Technet Plus changed and Reduced number of Keys to 5

[pparks1]

Agreed: We agree to disagree. I never said we only purchased 1 TechNet Pro.

Well, there we go. So, I don't see why limiting Technet Pro and Standard is such a big deal...as these larger scenarios often used as examples are always covered under other programs..where there aren't as many restrictions.

Most home user (not IT Pro) technet subscribers are just peeved because they cannot install to as many machines or give keys away to friends, others, etc as they have done in the past. Or they are angry out of principal at the business practice of taking something away in mid contract. The rest of the technet subscribers really won't notice anything different now.

 

[WindowsStar]

Respectfully, the problem with this logic is you are assuming we can use Enterprise everywhere and that all machines are on a Domain. IT in a huge corporate world is extremely difficult, you have to support 5 different version of Windows 7

Well, in an enterprise world, if you had an enterprise agreement than you would most likely deploy Windows 7 enterprise edition across the board. I have yet to work in a corporate environment where some machines ran Windows7 starter, some ran home premium, others ran enterprise and a few had Ultimate.

Having an enterprise agreement with Microsoft does not dictate you have to be on a domain.

Anyway, I think this conversation is pointless as a large corporate environment like you describe above would never in a million years purchase 1 license for Technet standard and expect to support their organization. My current company is only 300 people, some in Australia, some in Europe and some in the US and for what we use our Enterprise Agreement renewal cost is almost $250,000 a year. These are not technet organizations.

$250,000 a year that is a small about, when you are talking millions of dollars our CEO does not want to spend a dime. $250,000 barely keeps the network connections between all locations turned on for a month.

And yes we are a multi TechNet user.

Again all good. Thanks for the discussion.

 

[WindowsStar]

Agreed: We agree to disagree. I never said we only purchased 1 TechNet Pro.

Well, there we go. So, I don't see why limiting Technet Pro and Standard is such a big deal...as these larger scenarios often used as examples are always covered under other programs..where there aren't as many restrictions.

Most home user (not IT Pro) technet subscribers are just peeved because they cannot install to as many machines or give keys away to friends, others, etc as they have done in the past. Or they are angry out of principal at the business practice of taking something away in mid contract. The rest of the technet subscribers really won't notice anything different now.

Agreed.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Just to confirm that CURRENTLY (27 Sep 2007) SERVER products such as Windows 2003 server R2 Enterprise still show 10 keys as being available to technet professional but who knows for how much longer.

My only worry in all this is say another 6 months down the line will MS say OK Standard Subscriptions will be reduced to ONE key per product and the Professional to TWO keys per product.

After all they've changed the policy once so who says they can't do it again.

I've harvested all my keys now just in case we get this same stuff foisted on us again. I had already got a few as well before the change so I'm OK -- it's also unlikely I'd EVER use that many but I'm being cautious now --better safe than sorry.

I was lucky since ALL my downloads were reset to 0 including Windows Enterprise which has MAK (Multiple Activation for almost unlimited times).

I could probably bet EVERYONE on this board a Million Dollars (US) to a barrel load of Horse shXXe that *tightening up the rules* WILL NOT REDUCE PIRACY BUT WILL INCREASE IT.

Nearly everyone whose tried this B/S from "DRM'ing" Music to regional encoding of the older standard DVD's have found to their cost that the PIRATES are ALWAYS ahead in this game.

The ONLY FOOLPROOF way to reduce piracy is to EASE access to the products. This has been shown OVER AND OVER AGAIN to be the only way.

If any Technet keys are found on ebay or torrent sites the simple solution is to kill those plus all other ones harvested by the subscriber and BAR him / her from ANY future application for another subscription.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Tews]

The MAk keys have an initial limit of 500 activations, and FYI, the MAK key can be used with the Windows 7 Professional version.. (Im going to try this later on today to confirm it)

 

[myhken]

The MAk keys have an initial limit of 500 activations, and FYI, the MAK key can be used with the Windows 7 Professional version.. (Im going to try this later on today to confirm it)

You don't have to try it out, I have done it, and it work. And if you see on this screen image from VAMT 2.0, you can see that the Enterprise key is for Pro also:

http://myhken.info/div/vamt_technet_mak_001.jpg

 

[Tews]

Thanks for that .... saved me some time and verified what I thought...

 

[jimbo45]

The MAk keys have an initial limit of 500 activations, and FYI, the MAK key can be used with the Windows 7 Professional version.. (Im going to try this later on today to confirm it)

You don't have to try it out, I have done it, and it work. And if you see on this screen image from VAMT 2.0, you can see that the Enterprise key is for Pro also:

http://myhken.info/div/vamt_technet_mak_001.jpg

Hi there
Thanks also for the info -- I was worried also about WIN 7 PRO as I've used a few keys already in testing.

But a tip -- don't just red line the keys -- you can easily "unlayer" this with photoshop.

The best way is to DELETE the keys from the original JPG.

