The Microsoft Developer's Network Academic Alliance (MSDN-AA) Program is a special agreement between  UMass Amherst and Microsoft. The MSDN-AA subscription includes the most current Microsoft developer tools, platforms, and servers. 

These tools may be loaded on any number of UMass Amherst faculty, staff and student* instructional and research computers free of charge. MSDN-AA software is restricted for educational and research use only, and cannot be used for infrastructure or commercial development. UMass and Microsoft are pleased to offer this extensive software package to the University community!

*Students must be full time enrolled and taking credit courses at UMass Amherst

5-23-2008 - Microsoft Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 3 really available!

2-6-2007 - Selected Office 2007 Apps now available

We have the following Office 2007 Applications available to download:

We do NOT have and WILL NOT have the following Office Applications:

12-20-2006 - Vista Ultimate?

This is the current thinking at Microsoft concerning Vista Ultimate being issued through the MSDN-AA Program:

"Vista Business was chosen for MSDN AA because it has an ideal toolset that most aligns with the vision of MSDN AA which is  - to enable academic pursuits of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics.  There are only two main differences between Vista and Ultimate, and those differences will not affect a student's ability to pursue academic work in the STEM disciplines."

They might change their stance in the future, but currently they are not planning to make any version other than Vista Business available to us.

12-3-2006 - Vista is now available!

Vista Business version is now available from our MSDNAA site. It is available as a 5 CD Download (32 bit) or as a 1 DVD download (separate downloads for the 32 bit or 64 bit versions). At this time the Business version is the only version available to us. We do not know if the Ultimate Version will ever be available through MSDNAA, but we have hopes that it might. Click HERE for a listing of Vista Downloads

What's New!!

• OIT Computer Classrooms can once again be used to burn ISO images to CDs! Please Click -> HERE for Instructions.
• Keys are sent out Monday through Friday between 9am and 5pm and it might take up to 3 hours after the request is made before they are sent. Please be patient.
• Clarification of Acceptable Use of MSDNAA Software! Please Click -> HERE .
• Important information about the Checked/Debugged Version of Operating Systems! Please Click -> HERE before downloading.
• Downloading of files from off campus now supported with an OIT Account! You can find out more about getting an OIT Account at the following Link -> OIT Account

Policies in effect as of October 15th 2003:

Request for keys must be made using an UMass Email Account - Due to the number of illegitimate requests that we have received and staff reductions, we can no longer respond to email requests made from non- UMass email addresses.

Only 3 keys per User per product will be allowed - We are given a limited number of product keys, therefore we need to restrict the number of keys we give out. Exceptions are possible. Send requests for exceptions to msdnaa@oit.umass.edu

Server Products will be available for Download - Due to the staff reductions, we will not be able to burn media except for extreme cases of need. Hopefully the availability of server media on line and ability to download from off campus will reduce the requests for media.