MSDNAA Rant

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

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Before I get sent back to the Mac corner.... I'm a lifelong Windows user, and have only recently switched to Macs. Today I'd use Windows 7 on a custom built PC for gaming, and Mac OS X on a Mac as a laptop :). And infact, that's what I do.


I want to install Windows on my Mac laptop, as that's what I take into Uni with me everyday and as we're being taught Visual Studio I kinda need Windows, not OS X. Yes I know I've got Windows on my Desktop PC, but as that's in my bedroom I want it on my laptop too.

On my laptop I don't want Windows installed natively. I'm using VMware Fusion for Virtual Machines, as I'm gonna have multiple Windows and Unix and Linux VMs on the go, but obviously I'll only copy over to the laptop the one I need for that week/whatever. Similarly on my gaming PC I'll be using VMs.

Man that's a long preamble.


Anyways, my Uni has MSDNAA so off I go to it. Get a license key for Windows 7 Professional 64bit fine :). Hit the download button to get the ISO and within a few seconds it's done. Blimey, that was quick I thought.

Open up my downloads folder and it's not an ISO :(. It's an EXE that will then run/install a downloader for it. I've got two problems with this.

One, I hate the ways companies do this. Just give me the file I'm after. If it's too big for my browser to download, I'll use a download manager program of my choice, or FTP. Heck you could do what some companies do and use torrents. I don't want your piece of **** download manager thanks.

Two, your download manager program is an EXE. That's Windows only. I'm downloading the ISO to install Windows on my Mac..... but to get at the ISO I need Windows to install their download manager program. But to have Windows to install their download manager program into I need Windows. Oh wait. Genius.


Obviously my solution isn't hard, all I need to do is go and install their piece of **** download manager onto my gaming PC, but just grrrrr :mad:.


P.S. Yes I know about Wine.
 
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Can't you find the ISO *cough* somewhere else, and just make sure the MD5/SHA-1 is the same after you download it?
 
to be fair, you are getting all the software for free (and legally).

All the exe does is download the iso to a temp location and verify the download. It doesn't even install anything on your system. Yes it's obviously biased towards Windows but at the end of the day it's a small price to pay for what you're getting in return.
 
I love msdnaa, free software cant complain..

I would also have liked the option to just download off the website, but beggars cant be choosers!
 
AFAIK there is a way to convert the .exe to a .iso file (legally). I had the same problem when bought the digital version of win7. But I cant remember how I did it.
 
I, personally, don't see the problem.

You install a Download Manager and you queue all the items you want to download. It then downloads the ISO's.

It's a tiny piece of software. Did you also complain when you had to install Steam to download games? It's the same principal.



M.
 
Temi_D said:
AFAIK there is a way to convert the .exe to a .iso file (legally). I had the same problem when bought the digital version of win7. But I cant remember how I did it.
Click to expand...

The exe is just the file download manager, so that won't work. Personally, I don't see why your uni doesn't have local copies of the ISOs to stop needless external traffic. That's what Southampton do, so you can get full gigiabit bandwidth.
 
m4cc45 said:
I, personally, don't see the problem.

You install a Download Manager and you queue all the items you want to download. It then downloads the ISO's.

It's a tiny piece of software. Did you also complain when you had to install Steam to download games? It's the same principal.



M.
Click to expand...

Steam is Mac compatible thought ;)
 
Burnsy2023 said:
The exe is just the file download manager, so that won't work. Personally, I don't see why your uni doesn't have local copies of the ISOs to stop needless external traffic. That's what Southampton do, so you can get full gigiabit bandwidth.
Click to expand...

For us we had to be inside the Uni network to download anything as the exes pointed to the ISOs on the Uni servers rather than Microsoft. This was using the exes downloaded from MSDN:AA too.

Alternatively just get a copy of the ISO elsewhere, it'll work fine.
 
Microsoft don't give the MD5/SHA-1 of the ISO, so I don't have a clue whether I should be, ahem, downloading OEM or Retail (and also when the EXE ISO download is done I can't verify that properly! :()

cokecan72 said:
to be fair, you are getting all the software for free (and legally).
Click to expand...
Like the average student cares whether they're licensed legally or not! :p


What I find funny is I've met graduates who have just started working and suddenly found what licenses cost. After spending their time at Uni buying into the Microsoft way of doing things they're now shocked when every license has to be bought for £££.

Burnsy2023 said:
Personally, I don't see why your uni doesn't have local copies of the ISOs to stop needless external traffic. That's what Southampton do, so you can get full gigiabit bandwidth.
Click to expand...

You mean JANET bandwidth doesn't grow on trees? :p ;)
Though yeah, that would be far more sensible.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Microsoft don't give the MD5/SHA-1 of the ISO, so I don't have a clue whether I should be, ahem, downloading OEM or Retail (and also when the EXE ISO download is done I can't verify that properly! :()
Click to expand...

IIRC the down loader verifies the ISO once its downloaded
 
I have to agree, i hate those download managers. Adobe recently added one for adobe reader which i thought was a complete waste of time, most of them never support proxies and bypass my ssh tunnel, which just annoys me because i probably have the download server in my block lists, so then i have to unblock it. I do not see any reason to implement a download manager. Maybe they are concerned about people downloading their software without going through their website, maybe so they can count the amount of downloads or monitor it for analytic reasons.
 
Westyfield2 said:
Microsoft don't give the MD5/SHA-1 of the ISO, so I don't have a clue whether I should be, ahem, downloading OEM or Retail (and also when the EXE ISO download is done I can't verify that properly! :().
Click to expand...

Any should be fine. The only difference is whether you want x86 or x64, the rest of the discs are the same; some discs lock the installer to only allow you to select say Windows 7 Home Premium but it's easy to unlock them and give you a full list.

If you email me (see sig, or use the email link in my trust, not the hotmail one) I'll send you the hashes.
 
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