Aqquiring Vista FOC <legally of course>

techguy

Hi,

I've recently built a new computer and have been using XP since, I was never too pushed about the idea of having to buy Vista as a computer science student. I've been hearing about lot's of ways in which other students and competitors in the imagine cup etc have been getting all kinds of software free of charge from Microsoft.

Seeing as I am a computer science student how would I go about obtaining Vista for free? Or am I not entitled to? I'm sure I would come under one of the free categories...

Any thaughts??

Techguy.

Overheal

I wasnt gonna keep my copy from the IC a secret tbh

In september they fudged it up by letting any applicant get the SW - not just people that made it past round 1. so that cost them a lot. If you had managed to register on the website before halloween you would have had all of that swag too.

I have a copy of Vista Business but tbh I dont want to part with the serial Key. And I know of no other way at the moment to find it legitimately.

Stephen

They seem to like handing out free copies at Microsoft events so it might be worth signing up for some of those. I got mine at the vista launch in Croke Park. I think they were giving them out to attendees of the Server 2008 launch as well.

Overheal

Ive attended a few developer conferences but they never gave away anything that big - we got visual web developer and XNA express and the like.

Capt'n Midnight

windows free you have got to be joking !

Only at initial product launch,you've missed vista so check back in 3 years time.

Lets say you were a charity and wanted windows 98 with no support you would still have to pay to acquire licenses (not very much, but not free). For later OS's you can rent/buy for tens of Euros.

If you are a student check with the the people inside about the academic pricing

Overheal

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

windows free you have got to be joking !

Its true!

The Imagine Cup was giving out software like it was christmas.

I got a copy of Vista Business, XP Pro and Visual Studio Pro 2005. All free.

http://www.overclock.net/online-deals/246225-deal-imaginecup-free-software-microsoft.html
http://weblogs.asp.net/plip/archive/2007/04/08/imagine-cup-round-2-free-software-to-help-teams.aspx

It was a huge mistake by Microsoft as it was only meant to be accessible to *correction: round 2 contestants. But that little detail got fudged somehow and it was open to anyone that registered on the website for a time.

I'm not sure if the Keys I was given are still valid I suppose. VS 2005 Pro works great - but I dont know about the OS keys: its possible they may have invalidated all keys issued in that time-frame.

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote:

It was a huge mistake by Microsoft

given the 100's of millions of copies they've sold you can expect the odd glitch, but it's the usual way they do business

Overheal

well all evidence points to it only being intended for round 2 contestants. all i ever did was register my username on the site.