Computer Labs

MSU IT Services manages about 60 computer labs across campus with about 1,900 computers for use by anyone with an MSU NetID.

Students, faculty, and staff can use computer labs during available open hours.

Schedule a lab

Instructors, departments, and campus groups can schedule a computer lab or classroom to teach classes or for events.

What's in a lab

Computer labs include Windows and Macintosh systems, laser printers, a variety of current software, and high-speed connections to the Internet.

Additional resources in select computer labs include flatbed scanners; audio, video, and image editing software; and web and print publishing. Some computer labs are also designed for group collaboration.

Login times

The first time you log in to any Windows-based computer in a campus computer lab, the operating system builds a unique profile for you.

Building your profile is hard drive intensive, since the computer is copying and creating new files. This can take about three to four minutes. After that initial log in, Windows then loads your custom profile more quickly.

Through the process of building a new profile, Windows is copying and creating personalized settings for all of the software that is installed on the computer.

There are more than 200 applications installed on each computer, and some of those software packages are larger than others, further increasing the time it takes to build your profile.

There are more than 40,000 active users in our computer labs each semester, so storing custom profiles for each person isn’t a realistic option.

To keep your data secure and protect the computers against viruses, IT Services wipes all user and profile data off a computer each time it reboots. Unlike with your personal computer, your profile is cleared each time you log out in a computer lab.