Operating Systems

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Supported Operating Systems

Information Technology supports the following operating systems:

  • Windows XP (for faculty and staff) and Windows Vista (for students) and Windows 7 (for students -- limited support for connecting to the network only)
  • Mac OS X 10.5 (for faculty and staff and students) and Mac OS 10.6 (for students -- limited support for connecting to the network only)

Windows Vista will not be installed on any university owned computers.

Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7 is currently being evaluated by members of IT staff. This is a brand new operating system and will go through a thorough testing process on our network and with specialized software required on campus before it will be released to the community. After testing has been completed, training has been developed and we are confident of the support requirements and its compatibility with campus systems Windows 7 will be available on new systems ordered with this operating system.

Windows 7 requires:

  • 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  • 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  • 16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  • DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
  • Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware

Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) is currently being tested by a few members of IT staff as well as some members of the faculty.  So far the only issue has been compatibility with the current version of Symantec Anti-Virus (version 10.2). All other programs such as Office 2008, Firefox, CARS, and Adobe products work well within this new OS.  A copy of Norton Anti-Virus 11 for the Mac, which is compatible with Snow Leopard, is on order for evaluation (arriving Oct 30).  Once evaluated, we will need to purchase licenses for Norton Anti- Virus 11 for faculty and staff for each person who requests Snow Leopard.

As a note, Snow Leopard requires an Intel processor, 1GB RAM, and 5GB available disk space.  It will not run on machines with a PowerPC processor (PowerBook G4, G4, and G5).

Documentation

Training classes offered include

  • Windows Operating System
  • Mac Operating System

Check the Computer Workshop Calendar for dates.

To request training in a specific operating system for an entire class, contact the Computer Competency Coordinator. 

Ordering Software

All faculty/staff computers have the operating system pre-installed by IT Tech Services.

Lab and classroom computers are currently running Windows XP and Mac OS 10.5.

Student may find academic pricing on Macintosh OS upgrades through Apple's Education site and on Windows Vista at e-academy.