Windows Vista support for students' computers

Students may have purchased new computers or laptops with Microsoft Windows Vista as an operating system, or have recently updated their existing machines to Window Vista. The following information is designed to explain what facilities will function for students and staff who wish to use these machines at the University of Southampton.

The standard Windows operating system at the University of Southampton is Windows XP Professional. The facilities and software provided to students also work with Windows XP Home Edition. The University is currently undertaking project work to convert to the Windows Vista operating system during 2008 calendar year.

The present status of Windows Vista compatible systems is given below:

Networking

  • University data (Ethernet) network — this works with Windows Vista.
  • University wireless network — this works with Windows Vista.
  • University self-service network — this works with Windows Vista.
  • Halls of residence network — this works with Windows Vista.
  • VPN to the University data network — this works with Windows Vista.
  • VPN from University wireless network — this does not work at present and is being investigated.

Information on how to configure these systems will be available on the iSolutions website by 24 September 2007.

Anti-virus software

The current version of Sophos anti-virus software works with Windows Vista and is currently available via the University software download site.

Access to student filestore

Access to University student filestore works with Windows Vista. Information on how to set this up will be available on the iSolutions website by 24 September 2007.

Systems accessed by Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)

Some web-based systems are not compatible when accessed via IE7. This is not believed to be a problem for undergraduate students.

Software

Not all of the software available to students on the central software download service is compatible with Windows Vista, particularly some of the statistical software. In addition there may be software applications that are required by individual Schools which are also not Windows Vista compatible. From our early testing of software on University PCs we have found approximately 80% of applications work on Windows Vista, therefore 20% does not. However, all required software for teaching should be available from the University open-access Windows XP PC clusters on campus.

Microsoft Office

The standard used at the University of Southampton is Microsoft Office 2003. All machines which are supported by iSolutions have Microsoft Office 2007 viewers installed. Some Schools may not have these viewers fitted as standard. Also, the Microsoft Office 2007 viewer may cause some re-formatting of the text. It is therefore strongly recommended that students using Microsoft Office 2007 save their document as Microsoft Office 2003 documents as a default. This is particularly important when submitting the documents electronically.