Important news on Office 2003 and Office XP – Effective June 30, 2007, MSDN Subscriptions will no longer be offering any activation versions of Office 2003 and Office XP from MSDN Subscriber Downloads or on media.  We are working with the Office team to provide non-activation versions to replace these editions, and wanted you to be aware now so that you may download any needed Office 2003 and Office XP bits from MSDN Subscriber Downloads before they’re removed later this month.

Please note that the existing Volume License versions of these products will continue to be made available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads for MSDN subscribers who purchased their subscriptions through our various Volume Licensing programs.

Microsoft .NET Passport/Windows Live ID Requirements for MSDN Subscriber Downloads -  I recently read a verbatim from a subscriber survey held earlier this year where the subscriber thought that he was locked into a single Windows Live ID and wanted to be able to change it from time to time.  As the surveys are anonymous, I’m hoping that you read my blog every so often as I’m about to confirm that only half of this is true.  While we are currently only able to support a single Windows Live ID per individual subscription, you are welcome to change it from time to time.

From the MSDN Subscriptions home page (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions), click on “Manage My Subscription” from the right-hand navigation box.  Once signed in and authenticated with your Windows Live ID, you may disassociate your Windows Live ID from your MSDN Subscription by simply clicking on the “Remove” button on the MSDN Subscription Management page.  Then, click on “Add New Subscription” from the returning page and complete the MSDN Registration to associate your subscription to your new Windows Live ID.  Be sure to have the following information handy, it must match exactly to the information we have on file for the subscription:  first name, last name, email address, and benefit access number or subscriber ID.

Please let me know if you have other MSDN Subscriptions questions or pet peeves like the one above.  In many cases, there are solutions, alas, sometimes they’re not always broadly publicized.  If we can address some of them here and enhance overall subscriber awareness, so much the better – pass those inquiries on.

 I look forward to seeing many of you at Tech-Ed 2007 next week.  I’ll be the tall guy hanging out at the MSDN Subscriptions booth from time to time; feel free to drop by and say hello.

Best regards,

Seth Adams

Program Manager, MSDN Subscriptions