CISE Help & Resources

CISE PCs

The following topics cover some of the general use of PCs running Windows at CISE.

Logging In

To log in, simultaneously press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<DEL>. You will then be presented with a login screen. Enter your Windows username and password. Also, make sure you connect from the CISE domain.

Note: The black window running in the background whenever I log in is normal. It is a network login script that automatically mounts the Windows shares (remote directories) and your UNIX home file system.

Windows Password

You should use the same password for both your UNIX and Windows accounts at CISE. One of the programs supported by the CISE Department is SAMBA. This program mounts your UNIX home directory as the H: drive. To mount the drive, SAMBA queries the UNIX file server on which your home directory resides. By default, SAMBA will enter your Windows password, and your H: drive gets mounted without you having to do a thing. If your passwords do not match, you will be queried for your UNIX password before your home directory can be mounted.

Most of the time, changing your password should be done only on a UNIX machine. To do this, log in to any UNIX computer. You can either go directly to a UNIX computer, or access a UNIX computer from the PC. Instructions for accessing a UNIX computer are here. Once you are on a UNIX computer, change you password using the instructions here. This should change both your UNIX and Windows passwords (provided they were the same to begin with).

Occasionally, there will be a reason to actually change your Windows password. The most common reason is that somehow, your UNIX and Windows passwords have gotten out of sync. Then, it is necessary to change your password on a PC to make it the same as on UNIX. To change your Windows password, press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<DEL> simultaneously, the click on the Change Password button.

Unix home directory (H: drive)

When you log in (provided your UNIX and Windows passwords are the same -- see the previous topic for details), your UNIX home directory is mounted automatically as the H: drive. You can create, edit, and delete files on it as if it were a normal PC disk partition. We recommend that you create a PC subdirectory, with specific data directories stored under it. For example, you might want to create directories such as Word, Excel, Class, Work, etc. Please do not store large executable programs on your H: drive, as this will eat up your quota and slow down the network.

It is important that you store all your data files (any documents you edit for example) on the H: drive. The UNIX filesystem is backed up on a regular basis (see the CISE backup page for details). Other drives (C:, D:, etc.) are NOT backed up. Also, the H: drive is the same on all PCs. Any files stored in some other drive will NOT be available on other PCs.

Note: Since the C: drive is NOT backed up, any data in the \TEMP directory is not backed up and may be lost at any time, and is not recoverable. Never use it for permenant storage, or to store important files such as email.

If you choose to use Outlook, Outlook Express or Netscape for POP mail, make sure you change the default path from drive C: to drive H:.

Standard software

By default, the following software packages are installed on CISE managed PCs:

CISE Provided Software

Microsoft product media for which the department is licensed can be checked out from room E314C. The list includes the product below.

Other lesser used products can be downloaded on request.

Check out times are:     8am-noon
			 1pm-4pm

Media must be returned within two days. Please present ufid and CISE username for verification.

Some non-Microsoft products (Matlab, Mathematica, and Maple) are available. Additional personal licensing may be required.

Anti Virus products and variety of freeware can be downloaded from www.software.ufl.edu and www.circa.ufl.edu/cd-rom/.

We also provide mirrors for several sites. See: ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/cise/ftp-pub/mirrors/

Access to UNIX Computers

There are two ways to access the CISE UNIX computers on the CISE PCs. One way is to run Xwin32 on the PC. This allows you to run any X client (such as a terminal) on a UNIX host and display it on the PC. Instructions for running Xwin32 are available here. The other way is to use PuTTY to log into a UNIX computer from the PC.

Windows profile

Every Windows account includes some additional disk space used to store a user's profile. The profile includes all of the local settings (changes to the desktop, screensaver background, printer connections, Microsoft Office suite template settings, files saved to desktop or My Documents folder, etc.). The amount of disk space available for the profile is plenty for normal operation, but it is possible to fill up the profile space which will cause problems logging out.

The most common sources of problem are:

Windows Profile - Large Files

Large files (or any file for that matter) should be stored in the H: drive as mentioned above. If you want a file accessible on the desktop, create a link there, but do not store the actual file there.

