Software & Hardware Requirements

Minute Menu for Centers is written as a "thin client" software.   This means that it must be installed on your computer, but all of its data is saved on secure Internet servers maintained by Minute Menu – no data is stored on your computer.  So Minute Menu works in much the same way as any web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox), constantly downloading and uploading information over the Internet... but unlike those standard web browsers, Minute Menu has been customized to meet the requirements of a system built for the USDA Food Program.

Supported Operating Systems

To install Minute Menu for Centers (whether in a Sponsor's office or at a center), you must have a computer with a Microsoft Windows operating system.   Specifically, the following operating systems are supported:

• Windows XP
• Windows 2000 Professional
• Windows 2000 Server
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows Vista

Pre-Requisites

Depending upon the operating system, Minute Menu for Centers requires certain prerequisites (ie, software that must be installed as part of the operating system).  For example, in Windows XP, you must have Service Pack 2 installed.  The pre-requisites are checked by Minute Menu for Centers during installation, and if any pre-requisites are not installed, the Minute Menu installation software will direct you to Microsoft’s web site to help you install those pre-requisites.  These pre-requisites are all free, provided by Microsoft to anyone who uses Windows.

Minute Menu for Centers requires the Microsoft .NET 2.0 framework in order to run.  If your computer does not already have that installed, then Minute Menu will install it for you when it is being installed.  The .NET 2.0 framework is also free.

Administrator Rights

You must have administrator access in Windows when installing Minute Menu for the first time.  In addition, we upgrade the Minute Menu for Centers thin client with some frequency, and in some cases (but not all) you may need Administrator rights when these updates are applied.

Internet Access Required

You must be connected to the Internet while running Minute Menu for Centers.  A dedicated connection (via DSL, cable, satellite, or some other mechanism) is preferred to dial-up, but is not required.  You can use Minute Menu with a dial-up Internet connection, but you must be connected to the Internet while using the software.

Hardware Requirements

No data is installed by Minute Menu, so you need very little free hard drive space in order to run it – just enough to store the program itself (which is about 30 MB), and to install the pre-requisites.

There are no other hardware requirements from Minute Menu other than those required to using the Microsoft Windows operating system.  So if you have the appropriate Windows operating system, you have met all the requirements for your computer.

You will need a printer to print the reports Minute Menu uses, and you must be able to print to this report in Windows.

Software Recommendations

For Sponsors, Minute Menu generates custom export files directly to Microsoft Excel, so we recommend that you have Microsoft Excel installed in your offices.