MSDN AA FAQ

The School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut has been granted a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) program. Through this offer each student is entitled to a free academic license to many of the software packages offered by Microsoft (not Office). Although this license restricts use of the software to academic purposes, it is available for your personal computers and licensed to you personally.

Questions:

1. Who is eligible?
   Anyone taking at least a 1 credit course in one of the five academic departments in the School of Engineering. You must have an engineering computer account to access this resource.
2. How do I get this software?
   The link to the download site can be found at http://mail.engr.uconn.edu. You must have your engineering username and password to authenticate.
3. Is the software mine to keep?
   Yes, you may install it on your personal computer and keep it after you leave the university.
4. What does "academic use only" mean?
   You will receive an end user license agreement when you download the software. That is the official statement and nothing said here has any impact on that agreement.
   Basically, the agreement says that the software cannot be used for commercial purposes. It can be used for instruction, research, and even personal enrichment after you leave the school.
5. When I download software I get a file that ends with .sdc and is 404KB. What is that?
   All software requires two downloads. The first is a small executable file used to used to download and decrypt Secure Digital Container (sdc). When this is run, it start a download of a 2nd file which later expands into your iso file. The second download is an .iso file which is a CD or DVD image that can be burned to optical media.
6. How many times can I install this?
   You are granted two activations. If you need more, you may request them from the help desk.
7. What if I sell my software on eBay?
   The software key that comes with your software is generated for you by name. If the software ends up in the hands of someone else, you will be accountable. Neither the school nor the university will represent you if you choose to break the law.
8. Where can I get help?
   Our help desk will be glad to answer questions for you. You can contact them at 486-1821 or by email at help@engr.uconn.edu. For MSDN questions only, you may email msdn@engr.uconn.edu.
9. What is an .iso file and how do I use it?
   An ISO image file is an image of a CD or DVD disk saved in ISO format. You do not directly burn the .iso file onto your media, but rather, use CD/DVD burning software to open the file and burn its content to specific areas of the media. The learning center has CD-RW drives and Roxio which will burn files. For DVD, you need to find a computer with appropriate hardware and DVD burning software.
10. What types of Microsoft Software is Available?
    The latest Versions of: Access, Cluster Pack, Exchange Server, Expression Studio, Expression Web, InfoPath, IT Academy courses MapPoint, MELL, Office Account Professional (not MS office), Office Groove, Office Groove Server, Office SharePoint Server, OneNote, Project Professional, SQL server, System Center Essentials, Virtual PC, Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000, Windows CE, Windows Embedded CE, Windows XP (64+32bit), Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Windows Vista Business (64+32bit)