ C. Shredder

C77. A company is updating all of their UPS systems with

new batteries. Which of the following would be the best

way to dispose of the old batteries?

❍ A. Take to a local hazardous waste facility

C78. Which of the following should a company use to reduce

their legal liability if an employee is dismissed?

❍ B. Acceptable use policy

C79. A healthcare administrator, stores sensitive data on his

laptop computer. His desk is in an open area near a busy

hallway. Which of the following would add additional

security to Jack's work area?

❍ B. Fingerprint scanner

C80. A technician has received a help desk ticket asking for

help with a broken laptop keyboard. After calling the

user, the technician learns the laptop is scheduled to be

used for a press event the following day. Which of the

following would be the best NEXT step with the ticket?

❍ B. Escalate the issue with management

C81. A network administrator has been asked to manage the

router configurations at all company locations. Which of

the following would be the BEST choice for this task?

❍ A. SSH

C82. A user is browsing to their corporate home page, but

a different website appears instead. The user tries to

connect with other browsers on the same computer, but

the result is identical. Which of the following would be

the best NEXT troubleshooting step?

❍ B. Perform an anti-malware scan

C83. A technician has just received fifty boxes of used laser

printer toner cartridges removed during an annual

preventive maintenance project. Which of the following

would be the best NEXT step for managing these used

cartridges?

❍ A. Refer to the MSDS

C84. A system administrator has been notified that a serious

security vulnerability has been identified in software

used by the company. In order to quickly patch this

vulnerability, the administrator has created change

management documentation for the change control

board. Which part of the documentation would explain

the disadvantages of not quickly patching this software?

❍ D. Risk analysis