December 07, 2006

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft and the University of Minnesota Academic and Distributed Computing Services department (ADCS) have recently announced the availability of Microsoft Office Suite, 2007. The Office Suite includes software titles like Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. This version, Office 2007, is specifically for the Windows based computer.

At this point the College of Design Information Technology team is testing and researching how to best take advantage of this software. There are the inevitable "bugs" in any major new software package. This software may require significant hardware upgrades, etc. to make its performance acceptable. By taking a small amount of time to test and research the software, it will allow the IT department to deploy a stable solution across the College.

For the time being, our recommendation is that this software not be installed on any computer in the College of Design. We fully intend to support and deploy Microsoft Office 2007 after we have had a chance to do testing and research so that we have answers to the questions usually arise. We will be keep the College updated and informed as we proceed. Please call the Help Line (6-7760) if you have any questions.

Posted by John Grosen at 08:25 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 04, 2006

Microsoft Windows Vista

Microsoft has recently announced the availability of their new operating system for the PC: Windows Vista. My staff is in the process of testing the new operating system so that we will be able to support it in the future. In the meantime, our recommendation is that no one install Windows Vista. Besides the inevitable "bugs" in any major new operating system, many of the advanced applications we use in the college have not been tested and/or are not yet supported on Vista. In addition, Vista, depending on how it is configured, may require significant hardware upgrades acceptable performance.

For now, we will continue to install and support Windows XP on any new and existing computers. We fully intend to support Vista once we have finished our testing. There will be an announcement when that time comes. Please call the Help Line (6-7760) if you have any questions.

Posted by John Grosen at 01:21 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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