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IT Help and Support

University Information Services
 
The Managed Cluster Service (MCS) closed on 1 August 2023. From this date MCS Windows, macOS and Linux computers were disabled. Many MCS sites migrated to the University Managed Desktop (UMD) service during the summer of 2023. Access to supporting services such as DS-FileStore and DS-Print were not affected by the MCS closure.

The current operating system on MCS machines is Windows®10. This page was last updated 5 October 2020.

Please note that the move to Windows 10 has meant that the category menu structure that was available under Windows 7 has disappeared. Some applications will be listed by their application name while others will be listed under the manufacturer name.

If you know the application name then please use the Find field. We have kept the menu structure on these web pages but also included the name under which you will find it. eg Sibelius is Music but listed under company name of Avid.

Many applications are available at all sites; however, a few teaching applications are site-specific, and some are available at UIS sites, but not at all managed cluster sites. Availability at a site is dependent on licence arrangements. Site codes are used where there is restricted availability of an application.

[1] UIS pool of licences floated across all cluster sites
[2] Licensed by individual institutions
[3] Limited availability - UIS rooms and cluster sites on request
[4] Stem Departments: CH, CL, MA, ML, PH

The menu structure layout is similar to standard Microsoft® menu - our main menu is found under All Programs. 

Other menu items may be visible such as Adobe applications and SMART Technologies when hardware is detected.

 

Accessories

All applications under this menu heading are part of the Windows OS.

Application MCS Folder Comments
Calculator    
Calculator Plus Microsoft >  
Character Map Windows Accessories >  
Command Prompt Windows System >  
Connect to a Nearest Printer    
Cortana   Online Help
Get Help   Microsoft Help
Maps   Windows Maps
Math Input Panel Windows Accessories >  
McAfee Endpoint Security   On-access Scan, On-Demand Scan, Virus Scan Console
Media Center    
Notepad Window Accessories >  
Notepad++ Windows Accessories >  
Paint 3D   Create and paint 3D objects
Remote Desktop Connection Windows Accessories > Connect to another computer
Snipping Tool Windows Accessories >  
Steps Recorder Windows Accessories >  
Sticky Notes    
Text Size Changer Windows Accessories  
Windows DVD Maker    
Windows Fax and Scan Windows Accessories >  
WordPad Windows Accessories >  
System Tools > Windows Adminitrative Tools > Character Map, Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, Internet Explorer (no-add-ons) Resource Monitor, System Information, System Restore, Task Scheduler, Windows Easy Transfer Reports, Windows Easy Transfer
Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell including x86, ISE and ISE (x86) versions
Zoomit Windows Accessories >  

Account Management

Application Version Comments
DS-Filestore Quota    
DS-Print Balance    
DS-Print eCredit    
Manage Password    

MCS Help

Webpage with links to the most common queries regarding use of the MCS.

All applications within each menu category below are listed alphabetically. Directories are found at the end of the menu and indicated by ">".

Assistive Technology

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Anki Anki > 2.1.18

Create your own flash cards to help memorise information

Anki

Built-in Ease of Access tools Windows Ease of Access >  

Magnifier, Narrator, On-screen keyboard, Windows speech recognition

Microsoft Accessibility

MindView MatchWare > 6

Mind Mapping software

MindView

Natural Reader Natural Reader > 15

Text to Speech Reader.

Also available as an online reader.

NaturalReader

TextHelp Read & Write TextHelp > 11

[1], deployed to nominated PCs in institutions on request.

Texthelp Read & Write

Workrave Workrave > 1.10

Time management app that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury.

Workrave

ATBar for Windows ATBar > 1.0.0.0

Text to Speech Reader which supports colour overlay.

Also available as an Open-source cross-browser toolbar to help users customise the way they view and interact with webpages.

ATBar

Microsoft TellMe Microsoft > Office applications suite eg: Office Excel 2016

Microsoft TellMe is built into the Microsoft Office applications suite which allows you to undertake quick tasks within the Microsoft Office applications suite.

Microsoft TellMe

Windows Voice Recorder Voice Recorder 10.0.17134.376

Record sounds, lectures, interviews and other events. Mark key moments as you record, edit or play them back.

