The ultimate software deal has strings attached

Topic

New Reply

	WOODY’S WINDOWS[/size][/font] The ultimate software deal has strings attached[/size]
	By Woody Leonhard If you qualify, a Microsoft TechNet subscription lets you download nearly every application Microsoft sells, all for a paltry $199. It’s completely legitimate — so long as you’re not using the software for work but rather evaluating its features, testing its performance, or otherwise assessing its suitability for yourself or others.[/size]

---

The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2010/07/01/07 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

Reply | Quote

Replies

To find out whether a specific application needs a Professional subscription, look for it in the TechNet Subscriptions downloads page. The link provided in the story http://windowssecrets.com/links/e7v4ny90m9ped/c9c461h/?url=technet.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fsubscriptions%2Fdownloads%2Fdefault.aspx requires one to already have a technet subscription.

Reply | Quote

Any Windows Live ID will also work.

Reply | Quote

1. Try to avoid the suffixed downloads – N, K and KN (N=No Media | K=Korea [no MSN] | KN= K+N).
2. You can’t ‘upgrade’ from a Win7 flavour to a higher one. You are instructed to use ‘Anytime Upgrade’.
3. Using Firefox is problematical. Use IE, as you need to install the ActiveX Download Manager.
4. Still looking for the attached strings, Woody!

Reply | Quote

Terry –

The only strings are the licensing requirements. Everything else is no-strings-attached.

Reply | Quote

no office 2008 for the mac available under technet?

Reply | Quote

I was excited to read this article and tried to purchase a subscription but was thwarted by Microsoft Australia charge of AUD337. This equates to an exchange rate of 59US cents for every Australian dollar. What a rip off, since the real exchange rate is closer to 85US cents for each Australian dollar. And Microsoft US insists on a valid US address during registration. Anyone like to supply a dummy US address for me to use so I can download a US subscription?

Disappointed.

Reply | Quote

My (UK) credit card company does an extremely fair exchange rate between $$s and ££s, so that for me, buying software from US-based websites where the price is denominated in dollars, it is almost invariably better for me to pay in dollars, and get the credit card company to do the conversion to pounds, than to let the software website apply whatever conversion rate they fancy (often costing an additional 5% or greater). Worth a look?

But you may have the problems you describe if the software needs to be ‘localised’ or is not available at the US price. It’s not for nothing that the UK is known as Treasure Island, where hardware and software manufacturers attempt to get away with a conversion rate of $1 = £1 (charging much the same number of pounds as is charged in dollars in the US), instead of the real exchange rate of (currently) about $1.5 = £1. All sorts of largely specious reasons are given for the increased cost in the UK, the “additional cost of doing business for lower volumes”, localisation, Value Added Tax, and so on. We categorise this as “a rip-off”…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

Reply | Quote

I tried to get to the pages to compare and/or purchase a subscription. Everything I tried clicking led me to this:

https://technet.microsoft.com/Message-Error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

saying the page I wanted was not longer available. If I tried going to the TechNet home page and then clicking on buy a subscription, I ended up with the same result.

Reply | Quote

You wrote, “With a few exceptions, each of those keys can be used up to ten times.”
I recently heard they cut it down to two times. What are your thoughts on this?

Reply | Quote

Woody,

I just did the Technet Standard Subscription at $199.00….heads up….Microsoft has limited the Keys to 5 for the Professional Subscription….and, 2 for the Standard. Does that mean for each of the Microsoft Products or only as stated? A tad confused here. Oh, and thank you for the info!!!

Kind Regards,

Hal R.

Reply | Quote

It’s 5 keys per product for the Professional subscription and 2 per product for the Standard.

Reply | Quote