Windows Profile - Web Browser Cache

Most web browsers cache information about the web pages you visit on disk. This cache uses up part of your profile.

For Internet Explorer, right click Internet Explorer icon, select Properties. Under Temporary Internet Files, select Delete Files, check box next to Delete all offline content and press OK. Under Settings, you can change your default cache size to a lower value or choose Move Folder and move your cache to a different location. You can also select View Files or View Objects and delete them in this window.

For Firefox, select the Tools menu and then Clear Private Data.... In the Clear Private Data window that appears, uncheck all checkboxes except for the Cache checkbox. Note: If you wish to clear additional forms of "private data", feel free to check the appropriate boxes. They will be cleared with the cache in the next step. Click on the Clear Private Data Now button. When the Clear Private Data window disappears, all of the files saved (cached) from your Internet browsing activities will have been removed.

For Netscape, select the Edit Menu, then select Preferences, then double click Advanced, then select Cache. In this window you can change cache size for Memory or Disk Cache. Hint: Only change the Disk Cache to a lower value. Options to Clear Memory and Disk Cache are available. You can also change the path of your Disk Cache Folder.

Windows Profile - Other programs

Sometimes you will get a message stating that you have "exceeded your profile storage space". Follow these steps to fix the problem. Before starting, please close out of any programs you have open.

WARNING: Cleaning your profile will remove all files stored on your desktop, or your My Documents folder, so it is extremely important that you not have any files stored in these places. See the H: drive topic for more details. If you read email, make sure you have changed the path as mentioned there or else you will lose all old email.

  1. Open My Computer
  2. Double click on the C:\ drive
  3. Double click on the Documents and Settings folder
  4. Double click on the folder with your username
  5. Click on Tools > Folder Options
  6. Click on the View tab. Make sure that "Show Hidden Files And Folders" under Hidden Files and Folders is checked, then click "Ok"
  7. Delete everything within the following folders (if they exist, if you don't see one, don't worry, just move on):
    • Cookies (with the exception of "index.dat")
    • My Recent Documents (may be labeled Recent)
    • .jpi_cache
    • .java
  8. Go into: Application Data. Delete everything within this folder that your computer will allow you to delete, EXCEPT the Microsoft, Mozilla, or Adobe PhotoShop folders. These folders contain settings and configuration files. To Delete all items within a folder you can go to Edit > Select All, and then press delete. To delete an assortment of items within a folder hold the Ctrl key and click on the items you wish to delete, then press delete.)
  9. Make sure that nothing but shortcuts are in your desktop folder (if there are files there, move them to a different folder on your H:\ drive), and that nothing is in the "My Documents" folder within your profile. Move any files that you find to a different folder on your H:\ drive.
  10. Close the window.

Printing from windows

To print to a network printer (which includes most of the printers in the department), you must first add the printer to your profile.

From the Start Menu select Settings, then Printers. Select Add Printer. In the Add Printer Wizard, click Next, check box next to Network printer and click Next. You can type in the printer name i.e. \\printserv2003\ps114 (make sure you replace ps114 with the name of the printer you want to use) or click Next and locate the print server. Double click on printserv2003 to see all the printers available to you. Double click on the printer(s) you wish to access.

To check your print quota, go to the following URL http://server2003/cgi-bin/balance.exe

Currently if you are printing to \\ash please change your printer settings to \\printserv2003.

Getting the Name of the Computer

Occasionally, you will need to know the name of the computer you are logged in at. This is especially important when you are reporting a problem as we require that you include the name of the computer in all error reports.

Most computers are labeled, but occasionally the label falls off or is removed. To find out the name of the machine you are seated at, go to the DOS prompt and type

echo %computername%

Unable to Start Firefox

Go to Start Menu, My Computer, Local Disk C. Double click Local Disk C, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox. Delete file named profiles.ini.

About CISE

Academics

People

Research

News

Help & Resources

Contact Us

 

Info for Students

Info for Faculty & Staff

Industrial Advisory Board