Software

Oxford University IT Services manages a wide range of software university-wide site licenses. Please check the full list of site-licensed-software for details about the product you are interested in. Each software licensing agreement has its own specific details restricting use and availability.

• Some software can be downloaded free from Self-Registration.
• Some software can be purchased from the IT Services on-line shop.
• Some specialist software site licenses are managed by Departments. See lists below and software list on ITSS wiki.
• Most commonly used software can be self-deployed via the  Software Center  application which is available on all departmental Windows desktops and laptops.
• Software can also be remotely deployed onto Departmental computers by IT staff upon request via email to itsupport@materials.ox.ac.uk specifying your email address and phone number plus the hostname and IP address of the computer.

Please check whether IT staff already have the media before buying/ordering licences from the IT Services shop. Software to be installed on Department owned machines should generally be purchased with a department  requisition form, following the Department guidelines for purchasing, whereupon the finance office automatically add the SoftwareCardID to the purchase order. 

General software

• Operating systems - Linux users should seek advice from IT staff. Mac computers should always run either of the two latest versions. Windows computers should always run Windows 10 either of the four latest versions. For personal machines staff are entitled to one copy of Microsoft operating system from  IT Services shop under the Microsoft Campus agreement. Students are entitled to Microsoft education discounts for personal machines. Staff and students can also purchase discounted Microsoft products online - see download details.
• Word processing- Microsoft Office is freely available from IT staff for all department-owned machines. For personal machines staff and students are entitied to Office 365 Pro free on upto 5 devices downloadable after signin to office.com. The university operates a Microsoft Campus agreement. Open source alternatives like LibreOffice or Latex are not promoted since Microsoft Office is the standard across the department. If you want to use Latex try Openleaf rather than MikteX.
• Reference management - ask IT staff to install Endnote free on department-owned machines. For personal machines download endnote for free from Self-Registration. Alternatively use EndnoteWeb online or Refworks online for free. Some students also download freeware Mendelay or Zotero. Please read http://ox.libguides.com/reference-management.
• Web browsers - Microsoft Edge and  Internet explorer come with Windows however many people use alternative free web-browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.  See Comparison of web browsers.
• PDF software - for PDF creation and annotation, ask IT staff to install Nuance PDF Converter Pro (free on department-owned machines) or Acrobat Professional (costs money on department-owned machines).  Free PDF readers include Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader or Expert PDF Reader. MacOS has builtin PDF editor Preview.
• Images - For departmental windows computers IT staff install Corel Suite for free, however some users prefer to spend money at IT Services  shop on Adobe software such as Photoshop or Illustrator however the annual renewal and complex licensing is off-putting. Paid perpertual license software like https://affinity.serif.com might an alternative to Adobe software. Many users download freeware such as GIMP or Inkscape and IrfanView. Maybe also checkout DavinciResolve and some training from Lynda.  Programs for scanning probe microscope image manipulations include Gwyddion and  WSxM. For Electron Microscopy there is widespread use of Digital Micrograph now known as Gatan Microscopy Suite 3 (free version), also ImageJ or FiJi.  
• Graphing - Excel is widely available as part of Microsoft Office but Excel not ideal for graphs and data analysis. More powerful site-licensed software is freely available like Matlab for all platforms, or Origin for Windows.  For Mac Graphpad Prism licenses cost £30/year via MSD - discuss details with IT staff. Alternatively download freeware like QTI plot, Gnuplot.
• Computer Aided Design (CAD) - The department does not provide any licensed CAD software. The education community can download free software from Autodesk (e.g. Inventor Professional) or  Shapr3d. For 3D try Google Sketchup. For 2D try LibreCAD or Solid Edge Free2d. See Gizmo review of free CAD software or https://www.freecadweb.org/ for other suggestions. Some staff pay for TurboCAD.
• Mathematical - ask IT staff to install site-licensed software (see details below) like Mathematica or Matlab both of which are also licensed for personal use and are downloadable from Self-Registration.
• Anti-virus - all department-owned equipment has Sophos Antivirus installed by IT staff. Personally owned equipment must run antivirus software in order to be registered for the department network and usually this is also Sophos as per the antivirus instructions.
• Compilers - see separate page about getting compilers
• Encryption / Password protection - ask IT staff to configure Sophos to enforce Bitlocker(PC) or FileVault(Mac) encryption of computers, but files and folders can be password protected using 7-zip (PC) or  Keka (Mac)  (don't email the password - talk to the recipient verbally!)
• Miscellaneous - Mobaxterm, WinSCP, Cisco AnyConnect VPN, TSM Backup, FilezillaFTP, Notepad++

Specialist software

The following is a non-inclusive list of scientific software used in this Department. Contact itsupport@materials for more information.