Free Microsoft Software for Students!

[NightrainSrt4]

Technically not hardware but software. Free for college/university students.
Edit: It appears I was overzealous with my statement on high school students. Apparently it is only higher education institutions that are approved. My apologies.

Microsoft Dreamspark (https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Default.aspx)
Microsoft's free contribution to students interested in software development!

Most schools aren't directly on their list, but if you go through verify, near the bottom there is a link for "Other verification Options". Click on that and click the U.S. method. It goes to JourneyEd where you create an account on and it takes your social security and name and compares it to the databases it has on most schools. Continue the procedure and you will receive an email within 24 hours that verifies you are a student and it links the verification with your Live account. I just got verified and waiting for the link to come in.

Products available to students:


Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
Microsoft Expression Studio
Visual Studio 2005 Pro Edition

AND

XNA Game Studio 2.0 to make games! This is regularly free, but you get a XNA Creators Club 12-Month Trial Subscription to be able to play made games right on your xbox 360!

Generally Free Apps available for download at same location:
Visual C# 2005 Express
Visual C++ 2005 Express
Visual Basic 2005 Express
SQL Server 2005 Express
Visual Web 2005 Express
Visual J# 2005 Express
Microsoft Virtual PC






This has been around for a few days, didn't find a thread for it though. Only open to students. I think you can dl them all. Its Microsoft trying to encourage students to get into development and such.

XNA, C++/Visual Studio, Server 2003 are on my list to Download.




Hope I helped out you students out there! Now get developing! (I am sooo going to try my hand at making a 360 community game!)

[.Maleficus.]

Visual Studio Express products and XNA have always been free. Visual Studio 2008 Professional however... that I might need to take a look at. VS2005 isn't bad, but 2008 is always better (even though I can't develop Vista apps since I don't have Vista).

[NightrainSrt4]

What I meant to mention about XNA isn't simply the app. You get a 1 year sub to be able to play the games as far as I know. Every year you re-verify and continue using it.


Edit:

Yes. Instead of having to pay the $100 to play the games on the 360 you get a 1 year sub until you re-verify as a student the next year.

XNA Sub (https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Products/XNA_Game_Studio.aspx)

This you do not have to pay the $100 to play on the 360.

And the express editions are free. On the site they are listed as other free tools. I simply didn't divide the list up. They are just available to dl there as well. The first 5 I believe are what normally are not free and the sub to xna.

[.Maleficus.]

Ahhh crap. I guess it is just colleges. That would have been a nice little deal if I could have gotten VS 2008. Oh well, I'm still ok with 2005.

[NightrainSrt4]

As of now yes it seems to be just colleges. From what I hear, they are working on getting high schools into it as well.

Ill be getting Visual studio, server 03, and the sub to xna. Being able to play other user's games on the 360 should be pretty interesting. Hopefully I can come up with something cool, even if it does start of simple.

[Aero]

nice. I know my school probably has those in the library for use, but that cool that they are available for download too.

+rep

[NightrainSrt4]

Yes, some schools already have access to much of that through licenses with Microsoft.

I doubt most have the game creators sub though, as that lets you play others games on the xbox as well.

I received my email verification and have started downloading what I need. Very cool system. Nice to get free stuff as a college student!

[NightrainSrt4]

I am going to assume that this is simply because of the sheer amount of people trying to download products at the same time, but getting the downloads to start is a pain in the ass.

Download speeds are fine once it gets started and continues, but getting the download to start correctly is a nightmare. Using the download manager available via Java with Firefox led to constant stops and needed to restart the whole thing. Nothing wanted to even start downloading using firefox and just using the web browser download method.

Changed over to IE and the download manager won't ever get past initializing. And my only luck is using the web browser method, but that is a shot in the dark actually getting it to start. So far I've downloaded XNA and disk 1 of Visual Studio Pro 2005, but am having a complete nightmare trying to get disk 2 to start.

As said above, for now, I am simply going to assume it is because there are a lot of people trying to download at the moment. But lordy is it frustrating. Perhaps it will work better when everything dies down a bit.

Edit: Ive got it working using the download manager, just luck if it starts or not. Now I have to hope the 600mb .iso doesn't freeze up again while downloading. The tracker or whatever just stops sending data after a while.

Edit: Finally got the second disk to download correctly. Just seems like tossing a coin whether they start or not at this point. Probably because its the first big weekend since its starting to get more and more exposure.

[.Maleficus.]

If it all works out, have fun with VS 2005. It's a neat program. XNA 2.0 now works with VS C# instead of needing C# Express, so that's always nice, and I'm just starting to make web pages using ASP.NET at school, which is really cool. XNA is the best part though. Especially playing games on your 360; join XNA Creators Club and play your creations on your 360. Nice :up:.

[NightrainSrt4]

Yup! Last night I started following a tutorial, and have already seen it working on my xbox. I already have been thinking about what I can change, what structures I can use and modify to make a different game, etc.

Awesome.

Having access to the pro versions of vs 2005 and vs 2008 is very nice. MS server 2003 will come in handy on a future project. The process for getting the subscription could have been explained, but I figured it out on my own eventually. Information is a bit difficult to come by as any "google" with the word xna in it just brings up articles of the launch and articles about it instead of what info your actually looking for. But I figured it out.

[.Maleficus.]

I've found that the best XNA tutorials actually come from MS. The XNA Creators Club has some great stuff also.

[NightrainSrt4]

Ya, the only one's Ive seen that have worked have come from MS. I spend 6 hours banging out one from another site, but it didn't mention anything about being 1.0 or 2.0. Turns out it is 1.0 and I don't know how to change them. Ehh. Teach me to read before I go starting one.

I wish each one also had both code for the controller and the keyboard. A lot of the tutorials I like are keyboard, but I want to do it for the xbox. Some of them I can switch over easy, but other's that a more complicated are a pain in the arse.

[.Maleficus.]

The first one I tried was for 360, and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what they use for keyboards. I don't think I actually figured it out. Actually, I probably just ran out of patience. Still fun when it works though.

[crenn]

DAMNIT! I can't get these because it's for most main countries.... EXCEPT AUSTRALIA!

[b4i7]

it isnt a very wide selection of schools either.... there are any schools here in oklahoma on that list

[NightrainSrt4]

it isnt a very wide selection of schools either.... there are any schools here in oklahoma on that list

If your in the US...

I explained above to go through the link if your school is not on the list. Most every school is not on that list. You just have to go through the JourneyEd deal if you want to get in. They have data from most every school. You check out like an online transaction and your accepted. They send you an email within a day and a link and it enables your Windows live account to download the MS software.

Its not just the schools on the list. Try the link mentioned and you should be accepted if your in a college in the US. My college was not on that list and I was accepted within a day.

If your not in the US you have to wait until they get more countries and colleges involved I guess =(

[crenn]

I hope they get Australian universities involved..... since I'm planning to do major development!

[NightrainSrt4]

Ya they said they are working on more countries. Its probably because colleges/government in other countries may not sell off our information to companies so it becomes harder to verify enrollment status.

Glad I was accepted, but now curious how many companies have my information. I don't recall signing anything for that, but I guess you don't really have to as the government can just give away your social security number at will it seems. As they verified my status and what college all with just that little number. Hmm....

[crenn]

It's strange since Australia currently has an offer for Office 2007 Ultimate for $75 for uni and TAFE students. They verify it via our student emails.

http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au/

[NightrainSrt4]

Hmmm...If they already have a system set up for that then I would assume they should soon allow you guys to do the program. But I have no clue honestly, but hopefully they do because it is a nice program.