November 20, 2013
On April 8, 2014 Windows XP and Office 2003 will be officially designated as "end of life." This means that Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, upgrades, or other patches. Running XP and Office 2003 in our environment after their end of support date could expose the University to potential security and compliance risks; therefore the ITU will not be able to support users who decide to stay on XP and/or Office 2003.
In anticipation of this, ITU is asking all users who are currently running XP to do one of the following:
1. Request an ETF replacement - Ask your ETF coordinator to request a replacement. A computer is generally approved if there are available resources, it is for an employee of the University and it is the primary system.
Systems that are not eligible for replacement in the ETF OBS program include those that are less than 5 years old, used by students for schoolwork, computers that are the second machine assigned to a worker, computers used for grant/research work funded by the grant/research project, or used by areas that receive funds (auxiliary enterprise).
2. Request an Operating System Upgrade – Complete the form located on the itservices.gmu.edu website. Please note, not all systems will be able to be upgraded, older may not have the hardware requirements to run Windows 7. ITU will waive the normal $30 fee for the upgrade which will be scheduled. http://www.gmu.edu/depts/itu/tsd/tss/support/CM001_A.htm
3. Purchase a new computer - If your computer is less than 5 years old but still doesn't meet the hardware requirements to run Windows 7, your department will need to purchase a new computer. The ITU has developed recommended system replacements that include the standard software image load. These systems are ready to go, out of the box and are available for purchase at Patriot Computers. Further information is available on their website. http://compstore.gmu.edu/products/dell/deptComputer/index.html
If you are currently running Microsoft Office 2003 the ITU recommends requesting an upgrade to the current version of Microsoft Office. To do so fill out the form located on the itservices.gmu.edu website: http://www.gmu.edu/depts/itu/tsd/tss/support/CM001_C.htm
For more information, please contact the ITU Support Center at 703-993-8870 or via email at support@gmu.edu