Laptop Requirements for SharePoint Solutions Classes

Using the latest technologies, we have been able to minimize the requirements necessary for the laptop you will be bringing to class. This makes it extra nice (and extra easy) for you, because no installation of software is necessary to take any of our classes, and no significant changes are made to your laptop.

We employ two technologies to enable you to truly experience SharePoint 2007 hands-on. The first is Remote Desktop Connection (formerly Terminal Services). This enables you to connect to our servers, where each student has his or her own complete MOSS 2007/WSS v3 environment to work with. The second is Microsoft Virtual Server, which makes it possible for multiple instances of an operating system to run concurrently on the same server. This is how we can give each student his or her own Windows Server 2003/MOSS 2007 implementation to use.

Through the use of these two technologies, all of the actual processing is done on our servers, not your laptop. You are simply sending your mouse clicks and keystrokes to our server, which passes back the screen images to your laptop. So very little “laptop horsepower” is necessary. Here is the bare minimum we expect in terms of the specifications of your laptop:

• It needs to be running Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 2000 Professional.
• The student needs to have local administrator rights on the laptop.
• It needs to be capable of running Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection software (previously called Terminal Server Client). (This is built into Windows operating systems from XP forward.)
• It needs to have a Wi-Fi (wireless networking) adapter (either internal or external) – 802.11g or faster. (The one exception to this is our Nashville location, where we much prefer a wired Ethernet connection.)
• The network adapter needs to be set to pick up an IP address, and DNS server addresses, automatically (DHCP). If you don't know how to do this, we can help you with it after you arrive.
• Internet proxy software, VPN software, and firewall software should be disabled prior to coming to class. Anything that blocks Internet access usually also blocks the ability of the laptop to connect by Remote Desktop to our servers.

Only one of our six courses has an additional requirement. Our “Upgrading from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007” course requires that your laptop be capable of running the Virtual Machine Remote Control client software (vmrc.exe), a small executable that you copy to your desktop and run from there. After the class, you can simply delete it. Windows “professional” class operating systems (Vista Business, XP Professional, and 2000 Professional) run this just fine, but Macs seem unable to run it. Therefore we strongly recommend a Windows laptop for that particular class.

If you have any questions about whether your laptop meets our qualifications, please feel free to call us at 615-515-0210 ext 2.