Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance

Some Microsoft software is provided through Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance.

The MSDN Academic Alliance is an annual membership program for Departments in the College of Science and Engineering. As a member, a department receives an MSDNAA subscription that includes Microsoft platform, servers, and developer tools software. This software may be installed on any number of departmental lab machines. In addition, the department's faculty and students may obtain a copy of the software to install on their personal computers.

All the software is available for free download. The free download requires you to burn your own copy of the software from the downloaded CD image. For some of the more popular packages the CD's can be purchased for a nominal fee and mailed to you.

For an overview of how the system works you can visit the Dreamspark site. It will give an overview of how the program works and the software available.

In order to download the software you need to register for an MSDNAA account. After sending the request, you will receive an email in a week asking you to create a unique password for you account. Then you can go to our DreamSpark WebStore to download free software.

Who Is Eligible?

1. CSE Labs students who have an active CSE Labs account. Please note: Your CSE Labs account no longer closes at the end of each semester, however, it will be closed following a year of inactivity. If you are experiencing problems or have any questions regarding the CSE Labs, please send e-mail to operator [at] cselabs.umn.edu . Undergraduate students will need to use their CSE Labs account to register for the MSDNAA software.
2. CS graduate students and faculty. Only graduate students and faculty can register using their CS account.

You must register for an MSDNAA account to get your free software.