My Colby-Sawyer Experience
"My students are always kind of surprised to learn about what they have missed, what they haven't been paying attention to all their lives."
- Laura Alexander, Assistant Professor, Natural Sciences
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updating Windows and Office
Keeping your Microsoft Windows and Office software updated is crucial. Microsoft issues these patches and updates on the second Tuesday of the month. Fortunately, Windows has the ability to automatically update, but you need to be sure that these updates are happening correctly. Certain updates require user interaction and a restart. Why?
Firstly, your computer will not pass certification unless all Windows critical updates have been applied. Secondly, two recent and serious internet worms, Blaster and Sasser, exploited vulnerabilities in Windows that Microsoft had issued patches for only weeks before. So the evil people who create these cyberspace disasters count on people NOT bothering to update their computers. Don't be one of their victims!
When your computer passed Colby-Sawyer's certification process, it was up to date. At that time, the automatic update feature was turned on. As the semester progressed, you may have noticed little balloon tip notifications that updates had been downloaded and were ready for installation. Do not ignore these prompts. Click the balloon and allow the installation of all critical updates.
Microsoft provides a combined update service which is called "Microsoft Update" (as opposed to "Windows Update"). It will work with your automatic update settings to update all Microsoft products (Windows AND Office) on your computer. To set your computer up to use this handy service, open Internet Explorer and click the Tools menu. Click on Windows Update. When the page loads, look for the Microsoft Update link toward the top of the page. Click this link and follow the instructions.
The current version of the Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) is available for free to all Colby-Sawyer students. On-campus students may run this setup to either install Office 2007 for the first time, or to update an installation that was installed from the campus network. Please click here for instructions.
Please call Information Resources with any further questions or concerns.
