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ArcGIS Pro at the University of Illinois

Revised 14 August 2026

Students and faculty at the University of Illinois can access ArcGIS Pro desktop software in a variety of ways:

• Classroom computer labs
• ICS computer labs on campus
• The Scholarly Commons
• UIUC AnyWare
• Install on a home Windows or Mac

Classroom Computer Labs

The most-current version of ArcGIS Pro is available in labs commonly used for GIS classes at UIUC.

• Natural History Building 1020 (managed by SESE IT) is a classroom, but if you are a major in the School of Earth, Society, and the Environment (ESES, Atmospheric Science, Geology, or GGIS) and the door is locked, you can swipe your student ID to access the room whenever NHB is open.
• Davenport 338 (managed by ATLAS) is a classroom that is usually only available to students during their class time, although the door is sometimes left open so that students can access the computers after-hours.

Instructional Computing Labs

The university's Technology Services (which also runs the help desk) supports a number of Instructional Computing Services (ICS) labs around campus that serve dual use as classrooms and open labs. When not being used as classrooms these labs are often open for students to use. Most of these labs have current versions of ArcGIS Pro installed for use.

Some computers in these labs are Apple machines, and you will need to shut them down and reboot them into Windows to run ArcGIS Pro.

A full list of labs and open hours is available here...

Dorm residents can request installation of ArcGIS Pro on dorm lab machines using the form at http://go.illinois.edu/ics_software.

Scholarly Commons

Open access PCs are available in the Scholarly Commons located in Main Library room 220.

AnyWare

Illinois AnyWare provides access to virtual PC computers on any machine with a web browser.

Even though you are interacting with the software as if it is on your own desktop or laptop computer (Mac, PC, Chrome, or Linux), the software is actually running on a cloud server.

1. Log in to AnyWare at: https://anyware.illinois.edu/

2. Select the Graphics-enabled desktop.
3. For alternative keyboard layout, select None. This choice is important so ArcGIS Pro will detect text you type on your keyboard.
4. Save data to OneDrive or in ArcGIS Pro project packages. Although the virtual machine storage syncs to your U of I OneDrive account, that synchronization is unreliable and you can lose data.

Home Installation on Windows

You can install ArcGIS Pro on a home computer at no cost to you under a one-year student license available to you as a member of the U of I community.

ArcGIS Pro only runs on Windows machines, requires significant memory and disk space, and can be quite tricky to install.

If you wish to install ArcGIS Pro on your home Windows machine, you can download an installer .exe from ArcGIS Online:

1. Log in to ArcGIS Online.
2. Click your user icon at the top right corner of the home page and select My settings.
3. On the left menu, select Licenses.
4. By the ArcGIS Pro icon, click Download.
5. Follow the downloader instructions to download the installer .exe file.
6. Run the installer file from your Downloads folder.

Home Installation on Mac

You can run ArcGIS Pro on Apple computers if you have installed Windows on your machine or if you use virtualization software like Parallels. You can then follow the instructions above for installing ArcGIS Pro on Windows.

Installing Windows on a Mac requires a significant amount of storage on your machine and is a risky process that is discouraged unless you have no other reasonable options.