Free Microsoft Software for Students

Osiris · 02-19-2008, 01:29 PM

I’m normally very cautious when I read about free offers on the Internet. It is often the case that free does not really mean free. This time however it seems to be the real deal, that is if you are a student from one of the following elven countries: US, UK, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium.
If you are you can grab free Microsoft software including Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and several more. All you need is a Live ID (which is free as well) and a way to identify yourself as being a student in one of those countries.
The real beauty of this system is that you do not need to study Computer Science to be eligible for those free full version downloads of Microsoft software, they are available for everyone. Here is a list of all Microsoft tools currently available:

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
Expression Studio
XNA Game Studio 2.0
XNA Creators Club Online
Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
Visual Web 2005 Express Edition
Visual J++ 2005 Express Edition
SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
Microsoft Virtual PC

Impressive List, ain’t it ? The process is as simple as it could be. You pick a software product from Microsoft first, then log into your Windows Live account, pick your continent from the world map, pick your country and finally your University from a list of available ones.
Not all Universities are listed in that menu, if yours is not in the list you need to check this page to see what you can do about it. A method for all countries is to use ISIC to identify yourself which is available as an option amongst all listed Universities.

Free Microsoft Software for Students

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Products.aspx

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/...IdOptions.aspx

superdave1984 · 02-19-2008, 01:49 PM

Similar to the deal they had a while back offering Office 07 to students for something like $79. All you needed was an email address from your school or something.

atomic tofu · 02-19-2008, 03:52 PM

another reason to love MS...I love em...know some of you hate them, hehe
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mcovalt · 02-19-2008, 04:28 PM

Wow, Microsoft actually did something good?

atomic tofu · 02-19-2008, 05:54 PM

they do plenty good, just too many people hate them, or more correctly, ENVY them for one reason or another

afterall, who helps charities? Not only Bill gates, and Microsoft, but MS employees too. Look it up

It's a much better world when you join the few who don't envy MS but like them, and you can see what they actually do. Yeah, some probably hate me for saying such things, hehe

mcovalt · 02-19-2008, 08:22 PM

I don't think the people that run microsoft are evil. I just don't think they always make the wisest choices with their business. Also, I dislike them monopolizing the computer world. I dislike people who feel that Microsoft is the only software manufacturer who makes quality software. To many people are blindly led to the assumption that if the computer you are running is not a dell (I don't like them either) and it does not have xp and does not have ms office, it is cheap. **** yeah, it's cheap. Around $1,000 cheaper plus the quality would be sooooooooooo much better (I moved on to open-source/linux by the way). I recently built my own computer and multibooted xp, vista, and opensuse on it. When my parents saw that I had "downloaded free junk" on my computer they got mad. They made me take off linux (shudder), stick with xp (double shudder), then remove the nod32 trial I had so they could put on some "quality protection"... they loaded norton. I just about shot myself. Now, I know not everyone is like my parents, but just about. You may say that it's not microsoft's fault, but it is. I hate the same monopolizing thing that apple has with their ipods, but that is another story, no one probably wants to hear me rant about that either. No offense to anyone, but I HATE MONOPOLIZING BUSINESSES!!!!

Alvin.C · 02-19-2008, 09:24 PM

Nice!

I was frustrated to find that my UK university (Keele University) wasn't listed. If you are a student in the UK and your University isn't listed (like me), you can use your NUS Extra card to verify that you're a student.

An NUS Extra card is also an International Student Identity Card.

Choose ISIC (International Student Identity Card) as the organisation in step 3 of the verification process. You'll then be asked to enter your ISIC number. With an NUS Extra card, you'll need to enter the last 12 digits on your NUS Extra card, prefixed with the letter 'S'. For example:

The ISIC number of the NUS Extra card above is: S123476549185

You should then be able to verify and go on to download the software.