Software benefits

Appropriate roles: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partner admin

Note

The Microsoft Partner Network is now called the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.

This article describes Software benefits that are available to Partners on the new Benefits preview in Partner Center. Software Benefits have limited activations, and Partners only need to renew the membership to get more software benefits and activations.

Overview

Screenshot of the new benefits software experience.

To see all the software products you're entitled to as a part of your active enrollment offer, use the following step:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Benefits > Software benefits.

The Software benefits page shows the following information:

  • Software product benefits that are available to you.
  • The membership and program that provisioned a specific benefit product.
  • License quantity assigned for each product.
  • Date before which to activate the benefit.

Manage software products and product keys

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Benefits > Software benefits.

  2. Find the software product that you want to start using, and then select the down arrow at the far right of the row to expand the product's details.

  3. Select the link for the software product that you want to activate.

    Screenshot of software product benefit options.

  4. In the wizard panel, read the activation walkthrough to activate the software benefit.

    Screenshot of software product wizard walkthrough.

  5. When you're ready to redeem the key, navigate to Activate benefits and follow the instructions.

    If a product requires a product key for installation, it will prompt you for it during the installation process.

    You can get product keys from the same pane in Partner Center where you select the version of software that you wanted to download.

    Screenshot of sample product.

    Not all products require activation. Product activation is required for:

    • Microsoft Windows operating systems
    • Microsoft Office client applications

How software product activations are counted

The number of software product activations on a product key are counted as follows:

  • Software installed on a new machine counts as one product activation.
  • Software installed on the same machine with no significant hardware changes isn't counted as a product activation.
  • Software installed on the same machine with significant hardware changes counts one product activation.

Benefits activation messages and meanings

Message Meaning
No further details available message displayed for Windows Server client access license (CAL) benefits. CALs aren't a downloadable product and aren't edition-specific. The activation of CALs is managed on the server product itself.
A message states that you've reached the maximum available activations for a product key when you try to activate software. You get a set number of activations per product through membership benefits. If you've reached the maximum number of activations, you can't activate more licenses using the provided product key.

Note

License keys for Office Professional Plus 2019 obtained through internal use rights (IUR) licenses on Partner Center do not work when installed on macOS.