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IEEE and ACM availability of Windows 7 from MSDNAA

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The MSDN Academic Alliance program was established seven years ago as a membership service to provide access to MS platform and development tools to STEM departments at educational institutions throughout the world. In 2008, Microsoft extended availability of MSDN AA to organizations such as IEEE and ACM whose mission was to support the educational and professional development of students in technical disciplines.

The release of Windows 7 through these subscriptions triggered an unanticipated situation that put the program at risk: We saw signs that non-students were joining ACM and IEEE as student members solely to obtain Windows 7 through MSDN AA. This infringed on the intent of the program and the conditions of the MSDN AA license. As a result, we decided to remove Windows 7 from the association MSDN AA memberships while we evaluate approaches to ensure that the offering is reaching only the target audience: students and educators. While we expect to have a final position on the matter resolved in the near future, we cannot guarantee that Windows 7 will be available through this associations due to the complexity of student enrollment verification. We recommend the technical students and educators use their institutional and department MSDN AA subscription to obtain Windows 7. Find your department’s MSDNAA availability at https://www.msdnaa.net/search/schoolsearch.aspx (Once you find your school/department, click on the ‘Get Software’ link)

Background: The MSDN Academic Alliance program was established seven years ago as a membership service to provide access to MS platform and development tools to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) departments at educational institutions throughout the world. Through the program, 500+ professional-level Microsoft developer and design software products and tools are available to students, faculty and labs in these departments with a license for teaching/learning and research (non-commercial) purposes.

MSDN AA is available at over 20,000 departments world-wide and over 5000 departments in US.  All of these institutions do include Windows 7 professional as part of their MSDNAA membership and are making Windows 7 Pro available to students at no cost. Please contact your school/department to encourage them to use MSDNAA and make Windows 7 available to all eligible students.

If your school/department does not have MSDN AA (i.e. not listed at https://www.msdnaa.net/search/schoolsearch.aspx), encourage them to sign-up for MSDNAA membership at https://msdnaa.net

If your school/department has MSDNAA, check if Windows 7 Professional edition is available for student download - https://blogs.msdn.com/gautam/archive/2009/08/13/making-windows-7-available-to-students.aspx. This post also lists what the MSDNAA admin at your department has to do to make Windows 7 available to students via ELMS download center.

If you have access to Windows 7 from MSDNAA and want information on downloading and installing it, refer to https://blogs.msdn.com/gautam/archive/2008/07/19/how-to-download-and-install-microsoft-software-from-msdn-aa.aspx

If you still have questions about MSDNAA availability of Windows 7 Professional at your school/department, please contact msdnaa@microsoft.com or call 866-643-9421

 

Responding to other questions raised:

  • Windows 7 Professional is included in MSDNAA for student distribution – this is the final version and not RC. If you are seeing RC in your MSDNAA- ELMS, contact your administrator to get them to make Windows 7 Pro available to students. This is also the full version and not an upgrade offer, so you can install it on a clean machine, by burning the ISO image onto a DVD (image is too big for a CD).
  • Windows 7 Enterprise is included in MSDNAA for lab installs and is not intended for student distribution. (I have passed along the student concerns about this to the MSDNAA program owners at Microsoft and will make a post when a decision is made)
  • Students and Faculty in the STEM (science, engineering, Technology, math) departments are eligible for Windows 7 and all 500+ of MSDNAA software products and tools.
  • By default each eligible student (and faculty) gets one license key to install any MSDNAA software (including Windows 7) on one PC. MSDNAA does not restrict a student to only one license key and provides your local department Administrator with the ability to distribute additional license keys, at their discretion – contact your admin if you have another PC you want to install MSDNAA software on.
  • If you are not a STEM student, you can still download MS design and development tools at no cost at https://www.dreamspark.com, although this does not include Windows 7.

 

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 28, 2009
    I just enrolled to IEEE as an PhD student in EE and I am very disappointed for this.... Using same argument why you didn't restricted access to ALL software library?.. Micro$oft still showing his true face...

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2009
    Just give them some time. If they find a good way to verify students, I'm sure it will be reintroduced. You can't expect Microsoft to allow people to steal their top product a few weeks before its official launch.

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2009
    This is very good and informative site.

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2009
    I must admit, I'm pretty disappointed, too.  I'm an ME major (3rd year), and even though I have MSDNAA through my major, I run two machines so really would love to get another copy of 7 (x64).  I actually joined IEEE before even knowing about this program and when I found out, 7 had already been removed. In any case, I all I can do is wait.  I do have faith in this [wonderful] program.

  • Anonymous
    October 30, 2009
    I recently joined the IEEE student program, I am a Bachelor electrical engineering Major, I used to run a 32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate RC, now I am looking for the final 64-bit version of Windows 7, and I was disappointed not to see it available on MSDNAA on October 22th. Now I am reading this, and I am really, really disappointed.. I truly hope you find a solution for this problem as soon as possible, because I am really looking forward to using the new Windows 7.