Voice Recorder

Database Packages

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Access Microsoft > 2016  
ArcGIS ESRI > 10.5.1 [2], ArcGIS Globe, ArcGIS Map, ArcGIS ArcScene; OS MasterMap Modules [3], AR, ED, ENG, GE, LE; available at Colleges on request
AutoCad 2018 AutoDesk > AutoCAD 2018, AutoCad Map 3D & Help, AutoDesk Recap, Batch Standards Checker, Reference Manager & other modules
EndNote Thomson Reuters > X8 [1]; EndNote Help
LibreOffice Base LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
Mendeley Desktop Mendeley > 1.19.2 Reference manager
QGis QGIS > 2.18.24 GRASS GIS 7.4.1; QGIS Desktop; QT Designer; SAGA GIS
Zotero Zotero > 4.0.29 Install Firefox and Word Plugin (v5.0.55), Standalone

Email and Messaging

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Exchange Online Webmail    
Hermes Webmail     University email
Thunderbird Mozilla > 60.0  

Graphics and Presentation

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Adobe Connect Adobe 201_7_10  
Blender Blender > 2.49b  
CorelDraw Graphics CorelDRAW > X6 [1] Corel CAPTURE, PHOTO-PAINT, Duplexing Wizard, Video Tutorials
Drishti Drishti > 2.6.1. & 2.6.3 for visualising tomography & electron-microscopy data, Drishti Import; Drishti Paint
FastStone FastStone > 3.6 Faststone Help, Image Viewer & Image Viewer Help, Photo Resizer
GIMP 2 GIMP > 2.10.10 GNU Image Manipulation Program
Google Earth Pro Google > 7.1.5  
Google SketchUp Google > 8  
Illustrator Adobe > 2019 [2], AR, CC, GE, GT & PHX TR2
ImageJ ImageJ > 1.52r  
Inkscape Inkscape > 0.48.3.1  
LEGO Digital Design LEGO Company > 4.3 LEGO Digital Designer, LEGO Digital Designer Manual, LEGO Digital Designer Read Me
LibreOffice Draw LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
LibreOffice Impress LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
LTspice   XVII  
Movie Maker Microsoft > 2016  
Omero Omero > 5.2.4 AR, Microscope images supported
Origin   2020  
Origin Viewer   2020  
Paint.Net Paint.NET > 4.0.1  
Photoshop Adobe > 2019 Phx TR2
PowerPoint Microsoft > 2016  
Subtitle Workshop Subtitle Workshop > 6.0b  
Visio Microsoft > 2016 Requires institutional licence - on demand

Multimedia and Music

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Aegisub Aegisub > 3.2.2 Editor for timing subtitles to audio; ASSDRAW 3;
Audacity Audacity > 2.2.2 Audio editor and recording
AudioScore Lite Avid >   Part of Sibelius Ultimate
Avidemux Avidemux > 2.6.21 Avidemux Job Control, AVS Proxy GUI 2.6; alternative to MovieMaker
ForeVid ForeVid >   Allows forensics analysis
iTunes      
MuseScore MuseScore > 2.3.1  
OBS Studio OSB Studio > 21.1.2 32-bit & 64-bit versions available
PhotoScore NoteMe Lite Avid >   Part of Sibelius Ultimate
Sibelius Avid > 8 Ultimate UIS Teaching Rooms, Music, Colleges
VLC Media Player      
Windows Media Player Windows Accessories >    

Network Tools

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Cisco Cisco >   UIS Teaching Rooms, Jabber [3]
NX Client NX Client > 3.5.0-9 NX Client, NX Connection Wizard, NX Session Administrator
Pageant PuTTY >   Key holder for PuTTy
PuTTY (Secure Telnet) to Hermes PuTTY >    
PuTTY (Secure Telnet) to Remote MCS Linux Server PuTTY >    
PuTTY (Secure Telnet> PuTTY > 0.60 Telnet client with ssh

