Information Technology

We generally recommend you bring any CD's that were included with the purchase of your computer as well as additional software you have currently installed. Bringing along this software will speed up the process of repairing your computer or reinstalling software if needed.  Visit our Computer Purchasing Information page for additional information about software available for purchase and free software provided by UWSP.   Other recommendations for hardware and software can be found on our Personal Computer Recommendations page.

Visit our recommended personal computer configurations page for more information.

Visit our Software Support page for information about the campus load, software available for home, and UWSP specific application support.

Visit our repair services page for more information.

Visit our software support pages for information on UWSP licenesed software for home use as well as other suggested software pages for more information.

Students, Faculty and Staff can install Microsoft Office 2016 for FREE from the UWSP Office 365 portal at https://office.uwsp.edu.  For more information visit our Office 2016 / 365 FAQ page.

Special pricing and use rights are available on additional software, visit our special pricing on software page for more information. 

Visit our special pricing on hardware page for more information.

Note:  This document applies only to personally owned computers.  Do not attempt this on a University owned computer. If you are using a University owned computer contact the Service Desk for support.

Some viruses may not be detected or may only be partially removed, if your system is not booted into Safe Mode when running an antivirus scan.  Booting in Safe Mode prevents non-critical service and programs (including malware) from loading upon start up.  Safe Mode will allow you to remove some viruses and malware that can't be removed in Normal mode.

1. Start or Restart your computer, and beginning tapping the F8 key every few seconds until you come up to the screen below. 

    

2. Select the first selection of Safe Mode then press enter.  Which Safe Mode option should I choose?
   • Safe Mode - This is the most basic mode that is usually what you will want to choose when troubleshooting your computer. 
   • Safe Mode with Networking: This mode is helpful when you need to be in safe mode to troubleshoot, but also need access to the network/internet to download updates, drivers, or other files to help troubleshoot your issue.
   • Safe Mode with Command Prompt:  This mode will also allow access to a command line (DOS prompt).
3. If asked if you really want to boot in safe mode, choose Yes.
4. Once booted into Safe Mode, open your antivirus program and run a complete virus scan.
5. To get out of Safe mode, restart your computer.

PC

Follow these instructions once you have logged on to a UWSP Windows 7 computer.

1. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard (located along the bottom row of keys with the "Windows Flag" on it)
2. While holding the Windows key, press the Pause key (located along the top row of keys)
3. See #4 below

OR

1. Click Start
2. Right Click on Computer
3. Click on Properties
4. Scroll down to the fourth group of information
5. Look for the Full Computer Name
    

Mac

1. Click the Apple icon in the top left corner of the display
2. Click System Preferences
3. Click Network
4. Click Advanced
5. Click the WINS tab. Your computer name is referred to here as the NetBIOS name.

Download a Class List

1. From the UWSP Portal (mypoint.uwsp.edu) click the Academics tab.
2. Click Class Lists located under the  Course and Student Information section. 
3. Logon with your UWSP logon name and password.
4. On the "Class Lists" web page, you will be asked for details regarding the class list you are seeking. By default the "term" is the current term, however, if you click the down arrow in this box, you can select other terms. Select the Term desired.
5. Select the Curriculum desired.
6. Select the course Number and the course Section number
7. Click the Find button.
8. This will produce a class list which will have a button at the top reading, "Click here to extract a delimited file via email." Click this item.
9. You will receive a confirmation message, which reads "Email of the class list information has been sent".
10. Click logoff (located in upper right corner)

Import a Class List to Excel

1. Open your Email/Outlook. You should see a message in your inbox from Registration Questions Comments. The Subject of the message should start out with "Class List For..."   This is the emailed class list.
2. Double-click to open the email class list
3. From the File menu select Save As...
4. In the Save As dialog box set the Save as Type field to "Text Only (*.txt)"  Make sure you remember where on your hard drive you saved this item (i.e., My Documents).
5. Open Microsoft Excel. 
6. From the Data tab in the Get External Data group select the From Text button.
7. In the Import Text File dialog box navigate to the file you just saved.  Highlight the file and click Import.
   
    
8. The Text Import Wizard will appear. Choose Delimited as the file type that best describes your data.
9. In the Start import at row: field, choose the first row that has student information.  In the example above, you would change the 1 to a 6.
10. Click Next.
    
