Do me a favor. All of you who are Action pack people go here:
https://www.microsoft.com/msppdd/Licensing.aspx
Tell me what you see. If you are like me you’ll see this:
Okay so what does that mean and where is my key codes?
“Your License Summary at www.microsoft.com/…/Licensing.aspx is specific to your account and your subscriptions/benefits and shows what you are licensed to use through your subscription. A key has nothing to do with your license, so using the current install under your license vs. the key that will be provided on the download site doesn’t change your licensing at all, just the key you’re using to activate it.”
Bottom line.. you don’t need the key codes. Use “a” key code, you have the rights to the software now.
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I’m bookmarking this post and using it every time someone says “Oh, just buy the student edition for the office” or “Don’t buy that, just get a technet sub!” or anything else where people think having a key is having a license.
So if, say, the licensing said we can use XYZ, but the MAPS download page doesn’t have it, but TechNet does, we can use the TechNet copy?
Also, try and tell this to big box retailers that sell PKC copies and Office Pro Academic without validating ligitimacy of usage….
And I have a personal beef with discount places like Tiger Direct and Newegg and such, selling OEM copies of Windows to anybody off the street. Last time I looked, Microsoft has still been calling on real System Builders to buy only from Authorized Microsoft Distributors. You know….the companies that require that you be a registered business and TAX ID’s to buy from….of which these retailers are not.
This post is very confusing. What do you mean by the “current install” ? Is there any Microsoft documentation that says that the characters in a key code are not based on the license type ? Is there any Microsoft documentation that says that the characters in a key code are not based on the media type ? Not saying that your wrong, just want to know.
OK, so the previous post explained some of what you were saying but since these posts are read in order if you are behind you would not know that. I think you should delete this post and cut and paste it into the previous posting.
I am still confused on when and when you cannot use a specific key though. In the previous post you said SBS2011 was a special case but did not explain why. If all of this only pertains to SBS2011 and not to any other product you need to make that clear.
One other thing. If what you are saying about a key having nothing to do with the license is correct then what difference does it make if you continue to use an eval key with a VL license ?
“Normally with media like Windows 7 or normal Server 2008 you can’t use Eval media with a VL key”