Hardware-- The following is a list of the basic minimum requirements for all Regents Online Courses.  Some courses will have more advanced requirements.  Information on advanced requirements may be found in each course syllabus.

PC users.

• A minimum computer system that will help you access all the tools in the courses is a Pentium 166 or better
• 64 Megabytes of RAM or better
• Windows 98 (or higher if possible)
• A modem (56k minimum; Cable or DSL will give you best performance)
• And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have access to the World Wide Web, and don't have serious problems connecting. 
• For a list of ISPs in your area see The List

For Mac users.

• Minimum system requirements for Mac users are a 604 PowerPC processor Preferably a G3 (iMac are included) or G4 processor computer running Mac OS 9.x , OS X v.10.2.x or above.
• Your Macintosh should have a minimum or 64 MB RAM, preferably 128 with at least 25 MB assigned to your browser.  If you need assistance in adjusting memory please refer to your Apple Help file searching under the header Memory - Adjusting your memory usage. It is advised that you not have multiple applications open while working in your browser within the Online Degree Program . This requires more RAM and will cause the browser to run very slowly.
• A modem (56k minimum; Cable or DSL will give you best performance)
• And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have access to the World Wide Web, and don't have serious problems connecting or maintaining a connection. For a list of ISPs in your area see The List

Remember! The above specifications are minimal, and you'll get by with them, but more sophisticated systems are better.

Browser Recommendations

General Software Recommendations

• Instructors generally recommend that students use "Microsoft Word" for papers and assignments. This program offers the greatest common denominator in terms of sending documents across different platforms. Sometimes, specific courses will have specific recommendations about software.  See your course syllabus for specifics about required software.
• Even if you don't have the most recent release of Microsoft Word, there are add-ins that will enhance the performance of your program. For instance, as the World Wide Web becomes more commonly accessible, instructors are beginning to require students to create their own web pages, or to put their pages into html (hypertext markup language). This is not a mind-boggling request, since the recent releases of most word-processing programs offer html as one of the ways to save a document.

[On to learn more about the versatile web browser]