Office 365 Pro Plus

The University of West Georgia, in coordination with Microsoft, is now offering Office 365 Pro Plus to all currently enrolled, active students for free. This includes the latest version of the Microsoft Office Suite for up to 5 Windows or Mac computers as well as the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for up to 5 mobile devices on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. In addition to Microsoft Office, students also have access to UNLIMITED online storage via Microsoft's OneDrive.

To log in to your account, follow this link and sign in with your UWG email address and password.

(Attention: when downloading for a Windows PC, we recommend downloading the 32-bit version which is preset as the default option. You can find out which version of Windows you have by pressing the windows key and the pause button on your keyboard simultaneously and then reading across the line that says "System Type". )

For any issues regarding the Office 365 portal page or downloads, please contact our Office 365 support team at uwgoffice365@westga.edu.

Windows 8/8.1 User Bulletin

If you are a student that purchased your PC with Windows 8 pre-installed on it, and you did not get a Windows 8 recovery DVD or activation key with your PC, this message is for you!

Due to the possibility of a complete hard drive (HD) failure, PC owners of the aforementioned need to take action to guard against loss of their operating system. If your HD fails, and you have not taken the measures spelled out in this bulletin, you may have to re-purchase a copy of Windows 8 to re-install on a new HD. So, to avoid this issue and/or the hassle of contacting the maker of your PC to send you a Windows 8 install disc, please take the following actions.

Most PC makers these days divide your HD into two parts. The first part is a restore/recovery partition. This partition is usually hidden from view and has everything you need to restore Windows 8 to its original state. The second partition is where the OS is actually installed and also where your personal files are saved. The problem with this scenario is if you did not take the time to create a restore DVD in cased of HD failure when you first got your PC out the box, then you are at risk.

So, how is this done? Windows has utilities to help you to be prepared when that rainy day comes. First you are going to need either an external HD to hold the restore/recovery image or a DVD burner on your system so you can store one of these images on DVD. I recommend taking a Windows image over taking an image of the recovery partition. This is because a full Windows image includes all of your installed programs, files, and settings. Restoring a windows image puts your system right back to where it was when you took the image. Whereas, an image of the restore/recovery partition will let you install your system as fresh pre-purchased state. Then, you have to reinstall all programs, re-do your setting, and hopefully copy back you files (if you able to get them off the bad HD). Next, you will need a jump drive (USB drive) of at least 512mb in size. This will become your restore drive. You will use it to boot your system so that you can use the saved image from the external HD or DVD to re-image your new HD. Now if this seems to be a little over your head don’t worry; the SITS office can help you with this. All you have to do is provide all items to SITS and they can do it for you.

If you want to do it yourself here’s how. Go to the control panel and click File History (you may have to show large icons to see it). Down at the bottom on the left side you will see “system image backup.” This is where you go to create a windows image. On the next screen you pick where want the image to be saved to: i.e., USB drive, external HD, or DVD. One note: if you and going to burn DVD’s you will have to format them first before getting to this point. Once you pick the location, it will start making the image. Once done, you are good to go. However, you should go ahead and make a “Recovery Drive” as well. This drive allows you to boot the system and re-image your drive or start a restore from the recovery partition or drive. This is where that 512mb flash drive comes into play. To start the process, do a start screen search for “create a recovery drive. You will note this is where you go to save your HD recovery partition as well. But, to create the recovery drive, leave that option unchecked and click next. Pick your jump drive and it will do the rest. So, there you have it. Now you are covered.

One final note: if you are using an external HD to store your windows image, we still recommend you burn that image on to a set of DVD’s for safe keeping.