Official MSDN Subscriptions Blog

An ongoing blog run by the managers of the online and offline MSDN Subscriptions program.

  • Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 files are also now available

    From Top Subscriber Downloads list on lower left of http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/default.aspx

    of from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx?PV=18:100:ALL:en:ALL for the English files, although many languages are avalailable if you change the language filters.

     

    Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 8:38 AM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 12 Comments

  • SQL Server 2008 Now Available on Subscriber Downloads

    If you haven't noticed....

    English downloads are available now and additional languages will be added on a daily basis.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx?PV=42:334

    Posted Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:09 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 17 Comments

  • New and Improved Subscriber Download UI is LIVE!

    Like that famous car manufacturer slogan: You asked for it, you got it...a new UI!  Like that famous burger slogan: Have it your way, have it your way...a whole new UI!  Like that famous computer manufacturer slogan: Dude, you're getting a new UI! 

     

    I am pleased to announce that we are releasing our new and improved subscription download UI today.  The new subscriber downloads UI takes into account feedback we received on community blogs, forums, and surveys.  The UI you overwhelmingly liked (84% of survey responders) is now live.  Many of your suggestions are included in this release.  Other features will be included in future releases. 

     

    You can find the new UI here:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx

    http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx

    http://expression.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx 

     

    The following list summarizes the features and improvements in the new UI in this release:

    ·         The “twitchy” fly-out menu with the strange mouse behavior is gone.  RIP.

    ·         The product list is categorized. This was the most commonly requested organization structure. 

    ·         The table of contents has been flattened from three levels to two so finding products will be easier. 

    ·         The list of products can be narrowed easily by using the search filter. 

    ·         You can find products by using the filtered search or by browsing the table of contents. 

    ·         You can now search on part of a product name, e.g. “2007,” or on the name of an edition, e.g. “Ultimate” (as in Windows Vista Ultimate or Microsoft Office Ultimate).

    ·         If a file contains more than one product edition, the names of the editions are listed in plain view. 

    ·         File downloading, key related tasks, and product information are provided on the same page so you will no longer have to navigate from one page where you search for a product to another where you download files and claim keys. And if you encounter an error on the site, you’ll no longer be taken to a separate error page.

    ·         File downloading, key related tasks, and relevant information can be seen in a single row so you’ll no longer have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find product keys.

    ·         Download sizes are displayed prominently so you can see how big the file is before you initiate the download.

    ·         You can now sort product files by the date they were updated, or by their availability based on your subscription level. 

    ·         The site will “remember” your last settings for media type, e.g. “DVD,” and architecture, e.g. “x86.”  If no files match your settings, the site will automatically suggest less-restrictive settings.

     

    Thanks again to those of you who participated in the surveys, and provided feedback in blogs and forums.  We hope you find the new UI easier to use.

     

    The Subscriptions Benefits Portal team

     

     

    P.S.

     

    I'm going to start a Live Meeting at 4:30pm PST.  For those of you that would like to swing by, chat and ask questions, please find the details here:  http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/pages/live-meeting.aspx

     

    Chris

    Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:08 PM by ChrisDeluca | 22 Comments

  • New Subscriber Downloads User Interface - Survey Results

    The results of our second user survey have been posted here:  http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/pages/instasurvey-7001-new-downloads-ui-survey-results.aspx

     

     I would like to thank all of you who took the time to check out the new UI mock-ups and provide feedback.

     

    Sincerely,

    Chris Deluca

     

    Posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 5:30 PM by ChrisDeluca | 8 Comments

  • New Subscriber Downloads User Interface

    Thanks for the feedback you provided on our initial survey as well as the feedback you posted in other blogs.  We took this into account and came up with a new user interface design that we hope you like.  

     

    You can see the new user interface mock-ups here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/bb980944.aspx 

     

    Please provide your feedback using our “mailto” survey form located here: http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/pages/more-info-please.aspx

     

    We look forward to your feedback, both positive and constructive!

     

    Chris Deluca, Dev Lead of the Subscriptions Benefit Portal

    Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:30 PM by ChrisDeluca | 8 Comments

  • Show me the results!

    The results of our first survey have been tabluated by the accounting firm of Dewy, Countem and Howe and have been posted here: http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/pages/instasurvey-7000-a-to-z-navigation-survey-results.aspx

    Thank you again for taking the time to provide your feedback!  We'll have another navigation prototype coming very soon.

    Sincerely,

    Chris Deluca – Dev Lead of MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions

    Posted Thursday, May 22, 2008 3:35 PM by ChrisDeluca | 3 Comments

  • Survey says!

