BCoE Image Contents

Our standard image for both desktops and laptops includes:

MACs/Parallels/Windows

Windows OSs are available through Dreamspark. However, Microsoft requires that you already have a valid Microsoft Windows license before you can legally use the versions available on Dreamspark. This requirement obviously doesn’t impact PC users, as their PCs already come with some version of Windows. It does affect Mac users, though.

If you’ve bought a Mac, then you should have purchased Parallels as well. Did your license of Parallels come with a version of Windows? If not, you will need to purchase any retail version of Windows. We do not, unfortunately, have any discounted sources for Windows. After you have a valid license, you can then download any version you choose from Dreamspark.

Please note that your access to Dreamspark will not be available until two days before the semester begins.

Spec review/request outside of customizing our spec

Unfortunately, we cannot offer specification support. Due to the amount of time required to formally review specifications, we dedicate time each summer to review and update our recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year. Our goal is to be able to recommend a computer purchase which will stay competitive in our environment for at least 5 years.

We are happy to assist with purchasing computers outside of our recommended specifications; however, we are not able to offer assistance with researching options, customizations, or comparing/contrasting options. We are happy to facilitate the purchase once you have decided on the specifications. Please be aware that PCs outside of our recommendation may have issues handling our environment and may have increased resolution time if issues do arise.

Student Computer Specifications

The college updates the recommended computer specifications each year and are available at the following:

Computer Requirements

Student/personal PC purchase requests

Unfortunately, MSU does not have negotiated pricing of computing hardware for students or staff who want to purchase individually. Several manufacturers have set up portals for students, such as Dell and HP, but the pricing isn’t any different that we have seen from other deals you can find.

If you are interested in looking at them, you can find them at:

Dell

MSU does have a list of software that is available to you, including Microsoft Office. You can find a list of software at:

Mississippi State University ITS

The College of Engineering has a software portal that lists software for specific departments. If your major department has software available for coursework, you can find it at:

Bagley College of Engineering Software Portal

Also on the College of Engineering’s software portal, you will find a link to Microsoft Dreamspark. Dreamspark has a list of Microsoft software that you can download and use as well. Please note that you will not have access to Dreamspark unless you are enrolled and taking a class in a current semester.

Student software support

We are happy to assist with class-required software during one of the student software sessions on Mondays 9-12 and Thursdays 2-5 in McCain 300A. If you are a distance student or are unable to come by during one of the established sessions, please email support at support@engr.msstate.edu requesting a remote session be setup to assist with the software installation.

TeamViewer/LogMeIn/Chrome Remote Desktop

Due to allowing 3rd party access inside of the MSU/Engineering networks, we do not support TeamViewer, LogMeIn, or Chrome Remote Desktop; however, we do support the built in Windows feature Remote Desktop Connection (often referred to as RDP or remote desktop protocol).

Please let us know if you would like to proceed with setting up RDP to allow remote access.

Wireless printing

Unfortunately, some of the issues that make supporting wireless printing difficult is that the wireless and wired environments are logically separate networks. You cannot reach the IP address of a wired printer from the wireless environment. To get around that issue would require VPN connections but that gets into reliability issues. We have not been able to consistently get printers to work in the best of cases. For a majority, we have not even been able to see the printer.

We wish there was a reliable way to support this as we have had several requests for wireless printing. Alas, at this time, we are not able to offer support.