UNC-CH Information Technology Services

Campus IT staff prepare for Windows Vista

It’s here - as of Feb. 8, Windows Vista is officially available for faculty and staff, but not necessarily ready for full-scale deployment. At UNC-Chapel Hill, IT staff are testing how the new operating system interacts with campus systems, programs and applications. ITS is putting together a team, led by the ITS Response Center and ITS Security, to ensure that all applications are properly tested before Vista is supported on campus. This testing effort will ensure a smoother transition to the new OS.

So far, one of the most successful testing endeavors is the Vista list, initiated by ITS. Originally only open to UNC-Chapel Hill IT staff, the list was recently expanded to include staff from other local and UNC-system universities. Representatives from Appalachian State University, Duke University, NC School for the Arts, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Wilmington, Wake Forest University, and Western Carolina University have joined the list. Their contributions to the list include information on installation issues, Vista and tablet PCS and links to tools. Staff members from the ITRC are creating content for the help site from list discussions and their own testing.

IT staff have also been meeting in person to discuss potential effects of Vista. The Carolina Technology Consultants (CTC) hosted a discussion group Jan. 23 to encourage collaboration among IT professionals across campus and will host additional sessions as needed.

The Windows Vista list is open to campus IT staff interested in participating in discussion of technical issues with the new operating system. At this time ITS is not recommending that faculty, staff or students install the Microsoft Vista operating system on a primary-use computer or a computer used for a production IT system. ITS anticipates supporting Windows Vista this summer.