The University is participating in the Microsoft DreamSpark program, which offers students the option to download Microsoft developer software and designer tools free of charge.

Design, develop, and maintain Web sites and Web applications with Adobe Dreamweaver.

Search online bibliographic databases; organize references, images and PDFs in any language; and create bibliographies and figure lists instantly.

Firefox is a popular, standards-compliant Web browser. Like Internet Explorer and Safari, it can be used to connect to Web-based campus systems such as NetFiles, WebVista, myU, Web-based E-mail, and UMCal.

Adobe Flash software is used to design and deliver low-bandwidth animations, presentations, and Web sites.

HostExplorer is a full featured PC-to-host and Web-to-host terminal emulation solution that provides connections from a desktop to enterprise hosts.

iTunes is a free application for your Mac or PC that enables you to organizes and play your digital music and video on your computer, sync all your media with your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV, and access the iTunes store with your computer, iPod touch, iPhone, and Apple TV.

See Ordering & Details tab to learn about iTunesU.

The University of Minnesota holds numerous Microsoft Licenses.  Choose your Campus, then your User License Type to see what license options are available to you or to your department.

The NetFiles service is a secure online file storage and collaboration solution that is accessible using a Web browser or, for faculty and staff only, a desktop client. The software is based on the Digital Locker Suite from Xythos Software.

Microsoft Office is a suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers, and services. Office for Windows suite includes Access, Communicator, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, OneNote, Outlook, and Word.  Office for Mac suite includes Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word.

PuTTY is a SSH and Telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. PuTTY is open source software that is available with source code and is developed and supported by a group of volunteers.

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides the powerful tools you need to deliver compelling and attractive SharePoint sites and quickly build workflow-enabled applications and reporting tools on the SharePoint platform, all in an IT-managed environment.

SharePoint Server is a software platform for collaboration and web publishing that combines a number of capabilities under a single server. These capabilities include portal, content management system, business intelligence, search, wikis, blogs and application development. It allows users to perform a number of common tasks, such as publishing a web site or intranet, searching for content, managing content, or creating applications, but without having to install one separate server for each function.

SnapperMail is wireless e-mail for PalmOS handhelds.

Student or audience response systems are wireless devices used for interactive polling in face-to-face situations, such as large lectures and classroom sessions.

The University of Minnesota provides common-good e-mail accounts to all eligible students, staff, and faculty, as well as two e-mail services: Gophermail and Gmail. Both enable users to send and receive e-mail through Web-based and desktop clients. Mozilla Thunderbird is the recommended desktop client.

UMChat is an instant messaging (IM) service that enables University of Minnesota faculty, staff, and students to exchange messages on the Internet in real time.

UMContent is an enterprise Web-content-management system that enables technical staff to design and develop sophisticated Web sites and non-technical staff to create and manage the content.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) enables you to create secure connections to remote networks using a protected, individual tunnel to that network.

WinZip software "compresses" large files into smaller files for transfer over a network or for storage.

X-Win32 server software connects Windows PCs with UNIX servers (including Sun Solaris, HP/UX, IBM AIX, SCO, and FreeBSD) and with Linux machines running Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, and other distributions of Linux. Our contract covers access to download, install any/all: X-Win32, X-Win32FLASH, MacLIVE, LinuxLIVE. Please remember that each installation of the X-Win32 software requires a license.