Ryerson 4th floor lab Windows accounts

You need a separate Windows account to log into the 4th floor Windows machines.
Please stop by Ryerson 254 for an account, or to reset your password if you forgot it.

To login using your Windows account

  • Six machines in 403 (the room with the printers) are dual boot: Windows XP and Linux
  • All machines in 402 are Linux only

  • Username: same as your Linux username
  • Password: Your Windows password
  • Be sure to select CSPP from the domain pulldown menu

Diskspace

When you log into a Windows machine, your Linux home directory will be available through an icon on the desktop. This space may be referred to in various applications as "your-username on dc". Files stored here will be accessible from any CS 4th floor Windows or CS Linux machine.

The My Documents folder on the Windows machines is a link to the directory ~/profile/My Documents within your Linux home directory.

Other Windows user configuration data is also stored in the ~/profile directory. This means if you set user configuration data, such as choosing a different desktop background color, on one Windows machine, it will be that way on any 4th floor Windows machine you log into.

You do not have write access to the C: drive of the Windows machines. You can install some software in your home directory if it does not write to the C: drive.

Printing from Ryerson 4th floor Windows machines

The fourth floor printers should always be available from any Windows application.

To select a 4th floor printer, select ry401-1 or ry401-2 from Printers and Faxes under the Start button.

If printing does not work, please email techstaff@cs.uchicago.edu

Email from Windows

For now the best way to read CS email on a Windows machine is to use PuTTy to connect to a Linux machine and run pine or mutt. We hope to have Mozilla Thunderbird available soon.

Booting into Windows or Linux

  • All machines in 402 (the room with the printers) are dual boot: Windows XP and Linux
  • All machines in 403 are Linux only

To boot into Windows from Linux

  1. Log out of Linux
  2. Ctrl-Alt-F1 (switch to the text console)
  3. Ctrl-Alt-Del (reboot)
  4. Wait for LILO prompt
  5. Press the shift key
  6. Type winxp
  7. The machine will now boot into Windows
  8. You may now log in

To boot into Linux from Windows

  • Just reboot the machine from the Start Menu
  • Linux boot is the default

Installing Software

You may be able to install some software in your home directory (or My Documents), as this disk space is mounted from your Linux home directory.

However, as you cannot write to the C: drive, much software will not install.

If you require additional software, please email techstaff@cs.uchicago.edu. Note that we have a much more developed infrastructure for our Linux machines, and would therefore prefer to find and install Linux alternatives to Windows software.