IT equipment and apps

1. Essential equipment

To participate fully on this course, we strongly recommend you use a desktop or laptop computer, rather than a tablet or phone. If you have a Windows computer which has at least the following specifications, you should be able to use all the services you need:

• Operating system: Windows 10 or later
• Processor: Intel® i5 or equivalent (CPU)
• Memory: 8 GB or more (RAM)
• File storage: 256 GB or more SSD
• Full HD screen

If you have a Mac with similar specifications, you will be able to use all the essential software described below, but you may find some extra software is not available for Macs.

To find out how to check the specifications of your computer, see section 4 below.

2. Essential software/apps

Most of the software you need for your studies will be provided for you. When you enrol online you will have access to a university Office 365 account. Your Office 365 account provides you with

• OneDrive secure cloud storage (somewhere safe to keep your documents that you can access 24/7 from anywhere with an internet connection),
• All the Microsoft Office apps online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more)
• Microsoft Teams (it’s like Zoom, you’ll use it for online meetings and tutorials)
• Email and an online calendar (you will have a university email address that you must check regularly)
• SharePoint for your school website
• The Microsoft Office apps to download and use on your own computer

If some of the terms above are unfamiliar, don’t worry, we will tell you more about Office 365 later. The important message here is that this essential software will be provided or you. You don’t need to buy it.

3. What you need to know about web browsers

What a web browser does

A web browser is an app you use to access content on the internet. When you click on a link, or enter an internet address, your web browser will go and find the web page, picture, or other type of content, and display it on your device.

The most common examples of web browsers are:

• Microsoft Edge – the default browser for Windows computers
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari – the default browser for Apple devices, (Mac computers, iPhones and iPads)
• Google Chrome – the default browser for Google Chrome books and Android mobile devices.
• Internet Explorer – this is a very old browser that doesn’t work on most systems. It was replaced by Microsoft Edge.

It is most likely that your computer will have come with a web browser ready for you to use. However, you are likely to need more than one web browser because different web browsers have different strengths. For example,

• We recommend either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to access My Studies our virtual learning environment. Safari does not work well with My Studies.
• We recommend either Google Chrome or  Microsoft Edge for working with Office 365

4. How do I check the specifications of my computer?

Windows computers

1. Click or tap the Start menu (looks like a tiny window, usually in the bottom left corner of your screen
2. In the search box, type the words System Information
3. You’ll see a whole long list of technical information. You can ignore most of it.
4. Look for ‘OS Name‘. this tells you which operating System you are using. The example image shows Windows 10.
5. Next look for ‘Processor‘. You are looking for an i5 processor or better. The example picture shows an i7 processor, which is better.
6. Note that the System type shown in the example image is an ‘X64 based PC’. This tells me I have a 64 bit computer. Sometimes when you are installing software you need to know whether you have a 32 bit or 64 bit computer.
7. Next look for ‘Installed Physical memory’ (RAM). You need at least 8GB. The example image shows 32 GB.
8. To check your file storage, Select the Start menu again
9. Select the tiny gear cog – the icon for the Settings menu
10. Select System from the list of Settings
11. Select Storage. The example image shows total storage of 953 GB with 253 GB used up and 700 GB free.

See Study set-up (brighton.ac.uk) for the university’s current guidance on computer requirements.

Mac computers

1. Click the Apple icon in the top left corner of your Mac
2. This will open a drop-down menu
3. Select the first option ‘About this Mac‘
4. This will open a window which shows you what type of processor you have. The example image has an Intel i5 processor.
5. You can check memory (RAM) from the same window. The example image shows 8GB of memory
6. To check file storage, select the Storage tab at the top of this window.