Support: K-12 FAQs

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Q. Can the programs run off of CD-ROM?

A. SimBio Virtual Labs™, OsmoBeaker^®, and Mitosis & Meiosis Demystified™ can be run off of CD-ROM. EcoBeaker^® 2.5 will not run off of CD-ROM and must be installed to the computer.

Q. When does the software expire?

A. The expiration date for our software is September 15th. The newest version to be released in summer 2010 for the 2010-11 school year will have an expiration date of 9/15/2011.

Q. Which Windows operating systems are supported?

A. EcoBeaker, EvoBeaker^®, OsmoBeaker, Mitosis & Meiosis Demystified, and NerveWorks™ will run on Windows XP (SP2+), Windows Vista, and Vista SP1.

Q. Which Macintosh operating systems are supported?

A. EcoBeaker, EvoBeaker, OsmoBeaker, and Nerveworks will run on OSX 10.4.x Tiger and OSX 10.5.x Leopard. These programs will not run under OS9.x or the Classic environment. These programs are also universal binaries, which mean they will run on a PPC-based machine, or on a newer Intel-based mac.

Q. Which Linux distributions are supported to run the programs?

A. Linux is not a supported operating system at this time. However through the use of a 3rd party virtualization program such as VMWare, the suite of programs can be run under Windows virtually from within a Linux operating system.

Q. Do I need additional programs in order to run SimBiotic Virtual Labs™?

A. In some cases yes. Some virtual labs will require QuickTime (available from Apple) to run. In others, a java virtual machine will be required which can be downloaded for free from Sun Microsystems. A list of additional programs if any are needed will be included in a system requirements document which will be available with the virtual lab. Note that QuickTime and Java are already installed on most all computers, so you likely will not need to add anything additional to your machines.

Q. My lab is currently running Windows 98 computers, and the latest version of QuickTime does not support Windows 98. What can I do?

A. There is a website available called oldversion.com that specializes in storing older versions of programs, such as QuickTime. Please direct your students to this website, it is a free download. For computers running Windows 98 SE or Windows ME the last version of QuickTime which supported those operating systems is version 6.5.2.

Q. How do I find out about product updates for your products that my students are using?

A. Visit our support page to view status updates on all of our products.