Important Notice: Unannounced Changes to Microsoft Technet Subscriptions

[jtennison]

Effective sometime yesterday (Sept 17) the number of licenses has been reduced from 10 to 5 for Technet Professional, and 2 for Technet Standard for each of the Windows 7 and Office 2010 products. As yet there seems to be no official announcement by Microsoft of these changes.

[reggie14]

Well that sucks. I was actually just going to get a TechNet subscription to play around with some virtualization software. Though, 5 is probably still just enough licenses for my purposes. Do you know if you get extra telephone activations? I read some places that they'll let you do a bunch of activations over the telephone.

I kind of figured MS would have to do something about the rampant misuse of the TechNet program as a source of cheap MS software. But really, while limiting it to 2 is probably low enough to discourage misuse, 5 is probably plenty for the people that are just installing stuff on their PCs for personal use. Really I think this mostly just screws up people looking to run a bunch of VMs in different configurations.

[joematt]

Remember you get 5 keys for each variation so you get 5 for Win 7 pro, 5 for ultimate etc.

[joematt]

Microsoft: TechNet Licenses Downgrade Is Just a Web Issue

http://community.winsupersite.com/bl...web-issue.aspx

[jtennison]

Originally Posted by joematt

Microsoft: TechNet Licenses Downgrade Is Just a Web Issue

http://community.winsupersite.com/bl...web-issue.aspx

Thanks for the update. I guess I won't try for an 80% refund, based on reducing my available licenses from 10 to 2.

Added 09-21-2010: Cancel that cheering section! The reductions are for real. But unannounced middle-of-the-night changes like this really leave a bad taste in the mouth. Particularly as they apply to all existing, as well as new subscriptions.

[reggie14]

Have they fixed this yet?

Also, can someone with a Technet subscription tell me if WinXP versions are still available with Technet? Can you still get older versions, like Win XP SP1 or SP2? If not, can you uninstall the service packs (from what I understand, you usually can't do that)?

I'm trying to play around with older versions of software, including Windows XP, with known vulnerabilities. I think I have CDs with WinXP SP1 and SP2 on them. Will the TechNet keys work with those CDs if I want to use an old version of XP?

[joematt]

It still is showing only 5 keys for the Pro subs.

Here's the whole list of XP that's available.

Windows Driver Kit Version 7.1.0 (x86, x64, and ia64) - DVD (English)
2/28/2010 View View Download
620 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
6/30/2008 View View Download
545 (MB)



Windows XP Professional N with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD VL (English)
5/2/2008 View Unavailable



Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD VL (English)
5/2/2008 View Unavailable



Windows XP Home K with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
565 (MB)



Windows XP Home KN with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
550 (MB)



Windows XP Home N with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
551 (MB)



Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
565 (MB)



Windows XP Professional K with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
615 (MB)



Windows XP Professional KN with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
597 (MB)



Windows XP Professional N with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
598 (MB)



Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 (x86) - CD (English)
5/1/2008 View View Download
589 (MB)



Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with SP2 - VL (English)
5/4/2007 View Unavailable



Ink Analysis and Input Supplement for the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Development Kit 1.7 (English)
9/29/2006 View View Download
14 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 1a (English)
7/7/2006 View View Download
282 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SDK 1.7 (English)
1/4/2006 View View Download
15 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center SDK - December CTP (English)
12/29/2005 View View Download
4 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Diagnostics Kit v3.0 (English)
11/3/2005 View View Download
8 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 SDK (English)
11/3/2005 View View Download
3 (MB)



Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (English)
10/13/2005 View View Download
29 (MB)



Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Symbols (Multi-Language)
10/13/2005 View View Download
61 (MB)



Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP - Beta Upgrade Notes (English)
10/4/2005 View View Download
0.056 (MB)



Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP (English)
10/4/2005 View View Download
2 (MB)



Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP (English)
7/13/2005 View View Download
2 (MB)



Windows XP Pro N Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 1
6/30/2005 View View Download
417 (MB)



Windows XP Pro N Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 2
6/30/2005 View View Download
492 (MB)



Windows XP Pro N Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 3
6/30/2005 View View Download
308 (MB)



Windows XP Pro N Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 4
6/30/2005 View View Download
348 (MB)



Windows XP Pro N Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 5
6/30/2005 View View Download
158 (MB)



Windows XP Professional N - VL (English)
6/30/2005 View Unavailable



Windows XP Professional N (English)
6/30/2005 View View Download
604 (MB)



Windows XP Home Edition N (English)
6/29/2005 View View Download
584 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack - x64 - CD3 (Multi-Language)
6/16/2005 View View Download
562 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack - x64 - CD4 (Multi-Language)
6/16/2005 View View Download
162 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack - x64 - CD2 (Multi-Language)
5/24/2005 View View Download
554 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 CD 1 - VL (English)
5/18/2005 View Unavailable