Programming and Scripting

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Eclipse Eclipse > 3.+ Eclipse IDE, Eclipse SDK
Git Git > 1.7.10 includes Git Bash, Git GUI
HyperSpy HyperSpy > 0.8.2 HyperSpy Notebook, HyperSpy Qt Console, HyperSpy
Jet Brains   2016  
MySQL MySQL >   UIS Teaching Rooms rooms only
node.js   4.0.0 runtime environment for developing server-side web applications
Notepad++ windows Accessories > 6.6.8+  
Octave Octave > 3.8.1 Octave, Octave-GUI (beta), Octave Readme
Perl Perl > 5.18.2  
PolyML PolyML >    
Python Anaconda > 2.7 & 3.6 Python 2.7 & 3.6 Cloud; 2.7 & 3.6 iPython; 2.7 & 3.6 Jupyter Console; Navigator, Prompt; Spyder 2.7 & 3.6, Reset Spyder settings
Visual Studio Microsoft > 2017 Instiutional licensing needed to deploy on demand

Spreadsheets, Maths and Statistics

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
AMOS IBM > 25 [1], File manager, Graphics, Language, Program Editor, Seed Manager, Text Output, View Data; use with SPSS
Comprehensive Meta Analysis Biostat 2 [3], TTR 1 & 2Available at sites on request
DARwin DARwin > 6.0.614 Dissimilarity Analysis
Eviews IHS > 10 [2], EC, [3], available at colleges on request
Excel Microsoft > 2016  
GeoGebra   4.2  
Gnuplot gnuplot > 4.7.0 gnuplot console, gnuplot
JAGS JAGS 4.3.0 program for analysing Bayesian hierarchical models
JASP JASP > 0.8.1.2 graphical program for statistical analysis
LibreOffice Calc LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
LibreOffice Math LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
Mathematica Wolfram > 12 [1], available in colleges & CS Rooms; [2], CH,CL,EC,GE,MA,PH; Mathematica II Kernal, Mathematica, Wolfram Workbench
MatLab   R2020a [1] colleges & UIS Teaching Rooms; [3], CL, EC, GE, MA
Scapetoad Choros > 1.1  
R Statistical Data Analysis R > 3.5.1  
R Studio R > 3.5.1  
SPSS IBM > 25 [1], SPSS 24 Statistics, SPSS SmartViewer 15
Stata IC   15.1 [1]
Stata MP   16 Available at School of HSS MCS rooms
WinBUGS WinBUGS > 1.4.3  

Teaching Packages

Most of these applications are supported by the institution for whose use they are provided and may be available at specific sites only; or are freely available across the MCS; (see site codes at the bottom of this page). ">" indicates a directory heading.

Please Note:The Department > Application(s) directory structure is being deprecated. The folder name is annotated with > and given in bold where it differs from application name.

 

Institution Comments
Archaeology GDAL > GDAL Tools, Mapserver Tools; MEGA-X, Network 5; OxCal > OxCal, Tree > Beast2, Densitree, FigTree, Tracer
Biological Anthropology FLIR Systems > FLIRTools; Morphj > MorphoJ, Morphologika > Morphologika, Pajek > Pajek, PajekXXL; Past > Past.
Catam Mathworks > MatLab R2016a, R > R Statistical Data Analysis 3.3.1
Chemical Engineering &Biotechnology Icy > Icy
Chemistry Avogardo; Perkin Elmer > ChemOffice Pro 18.2; CCDC > Cambridge Structural Database; HyperCube > Hyperchem 8.0 & manual;
Classics Diogenes > Diogenes 3.1 - not all the databases will be available
Computer Science & Technology Microsoft > Project 2016, Visual Studio 2016, Visio 2016, Prolog > Prolog
Economics IHS > Eviews; StataMP, OxMetrics 7
Education > Alice, BlockCAD, GPower, Scratch, Whiteboard Active modules; Geogebra; Nvivo 12; Zotero > Install Firefox and Word Plugin; Standalone version)
Engineering > CES EduPack 2019; Linear >LTspice; PTC > Creo modules
English Literature & Latte > Scrivener
Geography > Pisces > CAP 4 & manual, ECOM II & manual, ImageJ, Introduction to Multivariate Statistics, MultiSpec, OpenGeoDa, SaTScan, Species Diversity & Richness, Blender > Blender, Harris > ENVI 4.3 (with IDL 6.3.)> iTools >, Hexagon > ERDAS Imagine 2016, Choros > ScapeToad 1.1, Northwestern CCL > 3D Netlogo 6.0.4, Netlogo 6.0.4.
SSRMC > Biostat > Comprehensive Meta Analysis
MML > Cert in Computing > Online Resources in French, German > Italian; Linguistics > CorpusSearch, Praat, WordNet 2.1, WordNet 3.0 (online), British National Corpus, Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English; Spanish >
Vet School > VE only
Zoology R > R Statistical Data Analysis 3.5.1

