Microsoft 365 - FAQ

Microsoft 365 is a Microsoft cloud-based service that allows you to use Microsoft Office applications as well as a cloud storage account (OneDrive) on the web. Since the service is Internet-base, an Internet connection is required to use the services.

Computer and processor

• PC: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86-bit or x64-bit processor with SSE2 instruction set
• Mac: Intel processor

Memory

• PC: 2 GB RAM
• Mac: 4 GB RAM

Hard disk

• PC: 3.0 GB of available disk space
• Mac: 6 GB of available disk space. HFS+ hard disk format (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Plus)

Display

• PC: 1280 x 800 screen resolution
• Mac: 1280 x 800 screen resolution

Graphics

• PC: Graphics hardware acceleration requires a DirectX 10 graphics card.

Operating system

• PC: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 10 Server, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2
• Mac: Mac OS X 10.10
  For the best experience, use the latest version of any operating system.

Browser

• The current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer; the current version of Microsoft Edge, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.

To access your Office 365 account, open a web browser and go to https://office.com/. You will need to enter in your SHSU email and password. You will not be able to use your alias e-mail address if you have activated one. Office 365 accounts are only available to current students, faculty and staff. Office 365 is not available for retirees and shared e-mail accounts. If you are graduating or separating from the university in any manner, it is strongly encouraged that you back up your data to another storage system.

To access a personal Microsoft 365 (Microsoft 365 for Home) account, go to https://login.live.com/ and login with the credentials you used with creating that account.

You have 1 terabyte of storage in OneDrive. Keep in mind that your S drive and most campus computers will not have one terabyte of free space for you to be able to sync the full contents of your OneDrive to the local drive.

The applications that are available via Microsoft 365 are: Excel Online, PowerPoint Online, OneNote Online, Sway, Delve, and OneDrive.

Yes, you can. The most current version of Microsoft 365 apps is available for PC and Macs.

You can install Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 smartphones.

You can login to https://portal.office.com/. In the Version section, choose Advanced, and then select 64 bit and Install.

When ready to save, go to File, Save As and select OneDrive - Sam Houston State University. The third option is OneDrive, which is for a personal OneDrive account. DO NOT SELECT the option for Sites - Sam Houston State University as this makes the document a public document.

OneDrive is not backed up; however, there is a recycle bin that holds deleted documents. All documents are permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin 93 days after being placed in the Recycle Bin. Recycle Bin files do count toward the quota usage of your OneDrive account.

It is reasonably safe. Although there are some things to consider as far as what type of information you save. As mentioned, the files are not backed up. You do, however, have a window of time to recover files deleted if needed.  OneDrive is also a Microsoft cloud service, as a result the files are subject to their security measures, rather than SHSU's, against data breaches. Last, since this is a cloud service you must have an Internet connection.  If you are unable to access the Internet for any reason, you will not be able to access Microsoft 365 or your OneDrive files unless they are synced.

No, OneDrive can only be set up to sync files from the local hard drive (C:).  If you would like to set up syncing from a campus workstation, please contact the Service Desk for assistance.

You will need to contact the IT@Sam Service Desk at (936) 294-1950 or servicedesk@shsu.edu. They will have the ability to escalate issues to the appropriate source at Microsoft to solve the issue that you are experiencing.

Users can install Microsoft 365 Apps on up to five different computers with a single Microsoft 365 license. For example, a user can have Microsoft 365 Apps installed on a computer in the office, on a laptop to use when traveling, and on a home computer.

Even though users don’t need to be connected to the Internet all the time to use Microsoft 365 Apps, users must connect to the Internet at least once every 30 days. This is so that the status of their Microsoft 365 subscriptions can be checked. If users don’t connect within 30 days, Microsoft 365 Apps goes into reduced functionality mode. After users connect to the Internet and their subscription status is verified, all the features of Microsoft 365 Apps are available again.

OneDrive has a 10 minute waiting period on documents that have been locked or checked out.

• Sign out of Office.com.
• Go to Settings> Accounts > Access Work or School.
• Select the account and select Disconnect.
• Click on "+ Connect" and register the device again by going through the sign in process.