When we produce our educational products we would like to create the best possible experience for our users. We are very aware that some of our customers do not have cutting-edge workstations and so we ensure that we support older technologies as much as we can.

Whilst we suggest a 'recommended specification'*, we endeavour to test on computers that are up to seven years old, but we have to draw the line at supporting some older technologies due to incompatibilities with software and operating systems, and in some cases the hardware itself.

In addition to our guidelines* the following criteria should illustrate the minimum specifications for our products:

1. Processor:
   PC
   - Pentium 3 at 600MHz or faster (Windows 2000/XP)
   - Pentium 4 at 2GHz or faster (Windows Vista)
   
   Macintosh
   - PowerPC G4 at 800MHz or faster
   
2. OS:
   PC
   - Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
   - Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
   
   Macintosh
   Mac OS X (10.3.9 or later.)
   
3. RAM:
   PC
   - 128MB (Windows 2000)
   - 256MB (Windows XP)
   - 1GB (Windows Vista) 
   
   Macintosh
   - 256MB (Mac OS X 10.3.9)
   - 512MB (Mac OS X 10.4.10/10.5)
   
4. Hard drive: At least 1GB or 10% of the drive space should be free - whichever is the greater. This allows for space to install software and space for temporary Windows 'swap' files.
   
5. CD-ROM: 8x speed if needed for CD media access.
   
6. Keyboard & Mouse: Other pointing devices may be used where they are fully integrated - e.g. interactive whiteboards.
   
7. Headphones or speakers: depending upon your environment, headphones may be preferable.
   
8. Microphone: where required an external high-quality microphone with noise cancelling is recommended.
   
9. Web Browser:
   PC
   - Internet Explorer 6 sp1 (Windows)
   
   Macintosh
   - Safari 1.3
   
10. Plug-ins: Where required, the following minimum versions of browser plug-ins are:
    Adobe Reader - 7
    Macromedia Flash Player - 8.0r22
    Real Player - 8 Basic
    Java J2RE - 1.42
    
11. Security: Pop-up blockers and other security settings should be configured to permit the product to open pop-ups, store session information (e.g. cookies) allow execution of ActiveX controls and temporary code where required.
    
12. Office software: Where required, Microsoft Office 2000 or 100% compatible alternatives should be used - unless stated otherwise, the free viewers available from Microsoft may be used.
    
13. Networking: Many of our site-licenced products (but not all) will execute from a network location. Generally, this means that the installed folder (or a parent of the installed folder) should be shared as a mounted network drive. Due to security restrictions beyond our control, UNC shared directories are unsupported.
    
    If you have a site-licenced product, this means that you may install the product on as many computers in your establishment as you like - and unless explicitly prohibited under licence-terms, you may also allow off-site access to authenticated users. Note that we do not offer help/support for off-site access.
    

*(computers under three years old are usually ideal,  computers should be well maintained up to five years old, computers must be maintained extensively up to seven years old.)

An example of a recommended specification:

• Windows XP sp2, 1GHz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 1000Base-T NIC, 80GB HDD
• Mac OS X 10.4.5, 1.25GHz G5, 1GB RAM