SEE Supported MS-Windows Clients

Supported Versions

• The School supports a managed Windows client that is currently (Aug 2008) based on MS-Windows XP Pro SP2 (32-bit).
• The School supports MS-Windows only on hardware systems which have been purchased through the School's IT purchasing procedure and which are built and managed through the Machination system.

Installation and Maintenance procedure

• The School provides total Windows client management using `Machination' developed by the School of Engineering and Electronics.
• The Machination Control Centre enables users to customise the system to meet their needs. User intervention in the managment beyond this is neither required nor permitted.
• The underlying installation is based on the Managed Desktop Project developed by EUCS.

     Things you must NOT do

Future Plans

• MS-Vista: the University has abandoned earlier plans to support Vista.
• 64-bit MS-Windows: no availability is anticipated due to the abandonment of support for MS-Vista.
• For improved integration with central services, we hope to move from the SEE Samba domain to the ed-domain Samba/AD domain for user logins from June 2009.

Transitional Arrangements 2007

If you are using a Windows PC configured prior to July 2006 provided by the School, this PC need to be rebuilt. To avoid loss of working time, before this can happen, you will need to register all applications and software that you use so that they will continue be available afterwards.

No Longer supported

Anything predating the current version.

Personal Laptops and any other machines not managed by Machination.

• Any computer with a MS-windows installation not managed by Machination will only be able to access a restricted set of School services.
• Access will be via wireless networking and an external gateway, such as SSH or VPN.
• We very strongly recommend that you apply the SEE firewall rules to any personally managed machine.
• Information Services (aka was EUCS), offer advice under:
  • http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/security/guideuser.html
  • http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/isd/archpub/MalwareRemovalGuide.pdf

NB: The School's infrastructure is provided as part of the "well-founded laboratory". However, the security of this is only as good as the weakest part. Thus, as part of the security model, we have to balance access and security. This includes access and use of the client systems. School managed PCs are thus managed in this context and any PC supplied via the School is not to be seen or used as a "home" PC. It is provided for corporate use. We recognise that people do have their own machines and can access the School from outwith machines managed by the School. In these cases, we grant access in the manner described above, but only to a restricted range of services where the risk is believed to be acceptable.