    If you grew up during the 70's and 80’s, you probably saw the "Family Feud" game show.  100 people were surveyed and the top responses were gathered and two families tried to guess what the top responses were.  The questions were easy enough – like “…Name something you would find in the trunk of a car…”.  But there would always be an  “Aunt Millie” (probably her real name) and her response would be completely crazy like “egg salad”, when everyone else in the world would answer “spare tire”, “car jack”, “golf clubs” or “a dead body”.  The family tried to be supportive of Aunt Millie and indicated she had a “good answer, good answer” – but everyone knew it would never be on the list. 

     

    I don’t want to deliver a navigation control that comes across like “egg salad” ever again. 

    This is your opportunity to be one of the “more than 100 people surveyed”.  The other day I posted a piece of content which represented an “A to Z” product navigation metaphor of the Subscriptions content and I’d like to get your feedback on it.  You can see the A to Z navigation content here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/bb980945.aspx and then if you could provide your feedback I would really appreciate it.  We are working on a much more robust feedback system, but until then I am capturing feedback by email – the links can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/pages/instasurvey-7000.aspx.

     

    Thanks again for your time and keep those comments coming!

    Chris Deluca 

    Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2008 4:21 PM by ChrisDeluca | 4 Comments

  • Hello World!

    No, this isn't a new sample application, it is the first of (what I hope are) many blog posts by me, Chris Deluca.  I am the dev lead for the Subscriptions development team.  Our most recent release involved quite a few significant architectural changes and I've been closely following the blog posts.  I have also been wanting to create a more direct route of contact between you (my customers) and me, and figured that, with some of the recent feedback posts that have been critical of our new functionality, now was as good a time as any. 

     

    My goal with these blog posts is to accomplish the following:

    1.       Provide a more direct touch point between me (and my team) and you

    2.       Solicit your feedback about our features through the use of quick to answer surveys

    3.       Let you know about upcoming feature additions and changes to our existing functionality

     

    My requests of you:

    1.    Feel free to provide constructive criticism about any feature that is available on our web site or that I discuss as a part of this blog.  My definition of constructive criticism is that in addition to stating why you dislike the way something works, please provide what your suggestion would be to make it better.  For example, “…I don’t like the new navigation UI…” isn’t informative enough, whereas “…I don’t like the new navigation UI and would prefer a simple list of products arranged in an alphabetical order…” allows us to make note of an alternate navigation UI that we can take under consideration.

    2.    Please let us know when you like something.  I realize most people are highly motivated to post comments when they get riled – we sure would like to know when we’ve done something right too!  :)

    3.    Participate in our surveys early and often.  I plan to ask questions regularly and I would love your feedback.  On each survey, I plan to ask a couple questions that can be answered in just a minute or two – the more responses we get, the better!

     

    So now on to a couple of quick responses to posts I’ve seen on the blog recently…

    Q.

    It wasn’t broken, so why did you “fix” it?

    A.

    The functionality of our web site could have been divided into two broad categories: The part of the web site that our team designed, coded and maintained and the part of the web site that was designed, coded and maintained by another team here at Microsoft (but not in our group).  This dual ownership caused issues – for example, whenever we wanted to make a change, no matter how minor, we were forced to queue up with all of the other work the other team was responsible for.   The other team did a good job over the last few years, but we wanted to innovate at a much quicker pace.  So, we embarked on a complete rewrite of the download UI functionality.  What we have delivered so far is just the beginning of the full feature set we plan to deliver in the coming months.  There were many features we had to cut to make our deployment dates, but we will be adding some of the cut features back in, as well as adding many new features we hope you will really enjoy.

     

     

    Q.

    Please, for all that is right and good in this universe, can’t you please bring back the old UI?

    A.

    In a word, no.  Our development platform is much different than the platform the other team utilized – ours is hosted on a completely virtual web site solution that also manages all of the content of the MSDN and TechNet web sites. The nice thing about the architectural changes is now that we own the entire code stack, we can make changes at a much faster pace as well as offering more features in the long run.

     

     

    Q.

    Ok, you won’t bring back the old site, but I’m really not crazy about the new navigational control – I especially hate flyouts!

    A.

    It is very clear that one navigational style doesn’t work for everyone.  Some people like to utilize search to find products, some people love tree-control navigation and some like simple lists – and some people do like flyouts.  Our plan is to offer several different types of navigation and allow you to choose one as your “preferred” navigational mechanism.  Using this approach, we think we can make just about everyone happy – as you’ll get to pick the one that meets your needs best.

     

    Q.

    Where did  all of the personalization features go?

    A.

    Personalization of the site was one of the features cut to make our delivery dates.  We will be adding personalization features back soon.

     

     

    Q.

    You really messed up the organization of the data.  I can’t find anything!

    A.

