[WinPartners] IS&T Announces Support for Microsoft Office 2010, Along with Plans to End Support for Office 2003

[Alexander Kozlov]

Good Afternoon,

Information Services and Technology (IS&T) is pleased to announce support for Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows. IS&T recommends that users upgrade to Office 2010 from existing installations of Office 2003 and 2007 for better performance, integration, and compatibility. IS&T will continue to support Office 2007, but will retire support for Office 2003 at the end of this fiscal year.

There are several key factors to consider before installing Office 2010:


-          Office 2010 introduces a new licensing mechanism that requires activation via the MIT Key Management Server (KMS). For Office 2010 to remain active, your machine will need to connect to the MIT network at least once every 180 days. For off-campus activation, you will need to connect via VPN<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/anyconnect>.


-          IS&T has released McAfee VirusScan 8.8<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/virusscan/enterprise/88>, which offers full support for Office 2010 and provides Outlook E-mail Scanner. For your security, it is very important that you upgrade to VirusScan 8.8 after installing Office 2010.


-          As with most new versions of software, Office 2010 comes with an associated learning curve. IS&T offers training on Office 2010 via lynda.mit.edu<http://lynda.mit.edu/> ; for more information, see the related Q&A in Hermes<http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/bACt>.


-          Make sure that your department, lab, or center is ready to support Office 2010.

For a full list of system requirements, installation instructions, and notable features, see the Office 2010 at MIT page<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/office/2010>.

How to Obtain
MIT offers Microsoft Office 2010 through the Microsoft Campus Agreement at no direct cost to departments, for faculty and staff use, and for student use on MIT-owned machines. To learn more about MSCA policies with respect to students, see the Microsoft Campus Agreement: Overview page<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/msca/overview#students>.

You can download Office 2010 from the Office 2010 at MIT page<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/office/2010>. In order to install Office 2010, first unzip the contents of the office2010.zip file into a separate folder and then run the setup-MIT.cmd.

Getting Help
If you need assistance installing or using Office 2010, contact the IS&T Help Desk at 617.253.1101 or helpdesk at mit.edu<mailto:computing-help at mit.edu>. You can also submit a request online<http://ist.mit.edu/support>.

For documentation on using Outlook 2010, see the Office 2010 at MIT page<http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/office/2010>.