4  Essential IT setup

In the context of your labs, you will need to use a few key pieces of software. We will go through most of the essential apps in the first lab class1, but we will summarise the key points here for students who are unable to attend the first lab class or are in the process of getting a new computer2. As the computers in our labs are running macOS, our main focus will be on macOS. However, we will highlight some key points for Windows users.

Please note that knowing how to use your computer will make your life as a student a lot easier! If you struggle with anything computer-related, we are here to help, but we expect you to attempt to solve problems independently initially. The answer to almost any computer-related question can be found on the internet. If you are still stuck after searching on the internet, please get in touch.

4.1 Web browser

What will you use the web browser for?

  • To read material available online.
  • To download material from the internet.
  • To search the internet.

Make sure you have one of these web browsers installed:

  • Chrome: For those who want things to just work (at the cost of privacy).
  • Brave: For the privacy-conscious.
  • Edge: For those who like to use Microsoft 365 web applications (as opposed to desktop applications).3
  • Firefox: For the non-conformists. Firefox is the only surviving major web browser that is not based on Google’s Chromium project.
Note

We will assume that you know how to install a web browser and will not explain this in the lab class. If you are struggling with the installation of a recommended web browser, please contact Digital and Technology Services.

macOS users

Please do not use Safari. Safari likes to do some things differently and this will cause various issues over the course of the year. Save yourself the trouble and use one of the web browsers recommended above as your default browser. Find out how to change your default web browser here.

4.2 File manager

What will you use the file manager for?

  • To create, move, copy or delete files and folders.
  • To navigate your file system. Among other things, we expect you to be able to find files that you have downloaded from the internet.
  • To compress and uncompress files.

The file manager on macOS is called Finder, on Windows it is called File Explorer. We assume that you know how to use your file manager to move and copy files and will therefore not explain this in more detail. To make navigating the file system easier, we would like you to make a few changes to the default Finder settings though. We will then explain how to compress and uncompress files.

4.2.1 Changes to Finder settings

Please make the following two changes to your Finder settings.

1. Show the path bar

  1. Click on your Finder icon:
  2. Click on View.
  3. Click on Show Path Bar.

As a result of this change, you will now see the current path displayed at the bottom of your Finder windows, e.g.:

Note that you can click on the folder names in the path bar to directly jump to one of the folders in the path.

Show/hide this section on file paths

Your file system is a hierarchical structure. Think of your file system as a tower block. A tower block has multiple floors. On each floor, there might be multiple flats. Each flat has multiple rooms. We can visualise this structure in the following way:

.
├── floor1
│   ├── flat1
│   │   ├── room1
│   │   └── room2
│   └── flat2
│       ├── room1
│       └── room2
└── floor2
    ├── flat1
    │   ├── room1
    │   └── room2
    └── flat2
        ├── room1
        └── room2

Now, let us imagine you stored a file in one of the rooms. How would you tell someone else to find it? Clearly, you would need to tell them which floor to go to, which flat to enter and which room to look in. Let us assume the file is in room1 in flat2 on floor1. A short way of writing this could be: /floor1/flat2/room1. On your file system, this is called a path. It describes, well, the path you need to follow to find something you are looking for.

There are two types of paths: absolute and relative. An absolute path always starts at the entrance to the building (on your file system, the entrance is called root). /floor1/flat2/room1 is an example for an absolute path (root is symbolised by the first forward slash in the path). In the Finder, root is called Macintosh HD.

A relative path, as the name suggests, is relative to the location you are currently in. For example, if someone is in /floor1/flat2/room1 and you want them to go to /floor1/flat2/room2, you could simply say “Leave the room you’re currently in and go into room2”. We could write this as ../room2 (where .. means “go one level up in the hierarchy”). Relative paths have the advantage that they are shorter4, but they have the disadvantage that they only work if the person you want to point to the other room really is in /floor1/flat2/room2. If they are not, they will end up in the wrong place.

