Participants of Rensselaer’s Mobile Computing Program with T60, T43p, or T42 laptops can now take part in a Windows Vista Ultimate pilot program. Those who participate in this program must know that it is only a pilot program and that they are therefore using this software image at their own risk, as well as that not all applications can run correctly with Vista. Students also must agree back up all data that they want to keep, as well as provide feedback for the program. Students are also cautioned that documents written with Office 2007 won’t load on Office 2003 or XP, and therefore will have to save documents that are to be shared in an earlier Word compatible format.
The software on the image includes: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Office 2007, Maple, Matlab, Visual Studio 2005, Open AFS, NX4, and Symantec Anti-Virus. Self-service re-imaging at the Help Desk requires that you remain with your laptop, and therefore students should allow about an hour for the entire process.
The main goal of the pilot program is to receive feedback from students on Windows Vista Ultimate, which can be sent via web forms. Students will be asked to tell about their experience with the program, including problems, successes, software installed, printing, and using the network.
Students who are interested in participating in the pilot program should visit http://www.rpi.edu/latptops/vistapilotprogram.html for more information, or talk to someone at the VCC Help Desk. To sign up for the program, students must go to the Help Desk prior to April 6.