    This is one comment that surprises me.  I admit that once you get used to finding things in a particular location, figuring out the new location can be painful.  Our goal was to put downloads together in a much easier to find style.  Files for Vista – including all service packs – where are they?  They are all together (surprisingly enough) under Vista .  I want the SDK for Windows Server 2008 – where is it?  Right next to the actual Windows Server 2008 download.  I will be doing a survey shortly to probe this topic in more depth.

     

    Well, I think that is all for now.   There are a lot of changes coming – I look forward to your feedback about all of them!

     

    Sincerely,

    Chris Deluca – Dev Lead of MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions

    Posted Saturday, May 10, 2008 8:56 PM by ChrisDeluca | 8 Comments

  • New Subscriber Functionality released today in response to your feedback

    RSS Feed is now available for new MSDN Subscriber Download content

    Alternative Navigation through the A-Z Product Family List Page (see the link in the right rail from http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads)

     

    And - starting soon we will also have some guest bloggers joining us to hear more of your input

    Posted Monday, May 05, 2008 7:39 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 3 Comments
    Filed under: ,

  • Following up on your feedback

    We have been taking note of your input on the new UI - positive and negative - and we are looking at changes we can make in the short and longer term to address the feedback.

    The first pain point we heard was the missing "New in Downloads" list, and we got something together to address that in about a week. Hopefully you have found it and are using it. We are working on an RSS version as well right now as well.

    We take your feedback seriously and we want to provide a positive experience, not a negative one. I may come back with some more specific questions or clarifications of the feedback.

    Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:43 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 12 Comments
    Filed under:

  • VL Subscribers with multiple download benefits not able to see all downloads - fixed last Friday

    For VL subscribers that have multiple download benefits, you were only seeing downloads and keys associated with one of those benefits. This was fixed late last week. If you click the Downloads link at the top of the page, it will still show downloads that match the first subscription in your list of several. In order to see products and keys associated with each benefit, you will need to go the Subscriptions Management page and click on the other subscriber downloads link from there. We are looking at whether we can abstract this out longer term but doing so might actually cause detrimental impacts so needs further evaluation.

    In the meantime, go to the Subscriptions Management page and click the download link from there for your subscription with multiple downloads to ensure you see the correct downloads.

    Note that not all VL Subscribers have this issue, and no Retail Subscribers have this issue. 

     

    Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 11:34 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 5 Comments

  • Windows XP SP3 Patch now available to MSDN Subscribers - through Top Downloads list

     

    We are pleased to announce that “update only” Windows XP SP3 bits in all languages are now available on MSDN via the Top Downloads location.  Please read the directions in that section or on our FAQ about using Top Downloads.  Windows XP SP3 includes previously released updates for the operating system, as well as a small number of new updates that should not significantly change the Windows XP experience.

     

    As MSDN subscribers, we highly value your feedback regarding Windows XP SP3 availability and one of our top priorities is responding to your requests for Windows XP SP3 bits as quickly as we can.  Over the last few days, the team here worked with our bandwidth and system partners to come up with creative solutions to make Windows XP SP3 available to you as soon as possible. 

     

    We still plan to begin rolling out the integrated build for Windows XP SP3during the first week of May.  We value your support and enthusiasm, and will continue to listen to your feedback as we deliver the MSDN Subscription service.

     

     
    Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11:48 AM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 18 Comments

  • 'New in Downloads' List is NOW LIVE

    There are now links to a list of New Subscriber Downloads on the MSDN Subscriptions Home Page and the MSDN Subscriber Downloads Page.

    The links are live on the English pages now and they will be added to the international sites in the next few days.

    We will update the list when we publish batches of new content such as we did earlier this week. We are also working on further enhancements to this content to make it more integrated.

    I have been in meeting hell lately so not able to respond to some of your posts. Hopefully in the next two days I'll be able to respond to some of your questions and feedback.

    Thanks. 

     
    Posted Wednesday, April 16, 2008 11:19 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 4 Comments

  • New Downloads and Product Keys - VS Professional Subscribers are not seeing downloads - working on it

    We have a lot of reports that Visual Studio Professional Subscribers are not seeing any downloads besides the MSDN Library - we are looking at this right now. Sorry for the hassle.

    Posted Friday, April 11, 2008 8:22 AM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 11 Comments

  • New Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys UI is LIVE

    As of 20:00 (8:00PM US PDT), the new Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys UI is live for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.

    There are a few site-wide (all MSDN and TechNet) CSS issues that were noticed in advance of the release, that will continue to be looked into by the appropriate teams.

    Let us know what you think. Check out the walkthroughs and FAQ pages to assist you in using the new capabilities, and Enjoy! 

     

     

    Posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:08 PM by SubscriptionsBlogger2 | 33 Comments
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