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 CD 2 - VL (English)
5/18/2005 View Unavailable



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack - x64 - CD1 (Multi-Language)
4/26/2005 View View Download
449 (MB)



Windows XP Professional x64 Edition - VL (English)
4/7/2005 View Unavailable



Windows XP Professional x64 Edition - Debug/Checked (English)
3/29/2005 View View Download
628 (MB)



Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (English)
3/29/2005 View View Download
586 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SDK (English)
3/21/2005 View View Download
3 (MB)



Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 (English)
12/17/2004 View View Download
564 (MB)



Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2- VL (English)
9/20/2004 View Unavailable



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 - CD1 (English)
9/8/2004 View View Download
588 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 - CD2 (English)
9/8/2004 View View Download
258 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Customer Support and Diagnostics Tools Disc (English)
9/8/2004 View View Download
411 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 2 Platform SDK (English)
9/7/2004 View View Download
237 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack - IA64 - CD 1 (Multi-Language)
8/26/2004 View View Download
302 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (English) - CD1
8/26/2004 View View Download
587 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (English) - CD2
8/26/2004 View View Download
192 (MB)



Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (English)
8/11/2004 View View Download
587 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 2 - Network Install - (English)
8/9/2004 View View Download
266 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 2 - Network Install - Check/Debug - (English)
8/9/2004 View View Download
293 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 2 (English)
8/6/2004 View View Download
475 (MB)



Windows XP Service Pack 2 Customer Support Diagnostics Tools (English)
8/6/2004 View View Download
404 (MB)



MUI and Recognizer Pack for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC
2/27/2004 View View Download
404 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition CD1 - Debug/Checked (English)
11/4/2003 View View Download
568 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 Update (English)
9/29/2003 View View Download
144 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition CD1 (English)
5/7/2003 View View Download
536 (MB)



Windows Hardware Compatibility Test Kit for Windows XP Version 11.2 (English)
3/27/2003 View View Download
512 (MB)



Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003 (English)
3/26/2003 View View Download
501 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition CD1 (English)
2/4/2003 View View Download
540 (MB)



Windows XP Media Center Edition CD2 (English)
2/4/2003 View View Download
153 (MB)



Windows XP SP1 Driver Development Kit (DDK) (English)
11/14/2002 View View Download
138 (MB)



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition CD1 (English) - VL
11/12/2002 View Unavailable



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition CD2 (English) - VL
11/12/2002 View Unavailable



Windows XP Tablet PC Edition CD2 (English)
9/4/2002 View View Download
153 (MB)



Windows XP Professional (VL) ISO CD Image (English)
8/8/2002 View Unavailable



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 5 (Multi-Language)
4/10/2002 View View Download
197 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 3 (Multi-Language)
3/18/2002 View View Download
441 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 4 (Multi-Language)
3/18/2002 View View Download
444 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 1 (Multi-Language)
10/25/2001 View View Download
465 (MB)



Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack CD 2 (Multi-Language)
10/25/2001 View View Download
557 (MB)



Windows XP Home Edition (English) - ISO CD Image
9/28/2001 View View Download
474 (MB)



Windows Customer Support Diagnostics (English)
9/21/2001 View View Download
524 (MB)



Windows XP Driver Development Kit (DDK) (English)
9/21/2001 View View Download
130 (MB)



Windows XP Professional (English)
9/21/2001 View View Download
489 (

[JetreL]

Sure you can get Window XP, XP SP1, XP SP2, XP SP3, XP 64bit. All the Service Packs are available for download too.

[vividweb]

I'm only showing 5 keys available, so not quite fixed yet.

[joematt]

UPDATE:
From:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...?prof=required

It looks like this is now the new policy:

From: Mike Kinsman
MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions Support

I'm sorry for the delay in our response here. This first change went through on the website a little bit sooner than the folks who were doing the messaging, and we finally have both nailed down. We will be updating the Subscriptions FAQ shortly to reflect this as well.

As of last Wednesday, the number of keys per product TechNet Standard customers is 2 keys. The new limit for TechNet Professional customesr is 5 keys .

If customers have previously claimed more than 2 or 5 keys for these products, those keys are still visible, and activations performed using these keys will still be valid.

Thanks,
Mike

[reggie14]

Thanks for looking up the different software versions for me.

While this change is annoying, I think its less annoying than I originally thought. From what I understand, you get 10 activations on different machines for every key. Reinstalling on the same machine, from what I understand, won't count against that (but apparently might count against some unspoken limit). The MS people on the Technet forum seem to be going so far as to say that you're allowed to use the same key on 10 different machines *at the same time*.

Assuming that's true, then this isn't a big deal. It also sounds like you're not even strictly limited to 10. If you need to go above that then I think you can call in to activate. I've had to do that before with retail product keys and it wasn't terribly painful.