Guidance for using University services on your personal Windows device

The most likely issue is that your browsers are not configured correctly.  Firefox and Chrome should start working automatically as your device updates, but in the meantime, please see the troubleshooting guidance below on how to configure those browsers.  If you are using Edge browser, we would recommend logging into Edge with your University credentials rather than a personal account.

You are potentially already registered if you see the following prompt. Do not click the "This device hasn't been set up for corporate use yet. Select this message to begin setup" link.

You may also see other screens if you are already registered:

Select the hamburger menu icon, top left, to see the My Profile option in the left hand panel. Select the My Profile option, and your University account details should appear.

If another non-University account is shown, sign out using the rectangle icon top right and sign back in.

If your University details are shown,  you can simply close the app and access services normally as long as you have the up-to-date version of Windows 10 or 11 and all security patches applied.

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If you see a “Something went wrong” screen whilst signing in, then it is likely that you checked the box during the “allow my organization to manage my device” stage.  Please sign out of company portal and back in to continue with the box unchecked.

If you see the below “You cannot access this right now”​​​​​​​ screen when you try and access M365 apps or other corporate resources using your university account, your device is likely to be non-compliant with the University’s security patch requirements, you have not setup your browser or you have not completed the steps above.

In many cases, this can be resolved by manually updating your device to ensure that you have the latest or previous months security patch installed.​​​​​​​

1. Ensure that you have an active internet connection.
2. From the settings menu, select the Updates and Security option.

If you are up to date and still get the "cannot access" screen then you may have previously registered your device, but the details of your operating system version have not been updated.

To rectify this, follow these steps. 

1. ​​​​​​​Type Access Work or School into your search bar

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You may see a screen indicating access is blocked due to the device not having the latest security patch.

If your device cannot update to a supported Windows version (see Supported versions of Windows client) then you will not be able to access University data through the M365 native apps.

We recommend using Edge browser to access corporate resources due to its in-built functionality to support compliance checking, if you require use of another browser please follow the below steps.

Using Edge (recommended)

If you are experiencing issues using Edge then you need to ensure you are signed in to your University of Bristol account.

1. In the browser bar, click the profile button. If you see your University account listed then you are signed in and can skip the next steps

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Using Chrome

Visit the Chrome webstore https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions and search for and install Microsoft Single Sign On, you should now have access.​​​

Using Firefox

Click the Firefox menu button, click Settings, select Privacy & Security on the left, go down to the Logins and Passwords section and check the box next to the Allow Windows single sign-on setting, you should now have access.

Using private browsing

Please be aware that private browsing does not pass the information on the Operating System version through.
If you use private browsing on a personal or managed Windows device, you cannot log in.  
To avoid any issues, please use the following guidelines: 
    •    When using a Windows device, refrain from using private browsing to access University services. 
    •    Use an alternative supported browser – Edge, Firefox or Chrome

Mendeley Reference Manager is not presently supported due to out-of-date browser integration. In order to use Mendeley, you can:

• Access via the Mendeley Website by signing in at https://www.mendeley.com/
• Install Mendeley Cite for Microsoft Word to integrate Mendeley with Microsoft Word from https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-US/product/office/wa104382081?exp=ubp8

The Mozilla Thunderbird email client is not supported on Windows devices and will not work.  

There is a configuration made by Mozilla which is currently incompatible with the University systems, and until it is resolved by Mozilla, it will continue not to work.  

For email on Windows, the supported client is Outlook, or Outlook Web Access (available at https://outlook.office.com/)

There is a known issue with signing in to Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop using the Adobe embedded Chrome browser. 

To log in to Adobe Creative Cloud you can use the Help option to 'Sign in using your browser'.