What I wasn’t aware of is what the number of activations is for each product. This means that the number of activations that you are entitled to are finite. You do get retail and MAK (Multiple Activation Key) keys.

However it is interesting to discuss what you don’t get with a TechNet or MSDN subscription, and that is the activation feature that would make activation simplest – Key Management Service (KMS) keys. If you don’t already have a TechNet Plus subscription you should read about it here (read about MSDN subscriptions here - MSDN gives you much more than TechNet, but with a price to match). What do you get with a TechNet subscription? If you have a personal TechNet subscription for your own testing, your options are limited in comparison. The webcast and white paper go into plenty of detail about production activation, different product key types and how to manage product activation, but they are focused on corporate development and test environments. Although aimed at developers using an MSDN subscription (IT Pros don’t have to worry about licensing and product activation?) the concepts discussed apply to TechNet subscriptions as well.Ī companion white paper, Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments, can be viewed on TechNet or downloaded as a Word document. Microsoft delivered a webcast recently, entitled Product Activation in Development Environments, which discusses Windows Product Activation for development and test environments.

I won’t go into what I really think about product activation but if you’re interested in how to manage your TechNet or MSDN keys, I have discussed how I’m doing that here. Fortunately that fear has been mostly unfounded. I’ve been avoiding activating Windows installations in my home test environment with the product keys from my TechNet subscription because I’ve been afraid of running out of keys.

Msdn operating systems subscription