📖 Azure Labs VM Software and Usage
Default Configuration
The Azure Labs Virtual Machine (VM) provided by Dallas College is a complete Windows 11 computer instance in a virtual environment. Students will have complete control over the software installation and configuration for their individual VM instance. The VM will come with a basic set up of useful software including the following.
- Windows 11 Pro
- Microsoft 365
- MS Teams
- Connection to Dallas College One Drive
- MySQL with Workbench
- SQL Server
- Firefox, Chrome and Edge
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- File Explorer
While this environment provides the entire Microsoft suite of productivity software, you should not depend on it for everyday use. Your account is limited to a maximum number of hours your server can be on. Therefore, you should only utilize this VM for software development requiring special configuration. Dallas College also provides a Virtual Desktop (VDI) client for daily use that also includes the Microsoft suite with no time limits.
Additional Software
In order to maximize your use of this Azure Labs VM environment, you will need to install and configure software you'll use in this course. Below is a list of software with links to the source code (download) files and some information about how to install and configure each.
VS Code syntax highlighting text editor for web programming.
XAMPP local development server installation includes PHP and Maria DB (MySQL).
WinSCP FTP software for transferring files to/from a remote server.
Git Version Control software to help manage changes to your software project.
GitHub online repository to create, store and manage software projects. (Integrates with Git).
Each of the above software programs are pretty easy to download and install. They are also very popular with great online documentation to help if you get stuck. Follow each link in turn and install the provided software.