     
11. Step two of the Text Import Wizard will appear.  Place a check next to Comma in the Delimiters section.
12. Click Next.
    
     
13. Step 3 of the Text Import Wizard will appear.  At this point you can decide what fields you want to import.  Most faculty import name and id number.  If you do not want to import a particular field, select the field and then choose the Do not import column (skip) radio button on the top right. 
14. Click Finish when you have completed your choices.
     
15. Select the cell to import the data into and click OK.
     
16. Save your file as an Excel Workbook.  From the Office button select Save As Excel Workbook.

Visit our equipment loan pages for more information.

No, Internet Service is included in your room fee.

No. Residential Living network services are provided only to students living in the University Residence Halls.

Yes, plug your gaming device into the campus network with an Ethernet Cable and you should be good to go.  If you prefer to use the wireless network for connecting, you will want to connect to the UWSPDEVICE Wireless network.  Please contact the Service Desk for the current password for the UWSPDEVICE Wireless network.

Visit our residence hall room connection pages for more information.

Information Technology does not block any gaming ports. Usually the reason you can't get games to work is due to too many programs trying to connect to the Internet at one time. Peer-to-peer (P2P) programs like Ares, KaZaA and LimeWire should be turned off before attempting to play games. Also, make sure to disable any wireless connections currently running, along with any firewalls installed on your computer. If available, visit the games website. This may provide you with game status information including the level of traffic on their servers. Try selecting a server that has a low level of traffic. Your device may be infected with a virus or malware. Try installing and scanning your computer with free anti-virus or ant-imalware software, such as Ad-Aware or SpyBot and use your best judgment in taking additional action. Or bring your computer to the Service Desk for additional assistance. You may also try reinstalling your network card drivers at your own risk.

File sharing has a huge affect on the speed of the campus network. File sharing slows the Internet down for everyone on campus, not to mention your own Internet connection. We believe that most of the file sharing occurs without the user's knowledge. Choose a relative file sharing tutorial below to help prevent unwanted file sharing.

Ares

Other P2P programs can be disabled a similar way.

In addition to this, it is recommended you limit how much bandwidth you allow it to use to share your files.

1. To do this, open Ares, click Control Panel and select Transfer.
2. Then uncheck the "Increase on Idle" checkbox.
3. In the box next to "upload(s) allowed at once" - press the down arrow button until it reaches 1. Under "upload(s) per user" - press the down arrow button until it also reaches 1. It is also helpful if you set the "Upload bandwidth" to 1 kb/s.

LimeWire

1. Identify if LimeWire is running on your system by looking for its icon at taskbar.  You may need to proceed to step 3 if LimeWire is not found running.
2. Stop LimeWire agent by right-clicking on the icon at taskbar and select Exit.
3. Uninstall LimeWire. Open Add/Remove Programs (on XP) or Programs and Features on Vista) located under Control Panel. Locate LimeWire and uninstall.
4. Check for remaining LimeWire folder(s).  You are required to remove copyrighted files you acquired using LimeWire. These files are usually stored, but not limited to, the Documents folder by default.
5. Restart your computer.

Bit Torrent

From a PC

1. Click the Start button
2. Click Control Panel. 
3. Click on Programs and Features icon
4. Select the program called BitTorrent and select the button to uninstall the program. Click Close or Finished after the uninstall is complete.

From a Mac

Drag the Bit Torrent application from the application folder to the trash.

eMule

1. Click Start
2. Control Panel
3. Programs and Features
4. Uninstall or Change a program
5. Locate emule in the list of installed programs.
6. Uninstall program by either right clicking on the eMule program or via the uninstall button near the top of the page. Click close or Finished after the uninstall is complete.

Information Technology does not endorse file sharing. File sharing slows the Internet connection down for everyone in the residence hall. Read the e-mail from Service Desk regarding our RIAA notice policy.

A pushed in port can be easily fixed by following these simple steps.

1. If your port is pushed in, it will look like this:

    

2. Use a flat screw driver or a butter knife to pop out the port.
   
3. Grab the triangular piece and you will see your network cable.

    

4. Grab your network cable and snap it back onto the triangular piece
   

5. Snap the triangular piece back on.
   

6. Your pushed in port is now fixed.
   

o. Having any kind of router is a violation of your Residential Living Network contract and may result in the loss of service.