Top 12 Desktop Support Manager Skills to Put on Your Resume

In a world where devices multiply and expectations spike, the Desktop Support Manager sits at the crossroads of people, process, and platforms. Hiring teams scan for proof you can steer operations, tame outages, calm users, and keep endpoints locked down. Make your skills explicit. Make them current. Then back them with outcomes.

Desktop Support Manager Skills

1. Active Directory
2. PowerShell
3. Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM)
4. ITIL Framework
5. VMware
6. Windows Server
7. Linux
8. Network Troubleshooting
9. Microsoft 365
10. Citrix
11. ServiceNow
12. Cisco Technologies

1. Active Directory

Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft’s directory service for Windows domains. It centralizes identity, access, and policy control for users, groups, devices, and services—authentication, authorization, and governance all in one backbone.

Why It's Important

For a Desktop Support Manager, AD is the command center. You push policy, secure access, standardize builds, and contain incidents faster when identity and devices live under a well-structured directory.

How to Improve Active Directory Skills

Strengthen security, hygiene, and observability. Focus on:

1. Relentless patching: Keep domain controllers and AD components current to close known holes.
2. Modern password and lockout policies: Enforce complexity, length, and lockout thresholds aligned to current guidance. Favor passphrases and credential protections.
3. MFA everywhere feasible: Protect privileged roles and remote access with multi-factor authentication via your IdP.
4. Audit and alerting: Monitor changes to groups, GPOs, and privileged accounts. Baseline normal. Investigate drift.
5. Regular cleanup: Disable stale users and computers, prune nested groups, archive old GPOs. Tidy directory, fewer surprises.
6. Smart GPO design: Use a clear OU model, minimal GPO overlap, and testing rings. Document intent.
7. Least privilege: Tiered admin (Tier 0–2), JIT/JEA, and role separation. No standing domain admin for routine work.
8. Kerberos and LDAP hardening: Enforce signing, channel binding, and modern cipher suites.
9. Backups and recovery drills: System state backups, forest recovery runbooks, and periodic test restores.
10. Federation and cloud: If you bridge to cloud, align with Entra ID and SSO patterns without overextending ADFS unless required.

Do these consistently and AD becomes quiet, predictable, and resilient.

How to Display Active Directory Skills on Your Resume

2. PowerShell

PowerShell is Microsoft’s automation shell and scripting language. It glues together systems, APIs, and administrative tasks across Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, and beyond.

Why It's Important

It crushes repetitive toil. With scripts and modules, you can manage fleets, enforce standards, and harvest data at scale—fast, consistent, dependable.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

1. Level-set fundamentals: Cmdlets, pipelines, objects, modules, error handling. Understand the engine, not just snippets.
2. Use PowerShell 7+: Cross-platform, better performance, modern security. Keep Windows PowerShell 5.1 only where needed.
3. Develop in VS Code: PowerShell extension, PSScriptAnalyzer, debugging, and formatting rules baked in.
4. Automate real work: Target recurring tasks—user onboarding, software deployment validations, inventory, compliance checks.
5. Source control: Git for scripts, branching for changes, pull requests for review. Treat scripts like code.
6. Harden and sign: Execution policies, code signing, secret management with secure vaults.
7. Learn the ecosystem: Master modules like PSReadLine, PackageManagement, Microsoft Graph, and Configuration Manager cmdlets.

Ship scripts that save hours. Measure the time you claw back.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

3. Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM)

Formerly SCCM, Microsoft Configuration Manager is part of the Microsoft Intune family. It manages endpoints at scale: software deployment, OS imaging, patching, compliance, inventory, and remote control—on-prem and co-managed with Intune.

Why It's Important

It’s the enterprise backbone for change at the desktop. One console. Predictable rollouts. Auditable results. Less drift.

How to Improve Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM) Skills

1. Right-size the hierarchy: Simplify sites and distribution points. Keep it lean for quicker replication and easier care.
2. Role-based access: Grant only what teams need. Separate duties for security and sanity.
3. Updates on autopilot: Automatic Deployment Rules, phased deployments, and maintenance windows. Patch steadily, safely.
4. Endpoint protection and compliance: Centralize AV policies and baselines. Report on drift. Fix it automatically.
5. Co-management with Intune: Move workloads (compliance, apps) to the cloud at your pace. Use CMG for internet clients.
6. Automate: PowerShell and the admin service for routine tasks—content cleanup, collection maintenance, dynamic deployments.
7. Content hygiene: Retire old apps, OS images, and superseded updates. Trim the fat.
8. Measure and tune: Watch package distribution times, client health, scan cycles, and success rates. Adjust boundaries and DP placements.

Clean architecture plus automation equals fewer late nights during Patch Tuesday.

How to Display Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM) Skills on Your Resume

4. ITIL Framework

ITIL 4 is a set of practices for IT service management. It links strategy, operations, continual improvement, and value streams. For desktop support, it’s the playbook for smooth intake, triage, fix, and feedback.

