Microsoft quietly cuts number of product keys

TechNet Subscriptions: Microsoft quietly cuts number of product keys available to TechNet subscribers.

Microsoft quietly cuts number of product keys available to TechNet subscribers | ZDNet

For Example for Windows XP, you get 5 keys instead of the 10 you used to get.

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Comments

earweed

Another major Microsoft FAIL!

tiersten

Hmm. Thats a bit annoying and also bad that its a stealth change.

Slowhand

It's inconvenient, that's for sure, but understandable. Although, I wish they'd cut the number of future TechNet subscriptions down, instead of hitting all of us. It feels a bit odd to suddenly have a subscription I paid $350 for cut in half in terms of licensing. Not the end of the world, but as tiersten said, a bit annoying.

bertieb

tiersten wrote: »

Hmm. Thats a bit annoying and also bad that its a stealth change.

+1. Couldn't agree more, that is a bit annoying.

Pash

Ouch!

Yeh im with Slowhand here. The principal is, this change cuts our license keys in half for a product we paid full price for. Hell I never read T&C's but in cases like this it might be worth doing.....

Im gonna check my Sub tomorrow morning and check my Key allocation counts.

Pash

Devilsbane

it’s a “feature,” according to Microsoft.

Check out this new feature, you give me money, and I give you nothing. I think its the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If anyone is interested, send me a PM.

5 keys is probably plenty, but imagine if you went to the grocery store and bought a loaf of bread and then got home and found it that half of it was missing.

tiersten

If you've previously claimed keys then they stay. I looked at my TechNet Pro sub and it says 10/5 for some of them because I claimed a bunch for no reason. Only one of them has ever been activated but I expect the other 9 are still good.

Assuming you're not reinstalling this like crazy, you can always phone up to get the manual authentication code if it complains about it being previously activated. Its not 2 installs and thats it forever so not end of the world.

Devilsbane

tiersten wrote: »

If you've previously claimed keys then they stay.

Which would explain the quiet part of this. If they announced that they would be scaling back, everyone would just claim everything today, which still isn't a bad idea. I did it with my MSDN subscription because I know that someday I will no longer be a student and will lose access.

darkerosxx

This is probably because of the recent MS partner changes. They've added tons of access keys for partners with certain competencies, but you only get them if you have a action pack/technet subscription.

Bl8ckr0uter

Is this even legal? How can you pay for something and then the change what you have access to? If they cut the price in half and offer refunds that would seem fair but how can they do this?

dynamik

Aren't the keys multiple activation? I've only had one, two max, for each OS/product, and I've activated them dozens of times over the course of 2+ years.

powerfool

This must be why my Win7 is no longer "genuine"... I was wondering what happened.

tiersten

dynamik wrote: »

Aren't the keys multiple activation? I've only had one, two max, for each OS/product, and I've activated them dozens of times over the course of 2+ years.

They're not supposed to be multiple activation. They might be more flexible with the timer that resets them to be internet activation capable though as they're TechNet keys however.

tiersten

powerfool wrote: »

This must be why my Win7 is no longer "genuine"... I was wondering what happened.

They've not revoked any keys. You just can't claim more than 2 now. Your not genuine Windows problem is something else.

tiersten

Devilsbane wrote: »

Which would explain the quiet part of this. If they announced that they would be scaling back, everyone would just claim everything today, which still isn't a bad idea. I did it with my MSDN subscription because I know that someday I will no longer be a student and will lose access.

Yeah. Its in their FAQ as to why they did the stealth change. They knew people would suddenly go out and claim every single possible key they could. Stupid really. I can see there be really bad PR from this. Maybe I should bug the "IT Evangelist" people that Microsoft are so proud about.

RobertKaucher

I'm glad I have MSDN at work. But I was considering getting TechNet for home labs and stuff. Makes me second guess it now.

wweboy

I feel cheated I paid my monies I want what I paid for damn it. Plain and simple.