MSDN™ subscriptions make it easier to take advantage of the latest Microsoft® tools and technologies. With the flexibility of tailored subscription levels and the convenience of timely updates delivered throughout the year, an MSDN subscription is essential for every developer.
The subscription basics are included here. For more information, consult the MSDN Online Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/.
Library Subscription
Professional Subscription
Universal Subscription
Instant access to an encyclopedic collection of information is the key to the MSDN Library subscription. The MSDN Library delivers all the information you need to program for the Microsoft Windows® and Windows NT® operating systems and to create applications with Microsoft Office and BackOffice®. The Library includes a wide variety of technical articles, sample code, product documentation, the Microsoft Knowledge Base, select content from third-party periodicals, and Microsoft Press® books.
Library subscribers receive four quarterly editions in January, April, July, and October.
Choose the Library Subscription if:
A good place to get acquainted with the Library is the liner-notes booklet included with every quarterly edition. Here you'll find information on how to install the Library, how to get online Help, and how to get technical support.
You can find information in the Library in three basic ways: browsing the table of contents (the Contents tab), using full-text queries to locate specific information (using the Search tab), and using the Index tab to look up information on functions, messages, and structures. One of the quickest ways to learn how to use the Library is to read the topics in MSDN Library Help, which is located under the Welcome to the MSDN Library topic in the table of contents. MSDN Library Help explains how to use the MSDN Library viewer, how to locate information in the Library, how to perform common tasks, and how to install and uninstall the viewer.
All MSDN subscriptions include a single-user license for the Library.
Additional information about the licensing associated with MSDN subscriptions is available in the topic "MSDN Subscription Licensing."
The Professional Subscription goes beyond documentation and provides the latest Microsoft systems technology. In addition to the quarterly Library, all Professional subscribers receive a complete set of the latest released U.S. versions and international versions of Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation operating systems (retail and debug) and Windows NT Server operating system, as well as software development kits (SDKs) and device driver kits (DDKs). We call this component the "Development Platform," and it is updated throughout the year via scheduled quarterly shipments and occasional interim shipments of important prereleases and final releases, such as future versions of Windows and Windows NT, as soon as they're ready.
As a Professional subscriber, you will receive:
Note For members in the United States and Canada only. Membership benefits vary from country to country—contact your local subsidiary for details.
Choose the Professional Subscription if:
The Universal Subscription was created especially for developing and testing Microsoft Office and BackOffice–based solutions. In addition to delivering the benefits of the Professional Subscription, the Universal Subscription includes Microsoft Visual Studio™ 6.0, Enterprise Edition, the BackOffice Test Platform, and the Office Test Platform (including Office Developer Edition, Microsoft FrontPage®, Microsoft Project, and more). Universal subscribers receive important releases—releases that come between quarterly shipments—as soon as they’re available.
Please note that Universal subscribers will receive Windows-based versions of Microsoft visual tools for the Intel® and RISC platforms only. (Macintosh®, and other versions of the visual tools, must be acquired separately.) Universal subscribers also receive select beta versions of the visual tools.
As a Universal subscriber, you will receive:
Note For members in the United States and Canada only. Membership benefits vary from country to country—contact your local subsidiary for details.
Choose the Universal Subscription if:
To help you find the components you need, we've created an index listing the current contents and setup paths for all MSDN CDs. These indexes are located in the index.htm file on Disc 1 of the Development Platform—U.S. set. Each index is in table format and includes CD#, Date, Name, and Description and Setup Location fields that you can use to find the component you need. The most current indexes can also be found on our Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/services/subscription/index/.
For information about the MSDN licensing agreement, please see "MSDN Subscription Licensing."
For information on how to subscribe to MSDN, please see "How to Subscribe to MSDN."