Why It's Important

ITIL turns chaos into choreography. Standard workflows reduce variance, surface metrics, and sharpen customer experience. Costs stop wandering. Quality goes up.

How to Improve ITIL Framework Skills

1. Lean, measurable processes: Incident, request, problem, change—documented, visible, and time-boxed. Shorten handoffs.
2. Continual improvement: Define KPIs and OKRs. Review trends monthly. Pick one bottleneck, fix it, repeat.
3. Agile mindset: Smaller work items, faster feedback, rapid iteration. Service desks benefit from Kanban boards and WIP limits.
4. Strong communication: Clear status updates, SLAs everyone understands, post-incident reviews without blame.
5. Knowledge management: Curate articles, embed them in forms, and push deflection via self-service.
6. Automation first: Password resets, software requests, device provisioning—turn tickets into flows.
7. User experience focus: Reduce clicks. Shorten forms. Measure CES and CSAT, not just MTTR.

Make process lighter, faster, and kinder. The queue follows.

How to Display ITIL Framework Skills on Your Resume

5. VMware

VMware (now VMware by Broadcom) powers virtualization across servers and desktops. It underpins VDI with Horizon, streamlines resource use, and boosts resilience with features like HA and DRS.

Why It's Important

Centralized control, right-sized compute, quick recovery, and flexible desktop delivery. Less iron, more agility.

How to Improve VMware Skills

• Right-size VMs: Allocate only what’s needed. Avoid vCPU overcommit that stalls performance.
• Stay current: Keep ESXi, vCenter, tools, and hardware versions up to date to gain fixes and features.
• Watch the signals: Use performance charts or operations tools to spot CPU ready time, ballooning, and storage latency.
• Enable HA and DRS: Balance workloads automatically and recover from host failures without drama.
• Design storage and networking well: Consider vSAN, proper datastore layout, and network redundancy.
• VDI discipline: With Horizon, use golden images, app layering, and profile management to speed logons and updates.
• Team education: Encourage certification paths and lab practice. Sandboxes pay for themselves.

A tuned stack hums. Users notice when it doesn’t—and when it does.

How to Display VMware Skills on Your Resume

6. Windows Server

Windows Server (2019/2022/2025) delivers identity, file/print, application hosting, and core infrastructure roles for enterprises—on hardware, in virtual stacks, and in hybrid setups.

Why It's Important

It’s the fabric behind authentication, Group Policy, files, and line-of-business apps. Keep it steady and secure, everything on top breathes easier.

How to Improve Windows Server Skills

1. Patch cadence: Routine updates and driver/firmware hygiene to reduce attack surface and bugs.
2. Performance monitoring: Track CPU, memory, disk, and network with built-in tools. Baseline first, then tune.
3. Minimal roles: Install only what’s needed. Fewer services, fewer risks.
4. Security hardening: Credential Guard, LAPS, SMB signing, TLS modernization, and admin tiering.
5. Automate with PowerShell: Consistent configurations, rapid remediation, reliable reporting.
6. Backups and recovery: Test restores. Document RTO/RPO. Include bare metal and application-aware backups.
7. Encryption: BitLocker for data at rest. Secure boot and virtualization-based security where supported.

Treat servers like cattle, not pets. Configuration drift has nowhere to hide.

How to Display Windows Server Skills on Your Resume

7. Linux

Linux is the open-source engine behind a vast share of servers, appliances, and desktops. Stable, scriptable, and flexible—perfect for mixed environments and cost control.

Why It's Important

It broadens your toolset and reduces vendor lock-in. Where it fits, it shines—secure, lean, and dependable.

How to Improve Linux Skills

1. Desktop tuning: Optimize GNOME/KDE settings, extensions, and login profiles for snappy user sessions.
2. Package and patch strategy: Standardize repos. Automate updates with maintenance windows and staging.
3. Lifecycle management: Replace EOL tools like Spacewalk with Red Hat Satellite, SUSE Manager/Uyuni, or Ubuntu Landscape.
4. Security: Enforce firewalls (UFW/firewalld), leverage SELinux/AppArmor, and deploy malware scanning where required.
5. Monitoring: Track system health with tools like htop and enterprise monitoring platforms. Alert early, act fast.
6. Documentation: Keep runbooks current. Capture tribal knowledge before it evaporates.
7. Hardware compatibility: Verify drivers and chipsets ahead of purchases using vendor HCLs.

Small tweaks add up. A smooth Linux desktop stops tickets before they start.

How to Display Linux Skills on Your Resume

8. Network Troubleshooting

Finding and fixing network problems—latency, packet loss, DNS hiccups, misconfigurations—so applications and people can talk without friction.

Why It's Important

When the network coughs, everything sounds worse than it is. Fast diagnosis trims downtime, protects productivity, and short-circuits finger-pointing.

