UAB IT Announces VMWare Academic Program Access for UAB STEM Programs

The VMware Academic Program, provided as a service to the UAB STEM Community through UAB IT, accelerates instruction and research in the rapidly expanding area of virtualized infrastructure by providing faculty and students involved with science, technology, engineering, and math courses (STEM) with access to the virtualization technologies most widely used in commercial production environments. Access to the VMWare Academic Program is through an external webportal managed by UAB IT.  

For more information about the program guidelines/licensing and logon instructions click here.

The VMware Academic Program, provided as a service to the UAB STEM Community through UAB IT, accelerates instruction and research in the rapidly expanding area of virtualized infrastructure by providing faculty and students involved with science, technology, engineering, and math courses (STEM) with access to the virtualization technologies most widely used in commercial production environments.

• STEM Faculty can use VMware software under specific usage guidelines in a variety of areas of academic research and classroom instruction.
• STEM Students can use this software free of charge for one year with yearly renewals as part of qualified coursework or research projects.

Office 2013 is now available only for download by TIMGroup members only.

Office 2013 Install Guide

UAB IT provides licensing for home-use of certain Microsoft products under our Campus Agreement. In addtion to continuing availability of Microsoft Office and Windows products through the B&N UAB Bookstore, students/faculty/staff can now download these and more Microsoft products online. 

Direct link to the online store: http://uab.onthehub.com (login with your BlazerID and password). This online site also provides download availability to home-use Adobe products. Certain home-use Adobe products also continue to be available at the B&N UAB Bookstore.

For more information about the Microsoft products available under UAB's Campus Agreement click here. 

Compatibility testing of Microsoft 2013 is underway.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013

Office Professional Plus 2013 includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher and Lync and will be the version available to UAB under our Microsoft Campus Agreement when released to Campus.

UAB IT is testing Microsoft Office 2013 to determine its compatibility with applications and systems deployed in the UAB environment. Current testing includes Office 2013’s compatibility with the following:

• Adobe Acrobat
• EndNote
• I>clicker
• Turning Point

In addition to UAB IT’s testing, we request that your department conduct its own testing of Office 2013 with applications and systems that are unique to your environment. This week we will release Office 2013 to TIMGroup for testing purposes. Please report your application compatibility results to Sterling Griffin ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) once your testing is complete. Also include a list of any applications you use that interact with Office.

Until the testing and evaluation of Office 2013 is complete, UAB IT is not recommending it for mass deployment.

You may download Office 2013 from the UAB IT software site HERE.  An install guide is available.  (Office 2013 is available for download to TIMGroup members only.)

Deployment: (with SkyDrive disabled when using Office 2013)

UAB IT will post on the download site 2 versions of the ISO.

1. As delivered from Microsoft.
2. With the registry key to disable SkyDrive in a transform file

Office 2013 uses Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud-based file-hosting service. We recommend disabling SkyDrive at this time. This can be accomplished in two ways: Using the Registry Editor and using the Group Policy Editor.

• Disabling SkyDrive by using the Registry Editor
  • • Launch the Registry Editor by opening the Run dialog box and entering regedit.
    • When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\SignIn.
    • If the SignIn key doesn’t exist, create it by right-clicking on Common à New à Key à SignIn.
    • In the right pane of the SignIn key, create a new DWORD value named SignInOptions.
    • Double-click on SignInOptions and change its value to 3. To restore SkyDrive functionality, simply set the SignInOptions value to 0.
• Disabling SkyDrive by using the Group Policy Editor
  • To use this method, you need to install the Office 2013 Administrative Templates. If you don’t have these templates, download them from the Microsoft Downloads Web site and install them.
  • Once the Administrative Templates are installed, open the Run dialog box and enter gpedit.msc to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
  • Now that you’re in the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate down the tree to User Configuration à Administrative Templates à Microsoft Office 2013 à Miscellaneous.
  • Find the “Block signing into Office” option in the list of settings and double-click it.
  • In the Properties window, click “Enable” and select the option “None Allowed.”

Windows Systems

•Upgrade to Windows 7

A large-scale project is underway to upgrade all university-owned computers on the UAB campus to Windows 7 by April 8, 2014. At that time, Microsoft will cease its support for Windows XP, which has been the operating system primarily used by UAB computers in recent years. As a result of Microsoft no longer supporting this operating system, XP computers will no longer receive security updates. This creates a greater chance of XP computers being infected by viruses or compromised by malware.

