Technet Advice

MaxBurn

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Meh, looks like they did but still worth it anyway. I forgot about the N versions that are available as a separate key due to the whole EU thing so that brings it back up to four copies of ultimate. Amazon for $176. Apparently activation takes a week or so according to the comments due to buying a box but I'm not in a burning hurry.
 

CougTek

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I forgot about the N versions that are available as a separate key due to the whole EU thing so that brings it back up to four copies of ultimate.
I've always wanted to ask but, what are these N version? What do they have more or less than the regular versions?
 

MaxBurn

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It is missing windows media player to comply with an EU antitrust issue. Wiki says also less media center. I am pretty sure media player is a free download and I bet for those versions so is media center as their absence is only to please the court ruling.

Actually I'm not sure about the separate key for N versions, just saw someone mention it when they were discussing the keys being cut down. If someone could confirm that would be nice. I'll know in two or three weeks.
 

MaxBurn

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OK so having not received anything from them yet I google around and find that it is apparently normal for them to take over a week or two to activate a technet subscription and apparently the activation system has been this bad for years?

Problem 1; you don't get any confirmation in the email that it worked.

Problem 2; it always takes two or three times the 72 hours quoted on the web form to receive access to the system?? Why?
 

time

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If you didn't have to wait for it, you mightn't value it as much?

OR

Microsoft sucks.

Take your pick.
 

Mercutio

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I just reupped my sub. I ordered on a Thursday and got my confirmation last Sunday. I'm about to buy another sub for a customer. I'll check to see how that's different from having a sub that's never expired.
 

MaxBurn

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Was that three days or ten? Are you ordering straight from microsoft?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Three and yes.

Although you can save money if you shop for your technet renewal. Some places have them as low as $220.
 

MaxBurn

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That must be the problem, I got the box through amazon. I saw one comment on there about the long activation time but I figured that was just one exception. Microsoft lists the professional cost at $249.00 Renewal so it seems only around 10% savings which seems to be true across the board for standard and professional, new and renewal.
 

MaxBurn

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Support replied that I am already activated and sent me the info I needed to get in. I never got anything from them.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Basically, you need your receipt or ID code to associate with your MS Live login.
If you didn't get it, check your spam messages.
 

MaxBurn

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That's the thing, I have never once caught fastmail marking something as a false positive and if it does I think it just goes into the junk mail folder and it isn't there either. At any rate it is up and working now, thanks. Lots of toys now.
 

sdbardwick

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Quick tip: TechNet (standard, at least) will only allow you to claim a certain number of license keys a day, so request them early.
I don't remember what the number was for me, but it was fairly high; probably over 15.
 

MaxBurn

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I already went through and collected the keys for stuff I want but haven't tried collecting any second keys. I do fully intend to pick them up sometime before it expires. Comcast will be hating me this month.
 

MaxBurn

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Oh hey, theres the registration email I was looking for. I guess they figured they needed to get that out after I started downloading and installing things.

First discovery in testing, windows backup won't work with a network drive that isn't formatted in NTFS. No idea what file system a network drive is using matters.
 

sechs

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Are you sure? How have I been backing up to a definitely-not-NTFS CIFS share on my NAS?
 

MaxBurn

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The error message is quite clear. I won't say if it is very misleading though. This is from the win 7 ultimate built in backup utility, one of the reasons I wanted it was to back up over the network which seems to be a feature withheld from the home pro version.

NTFS.png
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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More likely it wants NTFS-compatible permissions or something. Which is something that Samba and other things can emulate but might not, depending on configuration.
 

MaxBurn

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Well in the step prior it specifically warns you "Backed up data cannot be securely protected for a network target".

Still I suspect you are right, for example I can crash file explorer by selecting folder defaults for something like say large icon view for this particular folder. Windows networking doesn't quite get along perfectly with other file systems.
 

sechs

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Just don't set it to make a system image. I'm sure that everything else went fine.
 

Mercutio

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I just ordered a new Technet sub. I bought it from Amazon just so I can see how the retail experience differs from dealing directly with Microsoft.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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The terms for new subscriptions to Technet changed today. Some of the more important changes:

* Product keys will only be activated within the subscription period
* "Home"-class products removed
* Products out of the support lifecycle were removed
* Standalone installers for single MS Office products removed
* New keys can't be claimed until all the old activations are used
* All keys are now 10 activations per key (formerly some were 10 and some were 20, I think)

Those of us with active Technet subs will continue with the current licensing scheme. New or renewed subs will have a different scheme going forward.
 

mubs

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My sub expired this Feb. If the first point in your post applies to me, I'm screwed, because I haven't installed a single product. All I've done so far is download keys and the iso files.

I guess this also means for a guy like me, who would have had spare keys to use in the future and who intended to buy a sub every few years, I'll either have to renew every year to have keys available for new installs, or I have to forget the Technet route completely.

Bad move, MS.
 
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MaxBurn

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I'm sure they aren't lowering the price after mentioning all those "removed" things?

As a rental all you get at that price per year it still isn't that bad. Keep us posted on the grandfathered thing though. Had to see some of that coming...
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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As a rental all you get at that price per year it still isn't that bad. Keep us posted on the grandfathered thing though. Had to see some of that coming...

I don't think the changes are quite that severe. Activated copies of Windows and Office should maintain their activated status even after the license expires. I base that on how I know MSAA stuff works. You just won't be able to activate new copies on keys that come from a lapsed Technet account.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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In high school or college? Know someone who is? Abusive their youth and inexperience by signing up for Dreamspark, which offers free copies of Windows (desktop and server versions), Office, and Visual Studio. Free.
 

Chewy509

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At the moment I've got 5 Dreamsparks accounts... Mmmm.... Love MS Software....

I only thing I hate about it, is that to download anything you need to use Windows as it uses a customer downloader application and doesn't offer RAW ISOs.
 

mubs

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How often does MS update the ISOs released on Technet? My Technet sub expired in Feb, and I downloaded all the sw I wanted in Jan. Wondering how outdated my versions are (patches, hotfixes etc. released since then). Hopefully my keys (which I've never used) will work.
 

mubs

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In high school or college? Know someone who is? Abusive their youth and inexperience by signing up for Dreamspark, which offers free copies of Windows (desktop and server versions), Office, and Visual Studio. Free.
It's applicable worldwide! I'll have to play with it using my daughter as proxy to see where it'll go.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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They don't update the .isos. For major releases, they'll occasionally make new ones available. For example, Windows XP is available in vanilla and with SP2 applied.
 

Chewy509

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I just noticed that Windows 8 and Server 2012 is available on 2 of my DreamSpark accounts. Windows 8 Professional, not an issue, but the Windows Server 2012 editions I have available is Server 2012 Datacenter! Mmmm... I wonder how the feature of the Datacenter Edition compares to Solaris 11? (Or is that a no-contest)?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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There's no practical difference between Windows Server editions except the big-boy one is licensed to handle extra CPU sockets and more RAM. Which means there's no difference. As I understand it, real-world, working Datacenter-edition copies of Windows Server weren't let out in the field unless an organization was big enough to keep an actual Microsoft (Volt?) employee around for consulting purposes anyway.
 
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