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2009
    This is truly disappointing.  At a time when Microsoft is struggling to stave off the competition from competitors such as Apple with competing operating system releases, we see this deal removed and all of our accounts disabled without warning.  I must mention the obvious to you that Apple's latest operating system was released for roughly $30USD - this is not an upgrade, but a full disc version that may be installed.  Instead Microsoft continues to charge 4-5 times this amount for a full version.  I paid full-price for Vista and yet still feel punished to this day as a student.  The competitor is looking better every single day for at least I'll save money on future operating system releases.  Slowly you bring upon your own demise.

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2009
    I joined IEEE as a student (I am a real student!) while Windows 7 was on offer, only to have it removed during my 8 day waiting period. What's the point of the wait if not to check student status? Regardless of what you do in the future, you need to step up and honour your commitments. You were perfectly happy to offer Windows 7 when you thought it benefited you. If you've changed your mind you still have an obligation to those of us who joined during that time period.

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2009
    Hi. What does Microsoft do about the Windows 7 serials which have already been downloaded from ACM or IEEE? My opinion is that Microsoft should ban those serials, since if us, the new users, can't get the serials neither should them. Do you know if finnish students will get student discounts sometime in the near future from win741.com when buying Windows 7?

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2009
    The best method to ensure only students receive Windows 7 would be to open the download and keys after the new year and renewal. If someone renews, it is likely they are an actual student not simply one who is trying to manipulate the system. Just my two cents.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2009
    MS should never cut access to benefits they introduced before. This is both unethical and a punishment way to do so. My institutional department is only giving these kind of academical benefits through its own domain. They are using KMS like method to activate the software. This is uneasy for me to bring my desktop computers to school and access from there. Can MS ban those unverified users' keys? No. What MS can only do is to cut access our rights caused by this offer. And the sad point is that we are eligible users. So here, as i mentioned above, the eligible, students of STEMs are the only people getting punished. Here I'd like to ask microsoft to take down other editions of Windows software from its channels. This whole thing has created nothing but frustration among us.

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2009
    Suitable authentication method?! Athens works fine for DreamSpark...

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2009
    I am feeling pretty frustrated right now, not because the software is unavailable(Well that is annoying too...) but because this has caused me to be stuck in limbo. I have been an IEEE student member for a year now, and I have had Win7 RC installed on my computer since it was released. When I realized I could get a final copy from MSDNAA I went to download only to find it blocked. Then I waited awhile, and now I have a CAD project that I need to complete by Monday, but because this might be resolved sometime, I don't want to go and spend my food money on the $30 upgrade Win7 for students. The even more annoying thing is that I am a Biomedical Engineering student, and at my university business school students and continuing education students get access to MSDNAA, but not us. What business or cont. education student needs developer tools?!! And ironically, I worked at a Comp. Science department at a college this summer, but they don't have MSDNAA, and my ability to get access from a university I used to attend just ran out at the beginning of October! So to sum it up, just make up your minds, or even better- allow everyone access and verify student status later. Then, just block the serials from those who are not students.

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 18, 2009
    Some of my professors in Management Information Systems say they have a student membership in the IEEE. They want to change to a full membership, but apparently the IEEE only allows people to do this during a single month (June I think).  That could be one cause of consternation for Microsoft.  Also, why don't you just require Windows 7 downloads to be authenticated in the same manner as DreamSpark downloads? Of course, the most annoying part of this for me is that my school does not offer an MSDNAA subscription service (and they're unlikely to start as they discontinued the MIS major for all future students).

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2009
    I don't know why I bothered to keep reading past the first few comments, because all I kept hearing was 'me, me, me, me, me...what about me?' You'd think that Windows 7 was a basic human right guaranteed by the US Constitution. You are all students, indeed!  Good luck in the real world when you get there...

  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2009
    I use Windows XP on an old laptop which cost $50 and I installed Ubuntu Linux for free on an old $30 PC. You probably don't need this stinking Windows 7. Schools still have the latest Vista for free if you need to be familiar with a newer OS. Dreamspark has Server 2008 for free which you can run as a desktop just like Windows 7. Stop whining and grow up.

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2009
    Windows 7 professional (x86/64) is available in the IEEE software repository for $23 plus the postage. Unfortunately, I can't take advantage of this offer as the shipping is limited to US and Canada only and I live in Europe.

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2011
    <a href="www.ieeegold.org/">IEEE Singapore </a> GOLD Affinity Group was approved in September 2003. <a href="www.ieeegold.org/">IEEE Singapore </a> Gold Affinity Groups Gives An Opportunity To Graduates To Join And Enjoy Many Benefits. Register Today.

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2011
    www.ieeegold.org/ IEEE Singapore GOLD Affinity Group was approved in September 2003. IEEE Singapore Gold Affinity Groups Gives An Opportunity To Graduates To Join And Enjoy Many Benefits. Register Today. www.ieeegold.org/

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2011
    <a href="www.ieeegold.org/"> IEEE Singapore </a> GOLD Affinity Group was approved in September 2003. <a href="www.ieeegold.org/"> IEEE Singapore </a> Gold Affinity Groups Gives An Opportunity To Graduates To Join And Enjoy Many Benefits. Register Today.

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2012
    I am IEEE member of computer Science 3rd year. I am very disappointed about that.  I have been sending the mail to solve this problem since long time. Please solve the problem and upload the MSDN with Windows 7.