The Help Desk will close Wednesday, November 25, at 5 PM and will remain closed through Friday, November 27, for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

We will return to normal operating hours Monday, November 30.

If there is a campus emergency affecting campus servers or IT services, please dial (704) 894-2900 and select option 4.

If you have a non-emergency request or problem, please email the Help Desk or leave a voicemail by dialing (704) 894-2900 and selecting option 1 or 2. Messages will be responded to once the Help Desk reopens.

Our normal business hours are Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Snow Leopard -- aka Mac OS X 10.6 -- is in the Davidson testing pipe. That's good news, but it's also a warning: If you use non-standard software that isn't provided or supported by ITS, you should be checking now to make sure it's compatible with 10.6. That way, when the upgrade becomes available campus-wide, you'll know if you're ready to move or not.

There are two easy ways to ensure compatibility.

Continue reading "Does It Work With Snow Leopard? There's An App For That!" »

It's the kind of thing that everyone knows and figures should go without saying: You spend a lot of time on your work, so make an extra copy of it just in case, right? The average hard drive probably holds years' worth of information and work, some of it irreplaceable. So you're backing it up, aren't you?

Are you sure? Every standard computer here at Davidson comes with a backup system that's installed with the computer and configured to run automatically, but have you checked yours lately to be sure it's running? There are a lot of pieces required to make a regular, automatic backup work correctly, and even one item out of place can halt or block the backup. If you're not checking yours occasionally to make sure it's running right, you should be. Here's how.

• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.4


• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.5


• How to ensure your backups are running in Windows XP

Windows 7 is Microsoft's newest version of their operating system and is set for release to the general public on Thursday, Oct 22nd. This new operating system has kept the same basic look and feel that existed in Windows Vista but has made vast improvements regarding speed, security and hardware requirements.

Where does Davidson stand regarding Windows 7?
Testing on different hardware platforms continues and we are communicating with our software vendors regarding support for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8, which is built into the new operating system. ITS will work quickly and responsibly to make this new operating system supported on the network and available to campus offices as soon as possible.

Thinking about upgrading your Windows XP or Windows Vista home machine to Windows 7?
One suggestion, proceed with caution! Make sure you back-up your important information before performing any operating system upgrades. When upgrading to Windows 7, you will find that Windows Mail, Movie Maker, Calendar, Contacts and Photo Gallery will be deleted along with the data contained within. Are these Windows utilities gone forever? No, you can download these and many more free utilities from the Microsoft website.

If you're in line for a new computer in the near future, you may be interested in ITS' newest standard configuration, based on Apple's recently-updated iMac lineup. The new standard desktop includes:

• a true 16:9 screen with bright, low-power LED backlighting (both bigger and brighter than the previous 20" model)
  
• 4GB of memory
  
• a 500GB hard drive (up 180GB over the previous standard)
  
• dual-layer DVD optical
  
• an SD card reader (no more cables or weird adapters to get pictures off your digital camera)
  
• the new wireless multi-touch Magic Mouse
  
• a 2.66GHz processor (up from 2.06 on the previous model)
  

As always, ITS is very happy to be able to offer our users a full range of hardware options to meet the demands of the College's mission. If you have questions, or want to discuss purchasing a new machine, please don't hesitate to contact us.