Technet Subscription - 25% off all Microsoft Store products!

[PAH]

Is it £100 as a one-off, or £100 as the annual membership fee with TN? With AP, it's annual so ends up not being so cheap if you take observing the rules seriously.

There is an annual renewal to stay 100% legit*, though the renewal fee is usually a bit cheaper than the initial subscription fee (around 25% cheaper), so can currently be had for around £75 + vat using the discount code.

As the keys don't expire you can still use them after the sub ends, so renewing only makes sense if there's new software due out in the next renewal period, or you really struggle with your conscience.

* AFAIK, though to be honest I don't really GAS as long as the software continues to work after I've paid for it. Interestingly they call it an upgrade on the Microsoft Store not a renewal. So maybe it's really like buying any other M$ software, you only have to pay when you want to upgrade.

[d000hg]

As the keys don't expire you can still use them after the sub ends, so renewing only makes sense if there's new software due out in the next renewal period, or you really struggle with your conscience.

On the other hand, how is this different from paying for the first year then downloading pirated versions afterwards? Does the fact you paid once make running versions you don't have legit licenses for now any less dodgy?

It's a question not a statement, because I have such lapsed licenses myself. I tell myself that I definitely WILL renew and therefore it's OK, but really am I any different from a common torrenter?

[PAH]

As they are calling it an upgrade (not renewal) on the Microsoft Store I'm treating it like other M$ software. You pay for a licence and can use it forever, or while it still works on your new hardware.

If you want a newer version you pay to upgrade.

So for a one off payment you get Technet and to upgrade in a year or two when the new versions of Windows/Office are out you pay for the Technet upgrade.

Of course the pirates can download all the software and only need to find activation keys for Windows, but for the price it makes sense to at least make an attempt to be legit.

[BillHicksRIP]

Are you allowed to run multiple copies of say, Windows Server 2008 R2? I'd want to have 3 VM's running 2008 for testing different products concurrently. Is that doable or against the rules?

[DcoC]

Are you allowed to run multiple copies of say, Windows Server 2008 R2? I'd want to have 3 VM's running 2008 for testing different products concurrently. Is that doable or against the rules?

Do-able, it's what I do. MS tend to overlook licensing on genuine test rigs, as opposed to live systems.

I created a template image (basic O\S, set to a workgroup, licence activated), and have used it to create over a dozen VMs.

However....you'll need VMWare Virtual Server to run W2k8 - MS Virtual PC does not support 64-bit O\S. You can download that for free

[BillHicksRIP]

Thanks!

[PAH]

I created a template image (basic O\S, set to a workgroup, licence activated), and have used it to create over a dozen VMs.

I was wondering how the Windows activation worked if you created a VM and activated it. Does it stay activated if cloning (copying the VM file to several instances) and moving the VMs onto different hosts, or restoring a VM snapshot?

I suspect they will as that's one of the benefits of VMs, isolating against hardware changes that usually trigger a Windows reactivation requirement!

Also, the Technet keys for Windows can be activated multiple times. You also get different keys for each edition (e.g. Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate all have separate keys).

I've read some people have activated 20 or 30 times during test/rebuild cycles and had no problems.

However....you'll need VMWare Virtual Server to run W2k8 - MS Virtual PC does not support 64-bit O\S. You can download that for free

I'm using VirtualBox, which also supports 64 bit host and guest combos. Lots better than the M$ stuff, though haven't tried any proper production class offerings such as Hyper-V yet, as I'm just tinkering around at home.


Finally, got my Technet Subscriber ID this morning. Upon activating I had a quick gander at the downloads section and forgot that you also get access to the older versions of the main software, and access to release candidates of upcoming stuff. Very handy for testing a problem in an older version of Windows or Office, and checking if the newer versions may break anything.

[TheFaQQer]

I was wondering how the Windows activation worked if you created a VM and activated it. Does it stay activated if cloning (copying the VM file to several instances) and moving the VMs onto different hosts, or restoring a VM snapshot?

As long as the hardware looks similar, then it's OK.

When I tried to load my VM images on this computer, having changed from an Intel to AMD chip, I had to re-verify all the Windows stuff.

[Spacecadet]

I was wondering how the Windows activation worked if you created a VM and activated it. Does it stay activated if cloning (copying the VM file to several instances) and moving the VMs onto different hosts, or restoring a VM snapshot?

In VMWare, when you attach a copied VM Machine it asks you if yuo've copied or just moved it
Select moved

[PAH]

As long as the hardware looks similar, then it's OK.

When I tried to load my VM images on this computer, having changed from an Intel to AMD chip, I had to re-verify all the Windows stuff.

I thought VMs were a way of isolating hardware changes, so a VM should run on any hardware that the hosting software (VirtualBox in my case) runs on, without noticing the change?

One of the reasons I've moved most of my tasks into VMs is so I can be up and running in next to no time if my main PC died as I have a spare, so would just copy the VM backup from my NAS to the other PC or laptop. As some of my VMs use OEM licences the re-activation may fail.

Maybe I should test the scenario before I'm forced too in the 'real world'.