Now, the Finder on macOS does something quite stupid: By default, it does not make this hierarchical structure particularly clear. It has favourites such as Documents or Downloads, but no favourites for hierarchical levels above these. There is also no obvious way to say “go one level up in the hierarchy”. Finally, it is also not as easy as it should be to find out the absolute path to a location. All of these features make it unnecessarily hard to understand where your files are stored. The changes we outlined above will hopefully make it easier to navigate your file system. If you are interested, you can find more tips for navigating your file system here.

2. Change to list view

  1. Navigate to your Documents folder (e.g., click on “Documents” in the Finder sidebar).
  2. Click on View in the menu bar.
  3. Click on “as List”.
  4. Click on View again.
  5. Click on “Show View Options”.
  6. Select “Always open in list view”. Make sure “Browse in list view” is also selected.
  7. Click on “Use as Defaults”.
  8. Close the popup window.

List view is useful as it shows you key information about files that are not readily available using the other view options. Most importantly, this includes the date on which a file was last modified (you can also add “Date created” using “Show View Options”, as well as others) and the file size. When we start working on creating experiments, you will likely find that, e.g., knowing the time when a file was last modified can be extremely helpful when you’re trying to identify the file you have most recently been working on.

3. Keep folders on top

A somewhat annoying Finder default setting is that folders and files are intermixed when files are sorted by name. It is usually preferable to have folders listed first though. Here is how to achieve this:

  1. Go to the Finder.
  2. Click on Finder.
  3. Click on Settings.
  4. Click on Advanced.
  5. Tick “Keep folders on top: In windows when sorting by name”.

4.2.2 Changes to File Explorer settings

Windows users

The Windows File Explorer has an extremely annoying default setting (and in fact one that is a security risk): It hides file name extensions. Please do make sure to display these by clicking on View and then by ticking the “File name extensions” box.

4.2.3 ZIP files

What will you use ZIP files for?

  • We will provide you with resources in the form of ZIP files.
  • You will need to upload a ZIP file to Moodle for a future assignment.

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. (Wikipedia)

As mentioned on Wikipedia, a single ZIP file can contain many files and folders. This is advantageous as it simplifies data downloads and uploads—instead of having to download or upload many files individually, you only have one file you’re dealing with.

ZIP files on macOS

Unzip a ZIP file

  1. Navigate to the ZIP file in the Finder.
  2. Double-click on the ZIP file.

→ The unzipped folders or files will appear in the location where you unzipped the file.

Create a ZIP file

To zip a folder:

  1. Right-click on the folder you want to zip.
  2. Click on Compress.

→ A file called <yourFolderName>.zip will be created in the location where you zipped the folder.

To zip multiple files:

  1. Select the files you want to zip.
  2. Right-click on one of the files.
  3. Click on Compress.

→ A file called Archive.zip will be created in the location where you zipped the files.

ZIP files on Windows

Unzip a ZIP file

  1. Navigate to the ZIP file in the File Explorer.
  2. Right-click on the ZIP file.
  3. Click on “Extract all…”.
Windows users

If you double-click on a ZIP in File Explorer, Windows will let you “look into” the ZIP file, but it won’t be unzipped! Thus, it is vital that you use “Extract all”!

Create a ZIP file

To zip a folder:

  1. Right-click on the folder you want to zip.
  2. Select “Send to”, and then select “Compressed (zipped) folder”.

To zip multiple files:

  1. Select the files you want to zip.
  2. Right-click on one of the files.
  3. Select “Send to”, and then select “Compressed (zipped) folder”.

Try it out

Download the ZIP file below. By default, downloads are saved to your Downloads folder. The absolute path to your Downloads folder is /Users/yourUsername/Downloads. If the unzipping procedure is successful, you should see a folder with images. Please let us know if you run into any issues!

4.3 Microsoft 365

What will you use Microsoft 365 for?

  • You will use Excel to analyse data.
  • You will use Word to write documents.
  • You will use OneDrive to store files.
macOS users

Yes, your Mac comes with Pages, Keynote and Numbers installed, but we nevertheless highly recommend to install MS Office. The university is very much focused on MS Office, and you will live a happier life if you accept this and use MS Office instead of the native macOS apps.

