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University of California, San Francisco | About UCSF | Search UCSF | UCSF Medical Ctr. advancing health worldwide™ | |
|  | | Computer Requirements | Buying | Literacy | Hardware | Op. Sys. | Office | Internet | |
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|
University of California, San Francisco | About UCSF | Search UCSF | UCSF Medical Ctr. advancing health worldwide™ | |
| | | Computer Requirements | Buying | Literacy | Hardware | Op. Sys. | Office | Internet | |
Computer Requirements
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The Operating System (OS) is the foundation software of your computer which starts after power-on. The OS organizes documents and files among and within disks and within folders/directories. Common examples of operating systems are:
Windows Vista was released in early 2007. You may or may not be required to buy Vista on your new computer depending on the vendor.
Windows XP, Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista, Service Pack 2 from Microsoft and O.S. X, 10.5 "Leopard" (or higher) from Apple are recommended and supported for UCSF student users. Microsoft Windows 3, 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000 should not be used. Older Apple systems such as OS 9 and the "Cheetah", "Puma", "Jaguar", "Panther", or "Tiger" versions of OS X should also be avoided.
Before the end of 2009, “Windows Seven” is expected to succeed Vista, and “Snow Leopard 10.6” will follow Leopard 10.5. Compatibility of these releases for UCSF has not yet been established. Note that installing a new operating system release may render your system unusable, and therefore release changes should not be undertaken at any time when you need access to your computer and documents.
| Platform | Minimum | Recommended | How to Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows |
Windows XP Home SP2 (or) Windows Vista Home Premium not Vista "Basic" |
Windows XP Professional SP2 (or) Windows Vista Business (or) Windows Vista Ultimate |
Find Which OS Your Computer Is Using (or see below) |
| Apple (Macintosh) |
OS X 10.5 "Leopard" with all updates. | OS X 10.5 "Leopard" with all updates. | Choose "About this Macintosh . . . " or "About this computer . . . " from the Apple menu. |
We do not recommend installing Vista as an "upgrade." Only use Vista on computers which were delivered with Vista installed from the factory.
For more information regarding Apple OS X hardware compatibility, please refer to OS X System Requirements.
We require that your computer has the most recent service pack and all critical updates installed.
We also require that you configure your computer to install operating system updates automatically.
To determine what operating system your computer has, choose Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > System (on Windows), or choose "About this Macintosh . . . " or "About this computer . . . " from the Apple menu (Macintosh).
You may purchase computer hardware or software from any vendor. We recommend the UCSF campus computer store called The Technology Store (formerly, "The Source") because its location on campus at 500 Parnassus is convenient and because students can receive educational discounts on hardware and software. It provides complete computer systems as well as individual items, such as printers, mice, and cables. It also sells a wide variety of software applications.
Windows machines, particularly laptops, may require "driver" software to be located and added during the course of a operating system installation, update, or upgrade. For example, the operating system disks may not have the proper driver for the particular networking card installed in your particular laptop computer. Special drivers are usually found at the hardware manufacturers' web sites, a short list of these sites is provided below.
If you have an older Windows or Macintosh operating system, you must either purchase and install an upgrade or replace the computer. It is likely that any computer more than four years old cannot be successfully upgraded now to operate efficiently with the newest OS versions now available.
Unfortunately, we do not provide operating system software for you, so you are responsible for purchasing it. Most computers are delivered to the consumer with an operating system already installed; after delivery the first step is usually to connect to the internet and install any new service packs or updates recently issued by Microsoft/Apple or the manufacturer.
Home Page for these documents
Revised: July 2009
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