Deutsche VersionNote about MSDNAA
The average person seems to think that computer science students mainly listen to lectures about repairing broken scanners, blue screens of death and so on, and that consequently they are best at repairing broken computers and that there’s nothing they’d rather do. This got extremely odd today when random (at least to me, sorry I don’t have a great memory for faces) people asked me while riding in an elevator.
I couldn’t provide any help then, but since that question is guaranteed to pop up again, maybe here, maybe elsewhere, I thought I’d write the answer down. The question was: How do I get a free and legal Windows or other MIcrosoft software when I’m a student at RWTH Aachen University? The answer isn’t that complicated and I’m pretty certain there are many places on the web where you’ll find it if you look, but apparently some people don’t, so here again:
- Log in to [Campus Office][campus]
- In the bar to the left, there’s a point called MSDNAA (near the top). Click that.
- You are asked to confirm something and land on a page with the world’s longest drop-down menu where you can select your Windows. No, I don’t know which version you’ll need, but it’s generally best to stick with Vista Ultimate or XP Professional, with 32-Bit working always and 64-Bit being not much of a difference to most people (if you’re not one of them, you likely already know that).
- For some reason this all works with a shopping cart system, even though it’s free and says so several times. Don’t let that discourage you, just click “Yes” and stuff a lot (at least that’s what I did).
- At the end you’re asked to provide your name and e-mail adress. I didn’t, since I wasn’t actually interested in anything, but I guess you’ll get the download link and the serial key that way somehow.
If you have more questions, please don’t ask me, I don’t know more than that. ;)
Written on November 4th, 2008 at 06:22 pm