4.3.1 Installing Microsoft 365

Excel, Word and OneDrive are all part of what Microsoft refers to as Microsoft 365. Thus, you only need to install Microsoft 365 and you should have all the relevant apps.

Note

As installing Microsoft 365 can take a while, we would recommend to install it after the lab class.

  1. Uninstall previous versions of MS Office.
  2. Log in to portal.office.com using your university login and password.
  3. On the Microsoft 365 homepage, click on “Install apps” and then on “Microsoft 365 apps”.

  1. Download the installer file.
  2. Once the download is complete, click on the installer file and follow the instructions.

Note that on your Microsoft 365 homepage (i.e., the page you see after logging in to portal.office.com), you will also find web applications for Word, Excel, etc. However, we would recommend to use the locally installed desktop versions whenever possible as the web applications do not yet have all the features the desktop versions have.

4.3.2 Using OneDrive

We recommend that you store all your university-related files in OneDrive. Using OneDrive has several advantages:

  • You can access your files from any computer with an internet connection.
  • There is plenty of space available (5 TB).
  • When you open a file on OneDrive using one of the Office apps (e.g., Word), any changes made will be automatically saved on OneDrive.
  • OneDrive also creates a file history, allowing to restore previous versions of a file.

You can access OneDrive as a web application from your Microsoft 365 homepage by clicking on “Apps” in the sidebar and then on OneDrive. Alternatively, you can click on the App Launcher (the nine dots in the upper left corner) and then on OneDrive. The OneDrive icon looks like this:

We would recommend to create the following folder structure:

Year1
├── PSGY1001
│   ├── Lab1
│   ├── Lab2
│   └── etc.
├── PSGY1002
│   ├── Lecture1
│   ├── Lecture2
│   └── etc.
└── etc.

You can create a new folder on OneDrive by clicking on New and on Folder:

4.4 PsychoPy

What will you use PsychoPy for?

  • To create experiments.
  • To run experiments.
  • To collect data.

4.4.1 Installing PsychoPy

  1. Download PsychoPy. We would highly recommend to download the standalone version.
  2. After the download has completed, click on the downloaded file.
  3. Drag and drop the PsychoPy icon onto the Applications folder icon (and wait for a while). If you do not complete this step, PsychoPy will not be installed properly!5

After the installation is complete, you need to make two important changes in your system settings. If you do not make these changes, PsychoPy will not work.

  1. Open your system settings.
  2. Click on “Privacy & Security”.
  3. Click on “Accessibility”. Note that this refers to “Accessibility” within “Privacy & Security”, not “Accessibilty” in the sidebar on the left (if in doubt, see screenshot below)! You will probably need to scroll down for this to become visible.
    • If PsychoPy is already listed, make sure the switch on the right is set to “On”.
    • If PsychoPy is not yet listed, click on the plus symbol, navigate to your Applications folder and add PsychoPy.
  4. Click on the back arrow to return to “Privacy & Security”.
  5. Click on “Input Monitoring”.
    • If PsychoPy is already listed, make sure the switch on the right is set to “On”.
    • If PsychoPy is not yet listed, click on the plus symbol, navigate to your Applications folder and add PsychoPy.

System settings:

Privacy & Security:

In Accessibility:

In Input Monitoring:

  1. We will not talk about SPSS though, an app for statistical data analysis, as you will install SPSS in the context of your statistics lectures.↩︎

  2. If that is you, please do not get a computer running Chrome OS! There are a number of essential apps that will not run under Chrome OS (e.g., PsychoPy and SPSS).↩︎

  3. I have the impression that Microsoft 365 web applications tend to work best with Edge. I could be wrong though.↩︎

  4. Another advantage is that you can send someone to a different location without knowing the absolute path. E.g., in our example, you don’t need to know if the next level up is called flat1 or apartment1.↩︎

  5. If you’ve never installed an app on your Mac using this approach before, you might be interested in this page describing different ways to install software on a Mac.↩︎