Official MSDN Subscriptions Blog

Downloading and Installing VS 2010 Beta 1 Video

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:57:00 GMT

Episode 20: Downloading and Installing Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 is here! In this episode of 10-4, Brian Keller, Microsoft Technology Evangelist, will take you through downloading and installing Visual Studio 2010 Team Suite Beta 1 and Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Beta 1. This time-compressed video will take you through all of the key things you need to know to get up and running quickly with beta 1.

Enjoy!

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 - AVAILABLE NOW on MSDN Subscriber Downloads

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:36:00 GMT

Experience the Visual Studio 2010 beta now

Read more about how to give us feedback at the Visual Studio 2010 Product Page.

Thanks to all the tremendous demand for Window 7 RC, the systems are having trouble keeping up...

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:37:00 GMT

... but we are actively working on some changes to improve the site availability.

If you have been able to grab the bits, you can come back later for a key (you have 30 days). If you claimed a beta key and wrote it down or exported it, it is the SAME key. You have 10 activations (on a single machine) for the Windows 7 beta/rc key.

Thanks for your patience.

It's Alive!

ChrisDeluca — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:03:00 GMT

We just published the RC bits for Windows 7! More details to follow...

2009/04/30 11:55pm PDT - Update: I had fully intended on updating this post with tons of info, but alas, it was not to be. We had a ton of volume - more downloads were served today than we served during the beta release (up about 145%). While it wasn't a perfect day, I am really thankful we were able to get the Windows 7 RC bits into the hands of our subscribers well ahead of the general release next week. I believe we are in very good shape for tomorrow - so here is to an uneventful Friday!

For those of you who only heard about Windows 7 today - you should check out Windows Server 2008 R2 RC. It is the server product you know and love with the ability turn on all of the really snazzy Windows 7 UI elements.

Windows 7 RC on track for release to Subscribers on April 30th

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:27:00 GMT

You may have seen on the Windows 7 Blog, but it is now confirmed that the Windows 7 RC is on track to be released to MSDN and TechNet Subscribers on April 30th, with broader public availability on May 5th.

You might also be interested in some of the linked details:

Changes since Beta and more changes since Beta

MSDN Subscriptions web site - February 2009 release

ChrisDeluca — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:48:00 GMT

Some of you may or may not have noticed our February release go out last week. The release itself is fairly substantial, but not in ways that you’ll immediately notice – so I’ll highlight some of the changes and issues we’ve seen since releasing these bits into production.

The new features include:

1. “Super-setting” of your benefits for download and product key claiming purposes. One of the complaints we regularly heard from our users with multiple subscriptions was the fact that to download a file, you first had to select the proper subscription that had permission to the file and then you could download it. With super-setting, if any of your subscriptions entitle you to a download or a product key, you’ll be able to get what you want, based on the aggregation of your subscriptions.

2. Added more information to our “manage” page. Things like the expiration date of your subscription, the level of your subscription, the current status of your subscription, etc.

3. A complete rewrite of our middle tier. The original code for our middle tier was written almost four years ago. Since that time, we’ve had incremental changes patched into the code to handle changes in our partner feeds, changes to the UI and fixes for various bugs. This rewrite has given us a better platform for future development.

Unfortunately, there have been some bugs that didn’t get caught before we released our code into production. The vast majority of them fall into two broad buckets:

1. Users with a mix of expired and active subscriptions are seeing some odd behavior in the various web pages.

2. Product key claims are not working correctly for users that either have a mix of expired and active subscriptions, or users that have a mix of subscriptions that contain an Academic Alliance subscription.

We believe that we have been able to identify the root cause for these issues and the fixes are currently in our test lab. At this time, we expect to release the fixes to production early next week (Wednesday the 18^th is our current target).

Please feel free to sign into the blog and contact me privately if you have any questions. After signing in, you can navigate here: http://blogs.msdn.com/user/Profile.aspx?UserID=134865 and you will see an “email” link.

