Course Software - Info For Student Computers

As a McCombs student you are required to have a notebook computer. Much of the software used in McCombs Business School courses is available for you to install on your own computer. The vast majority of this software is available to you for free from the software publisher or free to current students through some academic program. A handful of applications require you to purchase them, but they are still available at greatly reduced prices as long as you are a current student.

The applications listed below are the ones available to you to install on your own computer. Click the name of an application to go to that application's profile page. The profile page for each application explains where you can download the software or where you must purchase the software in few cases.it also lists where else the application is available for you to use without installing on your own computers.

If help pages exist to explain how to install or use the software, those will also be listed. If Lynda.com contains training videos related to the software, then that will be listed as well. Lynda.com is a professional online training company and university partner that provides business and software training for all current faculty, staff and students. For more information about Lynda.com please visit Lynda at McCombs.

A note about Mac Users and Virtual Machines

If you are a Mac user, you can still install Windows only software onto your computer if you first install a Windows VM. If you already have virtualization software installed and run a Windows VM, you should just use that. Otherwise, we recommend you install Oracle VirtualBox software. This software is free, and you can find out how to install it at our Installing VirtualBox wiki page.

McCombs Computer Services also distributes three different Windows VMs for students who do not want to create their own VM:

1. A Windows VM with Decision Tools and Excel 2010
2. A Windows VM with Decision Tools and Excel 2013
3. A Windows VM with Visual Studio and SQL Management Studio

These are minimal VMs designed to run specific applications. These VMs are distributed in OVA files that install the VMs into Oracle VirtualBox and other popular virtualization applications. For more information about obtaining these VMs please visit the Installing OVA files using VirtualBox wiki page.

mCloud Apps

You also have the option to run certain applications remotely from your own computer using mCloud Apps. The applications available on mCloud Apps include applications students need to use outside of class and fall into one or more of the following categories.

1. Applications that cannot be made available to students due to licensing or technical issues
2. Applications that are unavailable at all for Macintosh
3. Applications that are available but which may be difficult for students to install and use in certain circumstances.

If the application you need to use is available in mCloud Apps, then running it there would your best bet if you cannot install it on your own computer. You need to be aware of two caveats in using mCloud Apps.

For more information about using mCloud Apps, please visit the mCloud Apps wiki page.