Utilities

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
7-Zip 7Zip > 9.2  
Adobe Acrobat Distiller Adobe > X create PDFs
Adobe Acrobat Pro Adobe > X [2], PHX 2 - edit PDFs
Acrobat Reader DC Adobe > X open and read a PDF
Cygwin   2 Terminal, XWin Server
DOSBox      
Dropbox Dropbox >   Dropbox Business - University, Dropbox
DS-Filestore Quota Account Management >   Check filespace usage
DS-Print Balance Account Management >   Check your print balance
DS-Print eCredit Account Management >   Add credit for printing
Ghostscript Ghostscript >    
Office Language Preferences   2016 [2]
OneDrive Microsoft > 2016 OneDrive File View, OneDrive How to use on MCS Windows, OneDrive Web View
OneNote Microsoft > 2016 [2]

Web Browsing

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Adobe Reader DC Adobe > 11.0.08 PDF viewer
Cambridge University on iTunesU      
Firefox Mozilla > 61.0.2  
Google Chrome Google > 44  
Internet Explorer   11  
Library Catalogue (Newton) Library >   URL to University Library Catalogue
Library Home Page Library >   URL to University Library
Reaxys Reaxys >    

Web Design

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Dreamweaver Adobe > 2019 [2], HTML tool
Webstorm JetBrains >   IDE fr Java script, CSS & HTML

Word and Text Processing

Application MCS Folder Version Comments
Adobe Acrobat Distiller DC Adobe > X [1], create and edit PDFs
Aegisub Aegisub > 3.2.2 editor for timing subtitles to audio; ASSDraw 3;
Atlas_ti Atlas.ti > 8.4.20 [1]
Colemak Keyboard Colemak >   Exit using toolbar icon
EMACS EMACS > 24.3.1 EMACS - GUI mode, EMACS - tty mode
EndNote Thomson Reuters > X8 [1], EndNote Help
gedit Gedit > 2.30.2  
gVim Softonic > 7  
InDesign Adobe > 2019 [2], UIS PHXTR 2
Juxta Juxta >    
Language Preferences Microsoft >    
LibreOffice Writer LibreOffice > 6.1.0.3  
Nvivo   12 [1]
On-screen Keyboard Windows Ease of Access >  
Publisher Microsoft 2016  
Word Microsoft > 2016  
Tex and LaTeX TeX and LaTeX >   including LyX 2.2.0, TeXLive 2016 modules, Texmaker, TeXnicCenter, TeXstudio 2.11.0,

Peripheral Hardware Packages

The menu is created dynamically on a workstation if peripheral hardware such as a scanner or smartboard is detected.

Application Version Comments
Epson Scan    
Epson V500 Scanner Software    
Smart Notebook v11  

Browser Plugins

The following browser plugins are available:

Application Version Comments
Adobe Flash Player 18.0 Firefox, IE
     
Chem3D 4.0 CH
ChemDraw 6.0 CH
Citrix ICA Client 10.200 Firefox
iTunes Application Detector 1.0.1.1 Firefox
Java 6.23 Firefox, IE
Java Development Toolkit 6.0.230.5 FireFox, IE
RealPlayer (TM) 12.0.1.609 Firefox, IE
SciFinder Application 1.0.0.1 Firefox
SciFinder Scholar 4.0.3116 IE
Scorch 6.2.0.88 Firefox, used with Sibelius
Shockwave Player 11  
Windows Media Player 11.0.572 Firefox, IE

Site Codes

  AR  Department of Archaeology
 CC Clare College
 CH Department of Chemistry
 ED Faculty of Education
 EN Department of Engineering
 GE Department of Geography
 GT Gates Trust
 MA Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
 MML Modern and Medieval Languages
 VE Vet School