Computing Services does not own a campus license for any of the Microsoft operating systems.  Therefore, departments requesting operating system upgrades must purchase a license before Computing Services can perform an upgrade.  Currently Windows XP is the supported operating system from Microsoft.  The following scenarios are supported:

Windows 2000 machines:

If a department or user requests that a Windows 2000 machine be upgraded to XP the machine should be verified that it will support this operating system.  If hardware is needed, it should be purchased first.  Computing Services can help in determining if a machine is capable of running XP.  Minimum hardware requirements are listed at the end of this document.  The department should also provide a license key for Windows XP.  Instructions for purchasing XP licenses are listed below. 

How to purchase Microsoft Windows XP Licenses:

UB Micro, a division of the State University of New York at Buffalo provides Microsoft Open Licenses.  To order licenses for Microsoft Windows XP, print out and fill in the UB Micro License Order Form then fax it to the number listed at the bottom of the form.  Remember to specify the quantity of licenses that are needed.  UB Micro will send you a confirmation and a license key for the number of copies purchased.  When you receive this key, Computing Services will then able to use this information to upgrade your system.

Minimum Hardware Requirements for Windows XP:

Processor - Pentium III 500Mhz or faster

Memory – 256MB or greater

Storage – 2GB free disk space on hard drive

Video – SVGA 800x600 or higher resolution