How to Improve Network Troubleshooting Skills

1. Nail the basics: DNS, DHCP, routing, switching, VLANs, NAT. Then layer on Wi-Fi quirks and QoS.
2. Use the right tools: Packet capture, flow monitoring, and endpoint diagnostics. Correlate symptoms with timelines.
3. Methodical playbook: Reproduce, isolate, hypothesize, test, verify, document. Don’t skip steps.
4. Proactive monitoring: Baselines and alerts for latency, jitter, link flaps, and saturation.
5. Endpoint checks: ipconfig/ifconfig, ping, tracert/traceroute, nslookup/dig. Quick tests, quick truths.
6. Document and share: Capture fixes, build runbooks, tag root causes, and feed problem management.

The best outage is the one you see coming. The next-best is the one you end quickly.

How to Display Network Troubleshooting Skills on Your Resume

9. Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) bundles productivity apps and cloud services—Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive—secured by Microsoft Entra ID.

Why It's Important

It’s where users live. Smooth identity, collaboration, and device management reduce friction and ticket load while boosting output.

How to Improve Microsoft 365 Skills

1. Upskill users and staff: Targeted training for Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Short tips, big wins.
2. Admin Center mastery: Monitor service health, standardize policies, and keep license assignments tidy.
3. Security first: Enforce MFA, Conditional Access, baseline protections, and data loss prevention. Review sign-in risk regularly.
4. Performance tuning: Optimize client profiles, cache sizes, and network egress for Teams and Outlook. Prefer local breakout for media.
5. Governance: Sensible naming, lifecycle policies, and sharing controls. Prevent sprawl before it grows teeth.
6. Stay current: Track the roadmap and adopt features with pilot rings. Communicate changes ahead of time.

Right policies, coached users, calm operations. The trifecta.

How to Display Microsoft 365 Skills on Your Resume

10. Citrix

Citrix delivers secure app and desktop virtualization for any device, any location. It enables consistent experiences and central management for distributed workforces.

Why It's Important

Remote access that feels local. Security that doesn’t get in the way. Centralization that simplifies your patching and support story.

How to Improve Citrix Skills

1. Right-size the platform: CPU, RAM, storage IOPS, and GPU where needed. Profile real workloads, not wishful ones.
2. Maintain currency: Keep hypervisors, delivery controllers, VDAs, and clients updated on a cadence.
3. Profile and logon optimization: Use modern profile management and app layering to slash logon times.
4. Monitor proactively: Track session latency, brokering times, and failures. Fix root causes, not just symptoms.
5. Optimize the network: Use NetScaler (formerly Citrix ADC) for smart traffic handling, security, and resiliency.
6. Harden access: MFA, device checks, least privilege, and segmented admin access.
7. User enablement: Quick guides for printing, drive mapping, file redirection, and performance tips.

Deliver a crisp session and tickets melt away.

How to Display Citrix Skills on Your Resume

11. ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a cloud platform for IT service management and beyond. It unifies incident, request, problem, change, CMDB, and automation under one roof.

Why It's Important

One place for users to ask, techs to act, and leaders to see. Strong workflows turn chaos into flow and insight.

How to Improve ServiceNow Skills

1. Simplify intake: Clear forms, dynamic fields, and strong categorization so tickets route correctly the first time.
2. Automate the obvious: Password resets, software requests, access grants, and device imaging—turn them into catalog items and flows.
3. Knowledge that works: Curate articles, embed them in portals, and measure deflection rates.
4. Self-service that sings: Intuitive portal, virtual agent for common asks, and real-time status for requests.
5. CMDB with purpose: Accurate CIs and relationships. Use discovery where feasible. Tie incidents and changes to impact.
6. Dashboards and SLAs: Visualize backlogs, aging, and trends. Nudge teams with meaningful targets.
7. Iterate with feedback: Survey, learn, adjust. Small tweaks, constant gains.

If the workflow helps people, they’ll use it. If it fights them, they won’t. Design accordingly.

How to Display ServiceNow Skills on Your Resume

12. Cisco Technologies

Cisco provides the networking backbone—switches, routers, wireless, security, and observability—to move packets reliably and securely across your campus and edges.

Why It's Important

Desktop support depends on stable transport. Strong networks shrink mean time to innocence and keep collaboration tools crisp.

How to Improve Cisco Technologies Skills

1. Standardize builds: Golden configs per device family. Templates enforce consistency and speed deployment.
2. Stay updated: Planned firmware/software updates, validated against labs and pilot sites.
3. Design for resiliency: Redundant links, spanning tree sanity, link aggregation, and well-defined routing domains.
4. Secure by default: Port security, 802.1X, DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, and sane ACLs.
5. Visibility: Flow telemetry, syslog, SNMP/streaming telemetry, and performance baselines to catch anomalies early.
6. Documentation and diagrams: Accurate topologies, IP plans, and change histories. When seconds matter, maps matter.
7. Skill growth: Encourage certifications and hands-on labs. Practice beats theory when the network blinks.

Reliable networks make everything else look good. They’re the unsung hero—until they aren’t.

How to Display Cisco Technologies Skills on Your Resume