Hampshire College

Keeping your computer up-to-date and protected against various threats requires some effort. This page is to assist you in staying up-to-date and point you to free resources.

Windows and Macintosh Updates

Windows and Macintosh computers require periodic updating of the Operating System (OS). Performing these updates routinely assures that your computer is protected against known security risks, or programming bugs. Run these procedures at least monthly--weekly is better.

Windows Update
When updates are available, you should see an icon in the lower right corner near the clock telling you updates are ready to download or install. Please take the time to install these updates.

If you do not see the update icon in your system tray, you should perform the updates manually on a regular basis. Do this by going your Start Menu, All Programs, and then Windows Update (look at the top of the menu). Another place you can find it is to open the Internet Explorer browser. Under the Tools menu you will find Windows Update. Follow the prompts on the Windows Update website.

Mac Software Updates
If you have not seen regular reminders to update the Macintosh software, you may not have the automatic feature turned on.

• Click on the Apple menu item and select System Preferences.
• Locate Software Update in the System row.
• From the Scheduled Check tab, make sure there is a checkmark in the box for "Check for Updates".
• In the dropdown list beside that, select "weekly".

If you have not been performing regular updates, click on the Apple menu and select Software Updates to run manually, and rely on the automatic setting after that.

PC and Mac
Some updates rely on previous updates being installed already. If you may have missed previous updates, repeat the updating procedure until it reports that there are no more updates to install.

Anti-Virus, Spyware, and Other Threats

Information about all of the current potential threats to the security of your computer, as well as links to tips and software you can install can be found on the Computer Threats and Annoyances page here on THOR.

Supported Operating Systems

The IT Department supports the following versions of operating systems:

• Windows 2000/XP
• Mac OS X 10.3 to 10.5

At this time we do not support Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or Vista.

Supported Web Browsers

For a list of supported web browsers with links to sites where the installers can be downloaded, see the Hampshire College Supported Web Browsers page.