You have been issued a laptop, but the maintenance of this machine is your responsibility. Please keep it up to date on security patches so as to avoid security incidents. Please ask if you'd like any assistance with or advice about this, or anything else about the configuration of your computer.
The following software is useful and/or recommended:
- Anti-virus software (if MS-Windows). Freely downloadable with your UTORid from http://www.antivirus.utoronto.ca
- Firefox web browser, which we recommend in preference to IE for security reasons. (Personally, I also like Firefox for Macintosh.) Get the latest version from http://www.mozilla.com
- For MS-Windows, Thunderbird e-mail reader, which we recommend in preference to Outlook for security reasons. Get the latest version from http://www.mozillamessaging.com
- For MS-Windows, PuTTY. A straightforward and robust ssh client. (For Macintosh or Linux, just use the 'ssh' program from the command-line in a Terminal window.) Download at least putty.exe, and perhaps also other useful tools such as pscp.exe, from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
- For Macintosh, a nice GUI file transfer client (using sftp over ssh) is Fugu, from http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/.
- For MS-Windows, a GUI file transfer client (using sftp over ssh) is WinSCP, from http://winscp.net/eng/download.php.
- We can provide you with most versions of Microsoft Windows (e.g. Windows 7 Professional) and any version of Microsoft Office (e.g. Office Enterprise 2010); you need not stick with the version your machine comes with, if any. Please contact me for details.
- Some other Microsoft software, mostly compilers and such tools, is available through the MSDNAA programme. And yet other software is available for a fee, but a greatly reduced one, through the Information Commons Licensed Software Office; see http://www.utoronto.ca/ic/software/alphalist.html.