This leaves one budget cycle to accomplish funding of this project. Upgrading to Windows 7 for any system needing network connectivity should be completed by April 2014.

• Install IE 9 and the most recently released version of JAVA

We are updating our minimum recommendations for versions of Internet Explorer and Java as UAB systems have improved functionality to support newer browsers and the currently secure version of Java. Internet Explorer 9 and Java (latest release) are recommended for installation on Windows 7 systems.

• Windows 8 not currently recommended for use

As XP fades away, Microsoft has rolled out its newest operating system, Windows 8. The transition from XP has prompted some users to ask why IT doesn’t upgrade to Windows 8 instead of Windows 7. The answer is that Windows 8 is currently not recommended for widespread use in the UAB environment due to the following reasons:

• Currently, not all of UAB’s business systems support Internet Explorer 10, the minimum version of IE used by Windows 8.
• Windows 8 introduces management changes that IT is not yet ready to address.
• Windows 8 is best used on hardware that is specifically made for Windows 8, such as touchscreen displays or touchpads. Other than the touchscreen/touchpad functionality, Windows 8 possesses similar functionality to Windows 7 from an end user’s point of view.
• PGP (UAB’s approved laptop encryption tool) is not supported on Windows 8 laptops. A recommended alternative is Microsoft’s Bitlocker product. (See Bitlocker with windows 8 for more information)

Current users of MATLAB are required to UPDATE the current license on their desktop before Feb 1, 2013. To update MATLAB, open MATLAB and do following:

• click on Help and then Licensing and then UPDATE.  
• MATLAB will take a couple minutes to connect to the MATLAB License center and download an update license file to the users desktop.

For more information on MATLAB see http://www.uab.edu/it/home/component/k2/item/306-matlab.

Microsoft Dreamspark Premium is now available to all UAB STEM programs at no cost. The Dreamspark program supports technical education by providing access to Microsoft software for learning, teaching and research purposes for faculty & students engaged in a STEM program (science, technology, engineering, math). UAB will be working to make a limited selection of products available to non-STEM programs, but current access to the Dreamspark products is for STEM programs only. For more guidelines on the appropriate rights for installation and use of products under the Dreamspark program click here.

According to Microsoft "DreamSpark is simple: it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and designer tools at no cost so that students can chase their dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on their career."  While most of the software is free, some items are at a small cost and if ordered you must provide a valid form of payment.  However, those fee-based products should not be required as part of any course at UAB.

DreamSpark helps educators teach the latest technologies and experiment in research. To make learning more motivating, relevant, and engaging for today's students requires a diverse set of resources. DreamSpark gives educators the resources to ensure their classrooms always have the latest technologies to challenges, motivate, and keep students engaged in new ways.

Access to the Dreamspark program is through an external webportal managed by UAB IT.  Login using your BlazerID and strong password (don't worry, the authentication takes place using a secure connection back to UAB...your password is never provided to the external website).

NOTE: While anyone with a valid BlazerID can login to the Dreamspark site, only those students and faculty engaged in a STEM program are currently authorized to order/download any software.  Your ability to participate in the program is based on the information UAB passes to Dreamspark during the login process.

For more guidelines on the appropriate rights for installation and use of products under the Dreamspark program click here.

Step 1: Get Started Here >>> Order Now - DREAMSPARK Website (see instructions below...login using Single-Sign-on option)

Step 2: Click Sign-in (top right)

Step 3: Sign In using your BlazerID via Single Sign-On (box on the left)

With the change to SAS and SPSS Campus Wide licenses you will no longer receive email renewal notices. However, each product must be updated with a new license key or updated to the newest version each year.  The software and/or license key is free to full-time faculty, staff and students and is available on the IT Software Library page at https://wwwsd.it.uab.edu/sdwnld. The licenses/subscriptions renew as follows:

SPSS November 30th of every year. 

SAS September 30th but with a 90 day grace period will cease to function on December 31st. 

Upgrades (to the latest version) and/or renewal (of the previous version) will be available on the IT Software Library page by October 30th of every year.

If you have any questions regarding this renewal and/or software, please go online to www.uab.edu/askit and submit your question(s) or request.