ITS Maintenance Digest - Week of June 2nd to June 8th

This is your weekly digest of system maintenance/information and downtime. All notices are also posted on the myUNBC Student Portal (Ellucian Experience), gounbc.sharepoint.com for Employees, support.unbc.ca and on unbc.ca /its. Please see one of these locations for maintenance notices.

ITS Maintenance Notice: June 4th – June 6th  || Time: 8:00pm to 10:00pm 

VDI Maintenance: Users may experience service interruptions in VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) during the maintenance windows of June 4th – 6th from 8:00pm – 10:00pm.

ITS Information Notice: Microsoft - End of Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019

Microsoft has reminded users about the October 14th 2025 date for end of support, Microsoft will no longer provide security fixes, bug fixes, or technical support to Office 2016 & Office 2019 applications. Individuals and organizations may be vulnerable to Security threats if they continue to use these items beyond the end of support. UNBC ITS recommends migrating devices running end of support products to the cloud with Microsoft 365 to stay continuously supported. Department’s with edge case needs should begin preparations for the end of support by reaching out to ITS support.

  • Office 2016 Applications: Access 2016, Excel 2016, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Project 2016, Publisher 2016, Skype for Business 2016, Visio 2016, Word 2016.
  • Office 2019 Applications: Access 2019, Excel 2019, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2019, Project 2019, Publisher 2019, Skype for Business 2019, Visio 2019, Word 2019.

ITS Information Notice: G:Drive Folders & H:Drive will be decommissioned as of September 2025

What is happening?

The Shared on-campus storage (G: Drive folders) & Personal on-campus storage (H: Drive) for file storage, will be decommissioned as of September 2025. As a best practice for modernizing and safeguarding our file storage infrastructure, UNBC ITS is continuing its shift towards cloud-based file storage. 

Moving data into the cloud makes campus files easier to access due to the increase in people who require remote access to their files and the difficulties with VPN-based file shares. With the increasing use of OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint, it is no longer viable to use an older & less secure shared space for file storage. 

How to prepare?

To prepare for this change, UNBC ITS recommends that Faculty & Staff begin migrating their files over to the preferred location.

Files Preferred location 
Personal UNBC- related documents & files One Drive
University files for all employees & Department documents and files SharePoint Online
Department documents and files Microsoft Teams
  • OneDrive offers seamless collaboration capabilities, online and offline document editing and syncing, and editing and syncing files across web, mobile, and desktop.
  • SharePoint Online is a Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based service that helps users share and mange content, knowledge and applications, encourage teamwork and facilitate seamless collaboration across the organization. It provides a secure location to store, exchange and access data from virtually any device and all major online browsers. 
  • Microsoft Teams offers a workspace for real-time communication and collaboration (text chat and video), file and app sharing. Teams and Channels can be used for tracking projects, conversations, files, meetings, etc. A Team is essentially extra functionally and features added on top of a SharePoint Online site. This means that every Team has a corresponding SharePoint Online site, which stores all the Team content.

Resources

Please visit our knowledge base article, available on our support portal for further information.

UNBC employees have access to LinkedIn Learning, an online professional development portal. To start, click on the link below and use your UNBC username (in the format username@unbc.ca).

Thank you for your assistance while we keep our systems maintained and secure. If there are any questions, please contact the IT Service Desk using the information below.

Contact information 

Phone: 250-960-5321
Toll-free: 866-960-5321
Email: support@unbc.ca
Location: Teaching Lab, room 8-264 (2nd floor)

IT Service Desk hours

Monday to Friday - 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Closed daily from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

IT Services customer support portal