Microsoft has unexpectedly killed off the TechNet subscription service, eliminating a popular option for many IT pros to test out software and services they haven’t used before. If you already have a TechNet subscription, extending it before 31 August would be a sensible move.
According to Microsoft, the ending of the subscription service reflects a change in customer habits: “In recent years, we have seen a usage shift from paid to free evaluation experiences and resources.” The TechNet site will continue as a support resource and will offer evaluation downloads.
The change is likely to impact the number of IT pros who check out new releases. As our frequent guest blogger David Klemke points out, keeping a non-time-limited system permanently set up to test individual apps is a lot less effort that downloading entire environments:
The reason why TechNet was so useful was the lack of time and feature limitations, allowing you to work freely with the product without having to consider some arbitrary limitation. For people like me who like to evaluate different bits of software at different times this was great as I could have an environment set up with all the basics and just install that application on top of it. Time limited software doesn’t provide this functionality, making evaluation done at the individual professional level essentially pointless.
Microsoft is accepting extensions and new sign-ups until 31 August and allowing them to be activated for a month after that, meaning you can potentially have a subscription until 30 September next year. If you don’t want to miss out, that would seem wise. The base-level TechNet subscription costs $337 in Australia for a year, or $260 to renew. Right now, only the discounted download-only version for $236 appears to be on offer.
Comments
3 responses to “Extend Your Microsoft TechNet Subscription While You Have The Chance”
Wow. That sucks.
Sound to me its more about closing a loophole and forcing retail pricing.
Hey Angus, can you please remind us to do this closer to the due date? My Subscription rins out at the end of the year, so I wouldn’t want to renew too eairly.
Why not just set a calender alert on your email account or mobile phone?
That sucks, I have been a subscriber for a long time, and find it valuable in testing software. Lucky I just renewed, I might see if I can renew again towards the end date. Very very sad.
Does anyone know – what do they mean by “activated for a month” after ? Do they mean that each key has to be installed and activated, or do they just mean that I need to go into my TechNet account and generate all my keys ?
My understanding was that you just need to activate your technet account by linking your subscriber number ( or whatever it’s called) to a Microsoft Live account by the deadline. You will then have access to downloads and keys for the term of your subscription, you don’t need to generate all your keys by 30 september.