Try Hack Me(THM) group a lot of their challenges into specific tracks. When you start with them the one they suggest is the Pre Security track. This is a foundational collection of lessons that will provide you with a basic overview of various technologies. It introduces you to core concepts like "Networking Fundamentals" and "How the web works". It also covers the basics of Linux and Windows.

I've spent a few years in and the InfoSec/CyberSec space. I've been to a couple of conferences and I've attended a few Blackhills free training courses.Because of this, a lot of this was not new to me. I've a bit of an understanding about how the web works, what DNS is, how Linux works, etc. However, I struggled with a couple of the questions they had on Windows. To be clear, I have Windows machines, use them, and am fairly comfortable navigating them. But this module tripped me up on things. GUI features, like quick access to the Action Center, and some User Access Control settings. I did, even this early, need to reference a walkthrough. Now, there's walkthroughs and there's outright reading the solution. What I found, fortunately, was the former. The Electronics Reference blog has a brilliant walkthrough here for THM. The reason I love it so much is they hide the answers. Just enough, that if you only want pointers, you can find them without accidently seeing the answer.

If, like me, you find yourself a little stumped and the Microsoft docs aren't the most helpful (let's be honest, they can be a bit vague) I strongly recommend the Electronics Reference blog for help. It only goes so far, but it will help you through the Pre Security section without you feeling like you've outright cheated to progress. Resources like it are exactly why this blog won't be a walkthrough. They've done a much better job than I ever could.

In short, while it might be tempting to jump over this set of challenges, I would advise against doing that. Already, as I'm part way through the Beginner Track, I'm seeing where this foundation has helped. The Networking stuff helped me get through Networking fundamentals fast, and all the fundamentals are shared across multiple tracks. This means you can step over them if they appear again later, which they will.

I apologise if you've found this a bit vague. I will hopefully improve on these as I write up more about the challenges. If you've any questions or pointers feel free to reach out to me on twitter, my handle is @Swamptin.
I'll hopefully be regularly updating this blog. But in the meantime, let's stumble forward, together.