I've seen on Financial sites where people post documents requesting advice on Credit Card debts with Illegal or dubious Credit agreements. The Accounts are often crossed out like your picture. Skilled Photoshoppers can often get to the layer underneath or remove the red line to get the posters credit card number or credit agreement.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[myhken]

jimbo45: Thank you for the tip, but they keys is not what I have taken away here, it's my e-mail address. But if it's true what you write I can have a big problem since I have posted screenshots off all of my Technet subscription key pages to show people what products that's get what number of keys for.
And if it's so easy to get rid of the "red" og "white" or something, I have a problem, then people has access to all of my keys....
Are you sure you can do this? I'm not using PhotoShop to only add a layer, I'm using a old photosoftware from late 1990. So it's will not create a new layer....
Can you give me any links to info about this problem? Because, I have a several problem if it's true.

 

[Tews]

Just be sure to merge the layers before saving the image and you'll be ok...

 

[myhken]

Just be sure to merge the layers before saving the image and you'll be ok...

But I'm using a photo program that has no layers. I'm using PaintShopPro 4.14 from 1997.

 

[Tews]

I checked the image and found no other layers.. yer ok...

 

[jimbo45]

Just be sure to merge the layers before saving the image and you'll be ok...

Hi tews -- for people who KNOW Photoshop your solution is fine but the typical casual user won't know that which is why I'd suggest in removing all PERSONAL / Sensitive data from an image BEFORE posting it.

Hi Myhken You'll probably be OK as it requires a bit of expertise to cull this info from an image but people CAN do it so it's just a hint for next time.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Tews]

Hi Jimbo..

You're probably correct ... I've been using GIMP for years and I always merge the layers... its just automatic for me..

 

[Dave76]

I wonder if this is one of the ways unscrupulous pirates are getting the TechNet keys.

 

[Tews]

No... they are getting them from unscrupulous TechNet subscribers who sell them on Ebay...

 

[myhken]

No... they are getting them from unscrupulous TechNet subscribers who sell them on Ebay...

It's much money in

MS products (and Adobe) and people is temped to sell a key or two (or 100) when they get a Technet account. They only need a key or two for them self, maybe some to their friend. And then they think..what to do with rest of my 90 keys for Windows 7? Hey, what if I sell them for $30 a piece? Thats $2.700, and I have only paid $199.

BizSpark was the first program that was misused in so large scale that MS almost stopped accepting new accounts, and they cut the number of keys down to 2 per products (and there they have cut down to two for EVERY products, almost).
And if anybody is generating a "large" number of Windows and/or Office keys, they close down their account, without sending a mail, or anything. It just happened with me..but after some mails, and help from my Norwegian BizSpark Champ and Mike Kinsman from MSDN, my account was online again. But I have a real company... but had followed an advice from Mike to use the .xml function, and create all keys, and save the file. The BizSpark team was not impressed with my actions, and closed it down.

Since BizSpark is "free" (no upfront payment) you can easly fool them, and lots of people (or maybe the same people, but the have created lots of accounts) created a large numbers of "business" right after the Win7 release. And before MS reduced the number of keys, you got 10 keys for every products (SKUs).

After BizSpark was reduced, the pirates moved on to Technet, that's cost money, but still, the profit is VERY high if you can sell every key for $30 or more. And you can sell the same key 10 times, so the earnings is great. And since MS is a so large company it takes some time before people start complaning about one key, that they can't get activated, and of course is 100% genuine (paid $30 on ebay), to MS actually close down the Technet/MSDN/BizSpark account. And blacklist the rest of the keys. But at this point, the seller have most likely sold all his/her keys, and can have a great party for all the money they have earned.

 

[pparks1]

myhken,

I think you are pretty spot on here. It's sad that some will screw something up for everybody...but no doubt that is what was going on. It's part of the reason that I always maintained that something was odd in that a retail copy of Windows and Office together is about $500-$600...yet people could just buy Technet for $199 and get it all. Technet should have always cost a whole lot more. I'm really unsure how Microsoft thought that this program would not be abused. So, at the end of the day, if a $199 or $349 subscription to Technet is a reasonable price for 2 licenses with 10 activations.....then a single retail copy of Windows should probably cost $50 or less.

 

[myhken]

Mike Kinsman from Microsoft is now writing that the reduction IS for EVERY products as stated in the FAQ, I just checked and still have 10 keys for all the products I had 10 keys for before, but most likely the will change this very soon. So if you don't have generated all your keys, I think this is the time for it.

Here is my almost complete list of available keys and products on a Technet Pro account taken yesterday:
Technet Pro Product and key list

I think everyone's made their point here so far in the thread. The number of keys per subscription is now spelled out in our FAQ and, as has been mentioned above, the policy now affects all products.
Its been made clear that the number of keys per subscription wasn't listed in the Subscriptions EULA, which is true. The difficulty that some customers have experienced with this change is real, however, and we always encourage open and honest feedback and discussions directly through our support teams and openly here on the forums.
This comes after much discussion and concern and frustration from many people I work with and work for on the team over the past few months. As it states in the FAQ, the goal here is to allow us to continue supporting our IT Pro audience with the TechNet Subscription as a software evaluation program while mitigating illegitimate counterfeiting and piracy activities. We continue to regret any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused to our legitimate subscribers.
As always, we look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Mike

Se the info from Mike here:
Technet Standard Keys

 

[hackerman1]

Mike Kinsman from Microsoft is now writing that the reduction IS for EVERY products as stated in the FAQ, I just checked and still have 10 keys for all the products I had 10 keys for before, but most likely the will change this very soon. So if you don't have generated all your keys, I think this is the time for it.

so i WAS right...

call me HAWKEYE...