How to get FREE Microsoft software
If you’re a Stanford student looking for free academic versions of Microsoft software, check out http://msdn.stanford.edu/. Here’s a sample of what’s available:
Free stuff you MBAs might want:
- Windows – particularly for those who run Virtual PC for Mac and need Windows to run Excel
- OneNote – an awesome app for note taking if you don’t have it yet
- Visio – For designing flow charts and website diagrams
- Groove – For working on group projects. It’s like a peer-to-peer version of DropBox without file limits. Though this solution only works if everyone’s on PCs…
- Project Professional – If you are a total nerd who loves gantt charts
The Microsoft Developer Network, a.k.a. MSDN, offers software for students on a special developer license originally designed for engineers building on Microsoft technologies who buy bulk licenses for building out products.
This is the academic version, which works great for everything except the core Office client. You can get the academic version of Office Professional for $80 at the time of this writing, and this promotion often ends around fall, so if you’re going to buy Office the start of school’s typically got the best pricing.
And if you’re excited about Office 2010 (and you should be), here is an ultra nerdy, why-did-we-spend-so-much-money-on-this trailer from Redmond:
