Winter updates for staff from the IT Service

We hope everyone had a relaxing winter break ready for the year ahead. Here are some important updates we wanted to make staff aware of that will take place over the coming weeks:

Changes to accessing the N: & O: drives remotely: To maintain strong cyber security protection to the University estate we’ll be switching off a legacy technology which is no longer secure that you may have heard us refer to before called WebDAV. This will take place on February 1st. Doing so will mean that staff attempting to access the N: or O: drives when not connected to the University’s wired or Corporate@UW wireless networks will need Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to do so.  Whilst many staff already have this access, those who don’t who wish to continue accessing these drives remotely can request it by submitting a request on the IT Service Desk Portal found here.

Microsoft Teams chat removal: To save on long term storage costs, maintain structured data retention and minimise the University’s carbon footprint, UEB have approved for chat messages in Microsoft Teams individual and group chats to be deleted after 90 days. This will not affect files, or chats that are stored in Teams sites. 

Microsoft Teams latest version: Please be aware that Microsoft are now pushing an updated version of Teams out to devices, so don’t be surprised if you find Teams looking a little different when you switch on your computer in the coming weeks. Some staff will have seen this new interface if they have already chosen to switch over to it manually when prompted. The updated version changes the appearance of some features and the layout of some tabs but is fundamentally the same program you are familiar with.

Reminder – Windows 11 rollout: A reminder that staff can now download and install Windows 11 for their assigned University computer.  Windows 11 has been available for sufficient time now that it can be considered a stable and worthwhile upgrade to Windows 10. Its deployment ensures that our staff and students are working and studying at the forefront of Microsoft’s release cycle. Full guidance on how to upgrade and things to consider regarding this process can be found on our website post here. Not all machines have a sufficient hardware specification to receive the new operating system. Should this be the case, we can advise on next steps, which might include keeping the machine on Windows 10 until such time that an upgrade is possible.

Upcoming works: The IT Service will be comprehensibly refreshing its network security infrastructure including our firewalls throughout January to help ensure University data is kept safe and secure. 

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