DreamSpark - Free Software for all UK Students

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Today sees the launch of our DreamSpark programme allowing students around the world to download a selection of full Microsoft products for free.

DreamSpark is available to students in the UK as well as many other countries (with more to follow shortly) and includes the following products:

Developer Tools:

  • Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition image
  • Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
  • XNA Game Studio 2.0
  • 12-month Academic membership of the XNA Creators Club

Designer Tools:

  • Expression Web
  • Expression Blend
  • Expression Design
  • Expression Media

Platform:

  • SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
  • Windows Server, Standard Edition

Each piece of software is the full product licensed for academic use and is available for instant download from the DreamSpark Web Site. All you have to do is visit the site, login with a Live ID, verify your student status (you must be in higher education) and download the software!

You can verify your student status using your Athens ID, ISIC number or University Authentication (where available) - if you have any problems verifying then please use this form to log a support request.image

One of my favourite things about DreamSpark is the inclusion of XNA Creators Club memberships, this is the first time we have made these available to students for free so you can now build and deploy games onto your Xbox 360 without having to break into your student loan.

You can find out more about XNA along with how you set up your 360 for deploying your XNA games at the XNA Creators Club Web site.

So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to DreamSpark now and get yourself some free Microsoft software...

Plus don't forget Microsoft is also offering free Web Hosting to UK students in partnership with Webfusion. To find out more click here or email me to get your unique sign up code.

Technorati Tags: DreamSpark,Free Software,Microsoft,Students,XNA,Visual Studio,Expression Suite,SQL Server,Windows Server

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2008
    There is an interesting interview with Bill Gates on Channel8 about DreamSpark which you can check out here: http://channel8.msdn.com/Posts/2047/

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2008
    The skinny: Where? https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com What? Loads of dev and design products Visual

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    Would be most beneficial if we could also gain access to Microsoft Project through this. What's a software development project without proper scheduling and management?!

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    Hello, I'm a student at Oxford Brookes University and I was quite excited to hear about the DreamSpark offer; however, when I went to sign up I discovered that Brookes was not listed on the list of establishments, preventing me from taking advantage of the offer. Would you happen to have any information about participating institutions, and/or what I can do to get my university involved?

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    Awsome, yet another great deal from Ed!

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2008
    Pingback: from http://ctrl-alt-die.blogspot.com/2008/02/dreamspark-free-software-for-students.html

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2008
    So does the Expression suite cover Expression Encoder as well that's a separate download?

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2008
    Expression Suite includes the tools used by designers and developers to build content (Web/Blend/Design/Media). Expression Encoder is a seperate server technology. DreamSpark only includes the Suite tools but I will feedback on your interest in Encoder. Ed

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2008
    Hi Andy, Please contact DreamSpark support (https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/FAQ/Students.aspx#contact) with this issue, they should be able to provide you with next steps to get this working. Let me know if you don't have any joy. Ed

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2008
    Hi Ed, I am studying in london Metropolitan University. My university is not in the organizations list. So I tried to use athens as suggested by you. I have logged into the dreamspark and in the next step of verification, i havenot seen Athens in the dropdown menu. Please tell me where is Athens listed. or if it is listed with other name please let me know... regards, sandeep.

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2008
    Hi Sandeep, Athens is listed as "Eduserv Athens". If you take a look at the screengrab here: http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/edunhill/WindowsLiveWriter/DreamSparkVerificationUpdate_8E91/image_2.png you should be able to see what I mean. Any problems let me know. Ed

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2009
    Kudos to Paolo for getting to this one first. Simply put when Windows Mobile 6.5 launches an accompanying