Microsoft Accidentally Gives me a TechNet Subscription

Posted Posted 6/3/2009 4:36:32 PM

Last night, the guy who runs my computer group (CSWUG) sent out a link wherein Microsoft was offering free TechNet subscriptions. I immediately signed up and began exploiting my Subscriber benefits. I downloaded 7 things I didn't have and saved about 30 product keys. The downloads (about 9GB) finished sometime last night.

Today I went to access my TechNet Subscriber portal and was taken aback as the subscription had been revoked. It was as such with several others I know who had found the link, and the original link to sign up was offline.

Therefore I conclude that Microsoft didn't intend to make that offer and immediately launched critical damage control to resolve the situation.

Nothing I saw indicated it was a promotion or a temporary offer, let alone one that lasted under 16 hours. All I noticed was that I was "buying" a "subscription pilot" and the price was $0.00.

I read the EULA and other agreements; they looked like standard legalese when you sign up for an online subscription to a service. Therefore as best I can tell, my access was perfectly legitimate - It's just gone now.

But I still have my downloads and product keys.

So I was hoping to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on my server when it's released in late 2009 or early 2010; I guess that's not happening now. Fortunately I did get a key to Windows Server 2008 (The Server version of Windows Vista); and I have an ISO I downloaded from Microsoft as a free gift for participating in the Windows Vista Beta program. So I guess I'll just install that. At least I get to do it now and don't have to wait for it to be released :)