Dreamspark Refreshed!

For those of you wanting to jump on the latest released tech, now is your chance.

I took a look at DreamSpark today and noticed a major change to both the website and the program line-up.

https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

The following programs are now available FREE OF CHARGE to all verified students!

• Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
• SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
• Microsoft Expression Studio 2
• Virtual PC for Mac

Those, as well as the existing Visual Studio 2008, 2005 and the express editions are available now for download.

Remember, XNA Game Studio 3.0 is the latest edition, which is free to everyone (no need to bother with DreamSpark for it) however it requires Visual Studio 2008 or Visual C# 2008 Express edition. Get XNA GS 3.0 from http://creators.xna.com instead and get all the great educational samples there as well.

Another addition is the Microsoft IT Academy Program Student Pass.

“The Microsoft IT Academy Student Pass is a special no-cost online learning opportunity for students. IT Academy Student Pass provides free e-learning courses to verified students who are interested in extending their technical skills with Microsoft technologies.

The IT Academy Student Pass offers 12 to 22 hours of FREE e-learning courses, aligned to the first set of topics you need to master for the first Microsoft certification exam within the track. Each track is unique, and most will require you to take additional e-learning courses to complete all of the topics you need to succeed on the certification exam.”

This is an excellent way to learn how to use Visual Studio 2008 or Windows Server 2008, so you can get and learn the programs all for free!

Michael