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DreamSpark

Microsoft announced awhile back that they were making much of their enterprise-level software available to students FOR FREE.  Yes, you heard that right — it’s a FREE DOWNLOAD.

Hop on over to Microsoft DreamSpark and check it out.

I was able to obtain:

• Visual Studio 2008 Professional (full version, not a trial, and not the Express edition)
• Visual Studio 2005 Professional (if for some reason you want the old version)
• Windows Server 2008 Standard
• SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
• Microsoft Expression Studio 2
• XNA Game Studio
• Virtual PC 2007

The only catch is that:

In order to get this software from Microsoft at no charge, you will be asked to establish or verify your student status once every 12 months.

As an Ohio State student, the only thing that I had to do was log in with my university-given username/password using the userversity-administers Shibboleth system.  Other universities may operate the authentication process differently.

MSDNAA

While we’re on the theme of free software for college students, you may want to ask your university departmental IT staff if they have a subscription to MSDNAA – Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance.  I know that at Ohio State, both the Computer Science department as well as the Electrical Engineering department have subscriptions.  If you are enrolled in a class offered by either department, then you have permission (double-check me on this) to download free software from a much broader list.

I just looked and the software available to departments having MSDNAA subscriptions is pretty hefty:

• .NET Framework 1.1 SDK
• .NET Framework SDK 1.1
• Access 2003
• Access 2007
• BizTalk Server 2006 Enterprise Edition
• BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Developer Edition (x86 and x64)
• Commerce Server 2007 Developer Edition
• Compute Cluster Pack
• Compute Cluster Pack SDK
• Customer Care Framework 2008 (v3.0)
• Desktop Optimization Pack 2007
• Exchange Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
• Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
• Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
• Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition
• Expression Blend
• Expression Blend 2
• Expression Design 2
• Expression Encoder 2
• Expression Media 2
• Expression Studio
• Expression Studio 2
• Expression Web
• Expression Web 2
• Forefront Client Security (x86 and x64)
• Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 1 (x64)
• Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 1 (x64)
• Forefront Server Security Management Console (x86)
• Host Integration Server 2006
• InfoPath 2003
• InfoPath 2003 Toolkit for Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005
• InfoPath 2007
• ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition
• IT Academy Course: Database Developer
• IT Academy Course: Web Developer
• IT Academy Course: Windows Client
• IT Academy Course: Windows Developer
• IT Academy Course: Windows Server
• MapPoint 2004 European
• MapPoint 2004 North America
• MELL – Developer Edition for MSDNAA
• MSDN Library – April 2007
• MSDN Library – December 2006
• MSDN Library – May 2006
• MSDN Library (Visual Studio .NET) (Jan 2004)
• MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2005
• MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008
• MSDN Library for Visual Studio 6.0
• MS-DOS 6.0
• Office Accounting Professional 2007
• Office Accounting Professional 2008
• Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 with SP1
• Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
• Office Groove 2007
• Office Groove Server 2007
• Office Project Portfolio Server 2007
• Office Project Server 2007
• Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise
• Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard
• OneNote 2003
• OneNote 2007
• Project Professional 2002 (Single-User)
• Project Professional 2003
• Project Professional 2007
• Project Server 2003
• SharePoint Designer 2007
• SharePoint Portal Server 2003
• SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition
• SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
• SQL Server 2000 SP3a
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 32-bit
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Extended
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – 64-bit Itanium
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition – DVD
• SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition – 32-bit
• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition – 64-bit Extended
• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition – 64-bit Itanium
• SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition – 32-bit
• System Center Capacity Planner 2006 with Service Pack 1
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
• System Center Essentials 2007
• System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (x64)
• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Reporting Manager 2006
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (x86/x64)
• Systems Management Server 2003
• Virtual PC 2004
• Virtual PC 2007
• Virtual PC 2007 64bit
• Virtual PC for Mac 7.0.2
• Visio for Enterprise Architects
• Visio Professional 2002 (Single User)
• Visio Professional 2003
• Visio Professional 2007
• Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
• Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition
• Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
• Visual J# .NET
• Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
• Visual SourceSafe 6.0d
• Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional – Full Install
• Visual Studio .NET 2005 Professional – Full Install
• Visual Studio .NET Academic Student Tools 2003
• Visual Studio .NET Academic Teaching Tools 2003
• Visual Studio .NET Professional 2002 (Full)
• Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003
• Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 Prerequisites
• Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition Beta 2
• Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
• Visual Studio 2005 Standard Beta 2
• Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
• Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 2
• Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Trial Edition
• Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
• Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent Beta 2
• Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition (x86 and x64 WoW)
• Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (x86 and x64 WoW)
• Visual Studio 6 Pro
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite (x86 and x64 WoW)
• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server (with SP4)
• Windows 2000 Professional (with SP4)
• Windows 2000 Server (with SP4)
• Windows 2000 SP 4
• Windows CE .NET 4.2
• Windows Embedded CE 6.0
• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition – 64 Bit
• Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition with SP2
• Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition with SP2
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
• Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Standard
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Standard 64bit
• Windows Services for UNIX 3.0
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP1 (x64)
• Windows Vista Business 64bit
• Windows Vista Business 64bit with SP1
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Business with SP1
• Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (32bit, 64bit)
• Windows Web Server 2008
• Windows Web Server 2008 64Bit
• Windows XP Embedded
• Windows XP Professional (Single User)
• Windows XP Professional (Single User) 64bit Edition
• Windows XP Professional with SP1a (Single User)
• Windows XP Professional with SP2 (Single User)
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
• XNA Creators Club Online Academic Subscription

When you download a software title, you actually "check out", though the software has a unit price of $0.00.  The system makes sure that you only receive 1 license key (if required).

I feel like a kid in a candy store

Keep in mind, though, that these software titles are for educational use only — you can’t give them away and if you’re going to use them to make money you need to buy the full version.

Hope that helps!

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