Please keep the following hardware requirements in mind when selecting a laptop to use in the Business School. Systems purchased within the past two (2) years will typically be outfitted with the recommended features. Please confirm that your laptop meets these requirements. Remember that if your laptop does not meet the minimum requirements, among other issues, you will not have access to ITG Support Specialists, who are key to getting your computer configured for the School's network and keeping it correctly configured when you encounter problems. Most critically, your laptop runs the risk of not supporting software that is required for your courses.

For help finding your Windows laptop's hardware specifications see this 1 min video: . For help finding your Mac laptop's hardware specifications see this 1 min video: .

Category	Windows	Mac OS X
Processor	Intel Core i3 and above (such as Intel Core i5, or Intel Core i7) OR AMD FX 4100 and above, or A6 and above
Hard Drive	128 Gigabytes (GB)	128GB+ Solid State Disk (SSD) with at least 50GB of free disk space
Memory	8 GB
Wired Networking	Ethernet LAN Port or USB Ethernet Adapter/Dongle
	In order to use the CBS wired network connection on your ultra-light or MacBook Air PC, you will need to purchase a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter.
Wireless Networking	802.11n

Operating System Requirements

Please keep the following supported and unsupported operating systems in mind when purchasing a laptop for Business School.

Supported Operating System(s)

• Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). Mac OS 10.12 (Sierra) is still too new to be fully supported; however, ITG will make an effort to assist any student that has a laptop with this OS.

Unsupported Operating System(s)

• Beta and newly released versions of any Operating System(s) cannot be guaranteed to work with the Business School resources, including the wired and wireless networks.
• Windows RT | 2000 | XP | Vista
• Unix, Linux
• Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and older

Note: Only Operating Systems and Applications based in the English language are supported by ITG.

Software Requirements

Please keep the following software requirements in mind when configuring your laptop for Columbia Business School.

Office Suite
Microsoft Office 2016 for (Windows) and 2016 for (Mac) are the versions deployed by ITG. For Windows, you may be able to use an earlier version, 2010 or higher, if you cannot upgrade your current version.

• Your Office Suite must be in English.
• Full installation is provided free of charge by ITG if needed.

Computer Security
Antivirus and Spyware Protection

• Must be updated with the latest virus definitions/updates.
• Required for both Mac and Windows.
• For Windows: We recommend using Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 7. In Windows 8 and up, Microsoft Security Essentials is replaced by Windows Defender (all Windows machines are shipped with this already installed).
• For Macs: We recommend using Symantec Antivirus. This is also provided to you free of cost through the University.

Source: www8.gsb.columbia.edu