IT-Announcements

Effective date: November 17, 2026

Beginning November 17, 2026, COE IT will expand automatic screen-lock settings to all College of Engineering-managed Windows computers.

This protection is already enabled in some COE departments and work areas. The upcoming change will apply it to the remaining managed Windows computers.

Once the setting is enforced:

Microsoft has confirmed that all editions of Windows 10 reach end-of-support on October 14, 2025. After that date the company will stop releasing security patches, bug fixes, and technical assistance for the operating system. To keep every computer in the College of Engineering secure and compliant, the College of Engineering IT team will begin rolling out Windows 11 this summer. Below is what you can expect and how to prepare.

If you have any university-owned devices that have yet to be inventoried, please plan to attend one of the upcoming device inventory workshops. Bring all your IT devices and power adapters (if applicable) to the workshop.

Note: The inventory process can take 30 minutes or more.

As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance security and ensure compliance, College of Engineering (COE) IT staff will soon conduct a physical inventory of all university-owned IT devices. This inventory is crucial for maintaining the integrity of our IT environment. We need your help to complete this important work.

Learning what you think about our services is invaluable. When your support ticket with the COE IT team is resolved, you have the opportunity to provide feedback on the service you received. You have 15 days to fill out a quick survey for each ticket. In the survey, you can rate your satisfaction and leave any comments. We look forward to your feedback.

There are two ways to leave feedback.

Effective February 5, 2024, CrashPlan notifications will be activated for all critical errors and warnings. Users with existing CrashPlan accounts containing computers that haven't completed a backup in an extended period will receive email notifications from this date onward.

For guidance on accessing the CrashPlan console and resolving any issues with your account, refer to our knowledge base article: CrashPlan Account Management.

Informational and Educational Technology (IET) introduced updates to the Temporary Affiliate (TAF) services last month. Temporary affiliate or TAF services allow UC Davis staff and faculty to sponsor temporary accounts that can provide access to many UC Davis computing services. This system is typically used to create accounts for guest faculty and staff, visiting scholars, and volunteers.

Beginning May 11, college IT staff will begin removing Sophos from computers and replacing it with Microsoft Defender.

Microsoft Defender is now included with our campus Microsoft licensing. This change allows us to reduce IT expenses as we will no longer need to pay for the additional licenses of Sophos. In our testing, Microsoft Defender utilizes fewer system resources than Sophos.

For our Mac users, keeping your macOS version up to date is essential. Updates for macOS often contain critical security patches, meaning that an unpatched macOS could contain known, critical vulnerabilities that put your data and identity—and our campus-wide cybersecurity—at risk.

Support for several Microsoft Office products will end in the coming months. Continued use of one of these products after support ends can expose our organization to security risks, productivity loss, and compliance failures.

Products support will soon end for the following: