I built this home lab because I didn’t want to just read about IT — I wanted to break things and fix them myself.

So I set up a virtual environment using VMware and created multiple machines to simulate real systems. I mostly use a Windows VM and a Linux VM, and I treat them like real computers in a small company.

On the Windows side, I practiced installing the system, updating drivers, creating users, breaking stuff on purpose (yes), and then figuring out why everything stopped working. I tested performance issues, Windows updates, permissions problems, and random errors just to understand how troubleshooting really works.

For Linux, I played with the terminal, users and permissions, basic services, and package management. I wanted to feel comfortable navigating the system without a GUI and understand what’s happening under the hood.

Most of the time, I intentionally create problems in the lab. Slow systems, broken drivers, network issues, misconfigured users… then I try to fix them and document what I did. This is how I build my own troubleshooting knowledge base.