Microsoft
OUCS Online Shop
A range of Microsoft products are available centrally via the OUCS online shop. In particular university staff who have an existing MS Windows license can obtain a free upgrade license to newer versions of MS Windows although there is a small charge for the installation media.
Dreamspark, Ultimate Steal and Express
Students may find it useful to look at the software available free at the Microsoft DreamSpark and discounted software available at the Microsoft Ultimate Steal.
Microsoft also offer Express versions of some products that are free to anyone (rather than just students although they are also listed on the DreamSpark site for students).
Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA)
A departmental subscription, running until 31/12/2012, to the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance is also available. Microsoft state MSDNAA has two primary goals:
- To make it easier and less expensive for academic institutions to obtain Microsoft developer tools, platforms, and servers for instructional and research purposes.
- To build a community of instructors who can share curriculum and other learning resources to support the use of these technologies.
In order to download the MSDNAA software you need to visit the Maths Institute MSDN Academic Alliance Software Center. If you are not already logged in to the departmental website, you will be redirected to a login dialog where you login with your usual maths credentials. Note that logging out of the Software Center does not (!) log you out of the Maths Website, which needs to be done separately (unfortunately Microsoft does not offer a feature to redirect back to our page on logout).
You should also first review the MSDNAA usage guidance and MSDNAA end user license agreement. In particular you may prefer to obtain software via the OUCS shop etc in some cases where a more general license exists. Note in particular the license restrictions include:
- As a departmental license only formal members of the Mathematical Institute (i.e. staff employed through the department and students enrolled through the department on a formal course) may have access to software under this agreement.
- The tools and technologies provided through the Developer AA subscription may be used exclusively for academic instruction, academic projects, and non-commercial research only.
- Department, Faculty, or Staff members who are not directly involved with teaching involving the MSDNAA products may not install the software on their personal computers.
- All users of software provided through Developer AA are prohibited from using Developer AA software for commercial purposes.
- Microsoft Windows may only be installed to facilitate the use of other Developer AA software and technologies such as Microsoft Visual Studio for instruction or research - i.e. you cannot use MSDNAA simply as a means of upgrading you MS Windows Operating system unless you are also using other MSDNAA software for development, teaching or research work.
- One user may install and use copies of the software to design, develop, test and demonstrate your programs. Testing does not include staging on a server in a production environment, such as loading content prior to production use.Your end users may access the software to perform acceptance tests on your programs.
Microsoft Examples of Acceptable Instructional and Research Use
A department may use the software and technologies provided by the MSDN Academic Alliance to teach or conduct research on the concepts or theory behind the following:
- Operating systems, using Windows client or server operating systems
- Database structures and database administration, using Microsoft SQL Server
- Programming languages and algorithms, using Visual Studio
- Messaging or collaboration, using Exchange Server
- E-commerce applications, using Commerce Server and/or Microsoft BizTalk Server