Software and tools for studies and distance learning

Page reviewed:  14/01/2026

As an active student at SLU, you have access to several digital tools and apps for online studies and teaching.

Adobe

Adobe's programs are available on our public computers. You can access these by logging in to the computer and then on Creative Cloud.

Some design courses provide access to Adobe for home use. Check with your teacher if this applies to your course.

Affinity

We would also like to recommend Affinity's suite of image editing programs that you can download for free from SLU's program download page or use via My Desktop

ArcGIS

AutoCAD

As a student, you can install several of Autodesk's software (e.g. AutoCAD, Revit, etc.) free of charge. Go to the link below and click Get started on the product you want to get started.

Create an account with your student email. You will receive an email to confirm the account, then you can log in to download the software. Before downloading, you must log in with your SLU student login to verify that you have permission.

NOTE! We have noticed that some students, in addition to logging in to SLU, also have to upload additional evidence to confirm studies and we are investigating what is causing this. If you as a student are asked to provide additional evidence, follow the instructions below to log in to Ladok and download a registration certificate that you can then upload to Autodesk:

- Log in to Ladok according to the following link:
https://www.student.ladok.se/

- Go to Certificate in the menu
- Select Download certificate
- Select Registration certificate
- Select English and click Download

Renewal: As long as a student has an active SLU account and email, the license can be renewed. For more information, read here:

Canvas - learning platform

Canvas is a web-based course environment with virtual course rooms that the teacher on your course can create.

Canvas has four functions:

  • Distribute materials, instructions, links and learning objectives.
  • Enable the submission of work in a secure way.
  • Communication with your teacher and other students in the course.
  • Tools for evaluations, tests and quizzes.

Read more about Canvas >>

MATLAB

As a student, you can download a full version of MATLAB with most Toolboxes to your personal computer. Supported operating systems are Linux, Mac OS X, Unix and Windows.

More information about installation

Microsoft Office 365

As a student at SLU, you can download and install Microsoft Office 365 free of charge. The package gives you access to several Office services and enables communication and collaboration with other students and your teachers.

You also get 1 TB of storage in OneDrive. Please note that your account on Office 365 is linked to your student account and will be deactivated when you no longer have active courses at SLU. During the first 30 days, OneDrive is automatically reactivated if the account is reactivated. After that, our M365 admins can access/recreate/reread the files for another 90 days. After these 120 days have passed (about 4 months), the files are completely deleted.

Office packages includes:

  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Outlook and several other software.

Office supports PCs and tablets with Windows 7 or later versions, as well as Mac computers with Mac OS X 10.13 or higher.

Office for iPad can be installed on iPads with version 7.0 or higher.

Log in with your student account.

My Desktop

By connecting to the "My Desktop" service, you get access to SLU's standard apps and the documents and files that you have saved on an SLU computer.

To get started with Windows Internet Explorer

  1. Go to https://rdsweb.slu.se/RDWeb/
  2. Log in with your student account
  3. Select a program from the list

To get started with an app for Mac, IOS or Android

Mac: Download and open the Microsoft Remote Desktop client from the Appstore.
IOS: Install the Microsoft Remote Desktop app from the Appstore.
Android: Install the Microsoft Remote Desktop app from Google

  1. Click the plus sign and select Feed (Mac)/Remote Resources (iOS).
  2. Go to https://rdsweb.slu.se/RDWeb/feed/webfeed.aspx
  3. Log in with your student account
  4. Select a program from the list.

Zoom - video lectures and video meetings

Zoom is a tool for video meetings and online lectures.

Read more about Zoom

Other free software

Because many people are unable to get to campus to get help installing apps on their private computers, we have created a apps download page where you can log in and download the apps you need for your studies using your SLU email address and SLU password.

The programs are only those for which we have a campus license and are allowed to be installed on private computers; programs purchased by individual departments are not posted on this software share.

There are also a number of programs that are particularly good if you have reading and writing difficulties, but some of them are excellent for all users.