MSDN Academic Alliance FAQ

We have recently configured a web-based download management system (ELMS) for use by the department. This enables us to offer a few select Microsoft titles for download.

This system is available only to Duke Computer Science Department faculty, staff, grad and undergraduate majors.

How do I access the site?

You must have an MSDNAA account in order to download software. MSDNAA accounts are created at the start of each semester for all faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students that have active Computer Science accounts. If your Computer Science account was not active at the start of the semester, you may request to have your MSDNAA account created by contacting the Lab staff. of the semester.

Once an account has been configured by E-academy, you will receive an e-mail message with a link to the site, a username and password. The username for the MSDNAA site will be your Computer Science e-mail address.

The link to the MSDNAA site is:

http://msdn02.e-academy.com/duke_cs/

If you forget your password, go to the LOG IN link and request that your password be sent to you, using your CS email address as the username.

Which titles are available?

Too many to list. The current Windows operating systems are available. Visual Studio and the MSDN Library are available as well. It generally takes a month or two for new releases and SP editions to be released. The popular Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) application is not available here, but can be obtained via Duke OIT.

Windows 7, Vista, XP, Windows 2008 and 2003 Server:

These titles are in the standard ISO CD format.

SQL and other applications:

These downloads will contain all of the files and folders from the original CDs in non-ISO format. You can run the program directly from you computer or burn them to CD.

How many licenses do I get?

License keys are mailed to you and stored under your name at E-academy. If you lose your license keys, please check both of those locations before requesting additional licenses. Standard Microsoft licensing applies for all downloads. For many titles you will only be able to download them once. For this reason we highly recommend that you backup your downloads immediately.

You should burn each application you download to CD. The ISO image downloads require you to burn them to CD before they can be used. If you do not have a CD burner, there is one located in room D108.

If you encounter any problems downloading software please contact E-academy. From the Support section of the website you can REQUEST RE_INSTALL or REQUEST CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

How does the download process work?
  1. You will need to use a Windows system to download all MSDNAA software. The files are downloaded in a .sdc format that must be extracted via a windows utility.
  2. Order the software through ELMS web site and download the installation launcher.
  3. Run the launcher and perform the following steps:
    • Authorization - Checks are done to make sure that you have not exceeded your download limit. Also you are given the option of setting the local install directory (We recommend an unique and empty directory).
    • Downloading - The encrypted .sdc file is downloaded to your local directory from the ELMS web server.
    • Unpacking - The secure package that you just downloaded is unwrapped to your "unpack directory."
    • Launch Install - This step normally launches the program installation. For our software this step will simply open the download directory.
  4. In the end you will be left with either an ISO image (.ISO) file, a WIN image (.IMG) file or a folder listing of the entire CD.

What do I do with the .ISO/.IMG files?

ISO and Windows Image files are essentially the same format, however certain programs may only work properly if the file extensions are set to the format that program expects.

  1. If the file has an .IMG extension you can open the image, browse and extract it using WinImage ( http://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm). You can also open a .ISO image this way by just renaming the extension to .IMG.
  2. If you prefer to burn the image to CD, you can do so in room D108, using the Easy CD Creator® software:
    • Easy CD creator® only recognizes ISO image files, so you must change the extension of the file from .IMG to .ISO, if needed.
    • Right click on the file and select Record to CD. This should launch Easy CD Creator® and begin the burn process. If this does not, you will need to do this manually. Open Easy CD creator® and select
      File → Record CD from CD image...
  3. Use this CD to install the software on your computer. You will need the license number that you received via e-mail for this.

If you have any problems with this procedure, please contact the Lab staff.