Chris Deluca - Dev Lead, MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions

MSDN Subscribers: Windows 7 Beta Downloads, Keys, and Providing Feedback

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:13:00 GMT

Many of you have successfully found the Windows 7 Beta Downloads and Keys, but some have not. Also, many of you have asked how you can provide feedback on the Windows 7 Beta. Hopefully the information below will answer these questions if you still need help.

You must have an active MSDN Subscription to download the files or claim product keys from the MSDN Subscriptions Site, and you must be signed in with your Windows Live ID. Need to Buy or Renew a Subscription?

Product Downloads:

Windows 7 Beta files on MSDN (adjust the language filters for other languages - a few have been released)

Windows 7 Beta files on Akamai (Top Downloads list) on MSDN

Product Keys:

Adjacent to the Downloads at MSDN

On the Product Keys list pages at MSDN

The downloads can be used for 30 days prior to activation, in case you have encountered problems or delays in claiming your product keys. You have access to 10 product keys. If you need more than that, you will need to contact Support to have additional keys provisioned for you.

Providing Feedback on the Windows 7 Beta:

You have asked us how you can provide feedback on the Beta, since the built in “Provide Feedback” links are not going to locations available to you.

We have worked with the Product Group to get you access to the "Connect" site where you can provide feedback.

Go to the MSDN Subscriptions Home Page and sign in to Windows Live ID. Follow the instructions and links under the top Article headline "Give us feedback on the Windows 7 Beta". If you don't see that headline, you are not recognized as an MSDN Subscriber.

Windows 7 has been posted!

Mike Kinsman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:59:00 GMT

Demand for Windows 7 Beta has been strong so far! If you have already downloaded the bits, we look forward to hearing what you think. If you haven't downloaded it yet, try it today!

If you did not get a product key when you first downloaded the bits, you can return to Subscriber Downloads and get one now. Hope you enjoy the beta!

MSDN Subscriptions Website Overhaul

Kathy[msft] — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:52:00 GMT

Notice anything different? The MSDN Subscriptions website has been updated. These updates are intended to make it easier for you to use your Subscription by improving the site navigation, page layout, and includes updates to the site content itself. The new design has been launched in en-us to start and then in 2009, we'll roll it out globally. Please tell us what you think.

The Subscriptions Site Management Team

New Subscriptions RSS Feeds!

Mike Kinsman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Today the Subscriptions team is launching new RSS feeds for newly posted items in MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Subscriptions. These new feeds are always up to date, updated programmatically when new products are added to Subscriber Downloads. The new feeds are also language specific, now you can sign up for one feed for each language of products you’re interested in, and ignore the rest.

If you have subscribed to the previous RSS feeds, you should see some new items in the feed that say “MSDN Subscriber Downloads RSS has moved - click this item to see the new <language> Downloads.” Go ahead and click on the items that have the languages you are interested in and then subscribe to those new RSS feeds in your favorite reader.

Note: The old feed will no longer be updated. You must subscribe to one of the new feeds to continue recieving updates.

These RSS feeds are also available on the subscriptions homepage and on the downloads page under ‘New MSDN Downloads’ or ‘New TechNet Downloads.’

Don’t see these links in your language? If you visit the MSDN Subscriptions homepage, and you don’t see the RSS links for your language, you can still get an RSS feed. Just take the English RSS url, and swap out the ‘en-us’ language/locale combination with the one from your homepage. So if you’re in Norway, you see the homepage as http://msdn.microsoft.com/nb-no/subscriptions/default.aspx. Copy the ‘nb-no’ and paste it over the ‘en-us’ in the English RSS url (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/subscription-downloads.rss) to create http://msdn.microsoft.com/nb-no/subscription-downloads.rss!

Try them out!

