Technology@Wooster

Microsoft has recently released Vista, their much-anticipated new operating system. They have also released a new version of the Office suite–Office 2007. Each of these products differ from their predecessors in very significant ways. For this reason, the Office of Information Technology has assembled a team to evaluate each of these new products, and to make recommendations regarding their deployment on campus. While we will look to this team for guidance as to when we should begin to deploy these products, at this time we do not anticipate significant deployment prior to the summer of 2008.

A significant number of software vendors have not yet released Vista-compatible versions of their applications. Vista-compatible versions of ArcGIS, Autocad, Adobe Creative Suite, Filemaker Pro, Maple, Mathematica, Novell Client, Palm Desktop, Quark Express, RealPlayer, SnagIT, and SPSS will not be available prior to the third quarter of this year. (This is by no means an exhaustive list.) As we evaluate these new Microsoft products, we will also be testing their compatibility with various types of hardware in use on campus including printers, USB drives, scanners and PDA’s. As our testing and validation efforts proceed, we will update the campus as to our timeline for deploying and supporting Vista and Office 2007.

If you have questions about new PC purchases with Windows Vista and Office 2007, please contact the helpdesk at 330-287-3000 extension 4357 (HELP).