technet question

[l337]

I have a question regarding technet. i am about to buy a one year subcription to technet, but i want to now if the keys they offer in technet expire when my subscription expires

 

[ThaiAm]

No the keys remain valid for installed software.

 

[DataMan47]

Right now, TechNet keys are perpetual and will remain valid even after your subscription expires. And there can be several activations per key, too, so they are also easier to use than regular retail keys.

But the Terms of Service also prohibits you from using TechNet keys for anything other than "evaluation". So using it to install Windows on your primary machine for daily use would be against the license terms and would thus be "piracy". Microsoft makes almost no effort to enforce this (though they will track you down if you try to sell the keys or if they detect a suspicious number of activations), but there's no guarantee that they'll always be this lax. And if they wanted to, they could change this policy at any time (e.g., by making the keys expire if your account does). It's unlikely that they will since they've been this lax for a long time, but you never know if Steve Ballmer might have a change of heart one day.

 

[Dorfdad]

Hey DataMan47 Even if Microsoft did change the rules on the fly they would face alot of legal issues since people bought this under the terms set forth now. I can see them changing it for new users but if you own an account they have to allow the keys to work forever.

Thats like you leasing a car with x miles allowed and half way through they say were only allowing 3000 miles a year. You would be grandfathered.

But if you dont be a total jerk and give out 1000 keys to everyone you will never have a problem.

 

[usasma]

You have to renew your TechNet subscription yearly (AFAIK) - so they can slip a "terms" change in at almost any time.

I can afford a lawyer or two (at most). Microsoft can afford hundreds of 'em - who's gonna win in court?

 

[Dorfdad]

Agree but what Im saying is if you buy it now you Legal own the licenses for Windows 7 or whatever software from now till eternity.

Yes they can change the terms for new users or when you renew, but if you don't renew they are still bound to the terms set forth in the original contract they cant just stop letting your key work unless there is some abuse.

 

[ccatlett1984]

Agree but what Im saying is if you buy it now you Legal own the licenses for Windows 7 or whatever software from now till eternity.

Yes they can change the terms for new users or when you renew, but if you don't renew they are still bound to the terms set forth in the original contract they cant just stop letting your key work unless there is some abuse.

Except that they have a clause in the terms that they can change the terms. Thats how they went to all digital download in the middle of the year, instead of being forced to wait till the renewals this october.

 

[24c]

I recently purchased a TechNet subcription, TechNet Direct Retail. This is my 1st experience with TechNet and I was wondering if anyone knows when Windows 7 would appear on TechNet in relation to the RTM date. Thanks.

 

[DataMan47]

Hey DataMan47 Even if Microsoft did change the rules on the fly they would face alot of legal issues since people bought this under the terms set forth now. I can see them changing it for new users but if you own an account they have to allow the keys to work forever.

Thats like you leasing a car with x miles allowed and half way through they say were only allowing 3000 miles a year. You would be grandfathered.

I haven't read all of the terms, but I don't think that MSFT said that they'd give you a perpetual license that never expires. They do say that you can use it only for evaluation, and it would seem that a perpetual license would fly in the face of that.

So a better analogy would be this: You are leasing a car, and the car company says that you can't leave the country with the car. But they never check for that, and some of your buddies tell you that you can even drive as many miles as you want. Then the company says that you can't drive more than 3K miles. They can do that because they never promised unlimited miles. And second, they can justify it by saying "if you never leave the country, you wouldn't need to use more than 3K miles per year anyway, right?". The key here is what you mean by "allowed": if they "allowed" perpetual licenses as a part of the agreement, then it's much harder to change, but if they "allowed" perpetual licenses because they never bothered to say otherwise, then they are free to change that on a whim.

I'm not saying that they would do this. But that they could. Especially now that more and more people are using TechNet as a way to "buy" their stuff at a huge discount.

 

[ken9122]

But if you dont be a total jerk and give out 1000 keys to everyone you will never have a problem.

This is the important part!! keep them for your personal use.

 

[usasma]

I wouldn't worry about the keys "expiring" - what I'd worry about is what I was going to do when I needed to reinstall a program/OS and I didn't have the TechNet subscription anymore.

 

[DarkXeno]

I wouldn't worry about the keys "expiring" - what I'd worry about is what I was going to do when I needed to reinstall a program/OS and I didn't have the TechNet subscription anymore.

Thats the problem I have cause I use to have one years ago and now I'm getting back into all of this and I dont know if I should buy an account again only to say in a year nope Im done....

 

[24c]

As I mentioned earlier, I just got a TechNet subscription. I d/l and saved the software I wanted and have the keys. Shouldn't I be able to re-install in the future?

 

[Dorfdad]

it been said a million times the keys DO not expire. 1 year two years 5 years from now. Its exactly like a retail key but for EVALUATION only.

Use it at home, do not give them out all over the place and if you want once you get the account generate all the KEYS (10) and store them in a file use them when you need them..

If you dont re-register no problem you can still re-install the OS later using the keys you generated.

 

[24c]

Thanks Dorfdad - that is exactly what I was led to believe. I save the d/ls, I save the keys, I'm good to go. Thanks again!

 

[l337]

i have another question can i buy this Newegg.com - Microsoft TechNet Plus Direct Subscription (English North America) - Programming & Web Development
or should i just buy it from microsoft

because i missed the 249 technet deal

 

[poin2]

i have another question can i buy this ...or should i just buy it from microsoft

because i missed the 249 technet deal

I'd look around for a coupon at least. They seem to market TechNet a bit more widely than once upon a time and coupons readily show up on Yahoo (as in using their services, not necessarily via search), etc. They'll also occasionally do really big discounts for students. If anything they seem to be encouraging the average consumer more-and-more to sign up.

Anyway, it'd be surprising if you can't eventually do better than the Newegg deal.

 

[l337]

I'd look around for a coupon at least. They seem to market TechNet a bit more widely than once upon a time and coupons readily show up on Yahoo (as in using their services, not necessarily via search), etc. They'll also occasionally do really big discounts for students. If anything they seem to be encouraging the average consumer more-and-more to sign up.

Anyway, it'd be surprising if you can't eventually do better than the Newegg deal.

ok i think i would wait a while till i get a better deal, i wish a deal comes by the end of july becasue i would love to use it foe windows 7 and then office 2010. also about the student discount, does that apply to high school students

 

[poin2]

...also about the student discount, does that apply to high school students

I seem to recall them saying you may need to fax them ID the few times I've been aware of it, but I don't recall a high school/college differentiation:

http://forums.techarena.in/technology-internet/1196315.htmhttp://forums.techarena.in/technology-internet/1196315.htm

 

[Brand]

Seems that recently Microsoft had abolished all previous 25% off coupons for TechNet Plus, now there are only 15% off ones, like this, TMSAM04.

The only problem these subscriptions have since birth is the strict limit of use. You can pay relatively much less for all the big titles, but you cannot use them as freely as you want to. TechNet sub is limited to evaluation only, while MSDN is for internal test and development.

However, Microsoft is quite a generous corporation. They don't care that much if you "overuse" your subscriptions a little bit.