InstaSurvey 7002 (Newly Added Subscriber Files) RESULTS

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:47:00 GMT

http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/archive/2008/09/25/it-is-time-for-another-survey-instasurvey-7002-newly-added.aspx

THANKS FOR YOUR FEEDBACK - HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

For those of you that responded during the comment period, thank you for your feedback. Here is a summary of the feedback:

Like/Dislike Stats:

Like 11
Dislike 1

Comments/Suggestions, and [and any Microsoft comments]:

Update the RSS more often [New fully programmatic RSS feeds are expected to go live later in November - taking away all latency]
Wants 30 days rather than 60 days duration [this would likely come with additional personalization beyond v1.0, but we hear you!]
Wants to be able to select his own period for “new” - this month, last month, this week, last week or even a specific date [this would likely come with additional personalization beyond v1.0, but we hear you!]
I love it! I don’t know why this wasn't’t in the new design from the start. Everyone wants to know, at-a-glance, what is new since whatever date.
All aspects of the design make sense to me. I can’t wait for the implementation!
I like it, but it’s not really what I would expect. I would expect just the newly added content to appear. The mock-ups appear to support calling it “products with new content”. [We are looking at some options to address this general criticism.]
You get a list of Categories that have changed, but it’s still not a good way to show what items are new (and only what’s new)
I would rather see the actual files that have been added, not the categories where there are new files
I like the site and appreciate being given the opportunity to influence the features and design. Keep up the good work!

Other Suggestions for the Subscriptions Sites:

Ability to select multiple files for download as was possible before.
Ability to easily print to file / electronically store all the information on a download page.
In the list of product families on the left, it is not currently possible to use the middle mouse button to open the product family in a new tab... that would really help. It used to be possible.

Subscriptions sign in and Windows LiveId issues should be completely resolved now

ChrisDeluca — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:15:00 GMT

As I have posted elsewhere, fixes for all of our Subscriptions web site and Windows LiveId sign in issues have been installed into our production system. If you still have issues signing into Windows LiveId and visiting the Subscriptions web sites, I’d love to hear from you – because you are experiencing a problem that we aren’t aware of. Please sign into the blog and email me from my profile page with your contact details and I'll get you some help.

Chris Deluca

Are you having LiveId/downloading issues?

ChrisDeluca — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:00:00 GMT

There have been multiple posts by people that all claim something similar: “…I am properly signed in and have a LiveId (formerly known as Passport) but all of the download links are unavailable to me…”. So far, my response to this problem has been “…clear your cookies, close your browser and try again…” – However, this was intended to be a “…once in a long, long time…” fix – not a “…you must do this every time…” fix.

There are several people (John, Bobby, Eric, et al) who are reporting that they have to clear their cookies every time in order to initiate a download – which is not ideal. I have been able to reproduce a LiveId/download bug in my development environment that is very close to this, but I’m unable to reproduce the reported issue in our production environment. So I’m asking for your help.

What I need: If you are able to reproduce this problem consistently, I would like one of two things:

1. Document your step-by-step process that reproduces the issue and post them as a response to this blog

2. Log into the blog, and click on the email link on my profile page and provide your contact information so I can contact you privately for your step-by-step process

Since I can’t reproduce the issue, I’m beginning to wonder if there is a particular sequence of steps that must be done to cause the bug to activate, or a browser setting or something else altogether.

Thanks again for your help!

Chris

Subscriptions Downloads and Personalization issue resolved - Last Updated: 2008/10/04 @ 7:41pm PST

ChrisDeluca — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:19:00 GMT

7:41pm :: We have received notification from our Ops team that the failure on our servers has been fully corrected. All functionality has been restored.

1:36pm :: I'm seeing reports from users that things are coming back online. Our operations team is still working on verifying the server, so you may see intermittent wonky behavior.

11:45am :: The downloads, product keys and personalization functionality of the Subscriptions system is currently offline. The server that contains all of our data related to these functionalities experienced a catastrophic failure this morning.

Normally we run in a mirrored configuration and would just have failed over, but we removed one of the servers from the mirror to upgrade it to SQL 2008 RTM - Murphy's Law at its sweetest.

I'll update this thread as more information becomes available.

Chris - Subscriptions Dev Lead

If you get the "Windows LiveID is unavailable" message.....

SubscriptionsBlogger2 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:55:00 GMT

Clear your cookies, close all open browser instances and try again.

Occasionally there is an issue with the LiveId cookie that needs to get cleared out.