Getting Help

Who to contact when technology isn't working for you

Help Desk: your first point of contact

The Help Desk is your first point of contact for most issues with technology at Minnesota State Mankato. They'll help you with email, file storage, network access and other challenges.

Problems in other categories can be most quickly resolved by contacting these help areas directly:

• Desire2Learn:
  for students and faculty working with D2L issues.
• ResNet Depot:
  for students living in residence halls with technical issues.
• COB Laptop:
  for College of Business students seeking support for their laptop computers.

Quick Tips

Save an Office Word 2007 file in the Office Word 2003 file format
You can save Office Word 2007 documents to any of several file formats. If you aren't sure what version of Office the recipient is running, use this option to ensure that they will be able to view the file.

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button in the upper left corner of your window and click Save As.
2. In the Save As dialog box, in the Save as type list, click the file type “Word 97-2003 Document”.
3. In the File name box, type a name for the file.
4. Click Save.  

Office Outlook 2007 running on Vista is taking a long time to load
You can fix this by downloading this program to correct the settings.

1. Shutdown MS Outlook
2. Download Outlook Fix and save the program to your desktop.
3. Right click on the Outlook Fix and click "Run as Administrator."
4. If the User Account Control pops up, click "Continue."
5. You will see a DOS prompt window pop up for a few seconds and disappear.
6. Open Outlook.
7. If Outlook is still running slow please contact the ITS Help Desk at 389-6654.

Cleaning up your PC

Is your machine running slow???

If your machine is running extremely slow, chances are your computer may be infected with spyware or viruses. The Help Desk offers a free CD containing many useful tools to help clean up your machine complete with step by step installation instructions. To check out a copy of this disk, please visit the Helpdesk, located on the 3rd floor of the Memorial Library. Check out is limited to 3 business days.

Updating your virus scan may help

1) If you are using Symantec AntiVirus, update your virus scan. In the lower right hand corner of the screen you will see a gold shield. Double click that. Click the button labeled "LiveUpdate" when the window opens and follow the prompts. 
2) After your computer is updated, run a full virus scan. After the scan is complete and no problems are found, chances are you are virus free. 

Running a spyware removal tool may also help

Many advertised spyware removal tools are actually spyware. We suggest using the spyware removal tool Spybot Search & Destroy. The program is a free spyware removal tool that also has an immunization option that will block known spyware from being accessed. To obtain a free copy of Spybot click here.