The UChicago Virtual Lab (vLab) is a remote applications computing environment that provides access to licensed campus apps. For more on how to connect to the remote application service click on academictech.uchicago.edu/vlab.
A standard suite of software, as well as departmental academic applications, are available in the computer classrooms, BSLC018 with 37 Windows computers and Walker 303 with 25 Windows computers.
The Academic Tech team performs regular software maintenance updates, as needed, during the break between each quarter. If you need a software version update outside of the regular maintenance periods, please send a request to academictech@uchicago.edu.
Note: Additional software installation requests for lab machines require a two-week lead time to be tested and installed.
Both vLab and the computer classrooms include a variety of software and toolboxes to meet the needs of faculty and students.
Below is a comprehensive list of software that is supported on Windows computers as of March 2025.
| Type | Software |
|---|---|
| Document viewers | Adobe Acrobat Reader DC |
| File transfer & remote access | Remote Desktop Connection Putty WinSCP |
| Mapping/GIS | ArcGIS Pro GeoDa Google Earth Pro |
| Programming | Python 2.7 (command line) Python 2.7 IDLE (Python GUI) |
| Statistics & visualization | MATLAB R2021a IBM Statistics 29 R 4.1.1 Stata 18 RStudio |
| Text editors | Microsoft Office 2016 MiKTeX 2.9 MiKTex 2.9 Previewer MiK2.9 TeXworks |
| Web browsers | Internet Explorer Firefox |
Below is the list of currently available campus license MATLAB toolboxes: