Microsoft Software

Attention

Microsoft has changed their method of software distrubution for Computer Science students. The Microsoft Imagine program is now Microsoft Azure Dev Tools for Teaching. The following instructions still apply for all other software provided by Kivuto. New instructions for Microsoft products are being generated.

Microsoft Azure Dev Tools

The program Microsoft previously offered, called Imagine/MSDNAA, is now Azure Dev Tools for Teaching. The new program can be accessed by going to https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools. The site will require you to login with your UK LinkBlue id to access the software and services Microsoft is providing to students.

Important

If you encounter an error validating your account you will need to open your browser in “private” or “incognito” mode. If you receive an error message & transaction ID, please copy and paste them in the body of an email to help@cs.uky.edu, including a short description of what generated the error.

Upon successful login to the site you should be in the Azure Portal (you may need to click on “Portal” at the top right of the window). You should see a section titled “Azure services” just below some the first section. In the “Azure services section, click on “Education”.

Warning

You will be asked to “Claim your Azure credit”. This is a one time $100 credit for use on the azure platform. This is all the credit you can receive as a student. You may want to learn more about the services Microsoft makes available on Azure and plan for the use of this credit before you redeem it.

On the left aside, you should see “Learning Resources” with “Software” located just below. Currently the link to Visual Studio Enterprise 2019, and all available Microsoft© software, is located in this section.

Note

The Microsoft Azure website goes through frequent changes, potentially making the information on this page out of date. Please send a message to help@cs.uky.edu if you neeed further assistance in finding the required software.

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“Start Page” for Azure Tools for Teaching

Once in the “Education - Software” section, you will find the products available listed on the right. Scroll down until you find Visual Studio Enterprise 2019.

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Naviagting to the downloadable software section

Clicking on the desired software will present a right aside with a link to download and the activation key.

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Right aside for downloading and activating software

If there is a Generate URL button instead of a link, you will need to click it to download the software.

Installing and activating Visual Studio Enterprise 2019

Attention

This guide is for Windows© only. Read through the installation instructions completely before acctually installing the software as some decisions may change your procedure.

Once you have the link and the key for VSE 2019, proceed to install the software. The download will install the installer, this sounds strange but the installer is a complete package and installs itself on your system. Once the installer is installed it should open up and present options for the installation of Visual Studio.

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Install the installer

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Select add-on options

Be sure to select “Desktop development with C++” if you are installing this for CS 215.

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Desktop development with C++

You can select any of the options you like, workloads are the easiest all-in-one options but you can also install individual components. If you find you missed or need something later on, you can re-run the installer so be sure to leave the installer installed.

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Installation progress

Warning

Visual Studio will install shared components on the C:\ drive of your computer. This will require as much as 45 GB of free space. Be sure you have enough free space before beginning the installation.

The installation can take around 20 GB so be sure to have lots of free space on the installation drive. Installation will take some time depending on what options you chose, grab a cup of coffee and wait. Once the installation has finished, you will be presented a window to login, use your LinkBlue credentials with “@uky.edu”.

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Login to your LinkBlue account

The login process will send you to the UK authentication system which should look familiar to you then Visual Studio will start-up. The software will ask if you want to open a recent project or a number of other options to get started, choose “Continue without code” unless you have a good reason to chose another option.

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Open a project or continue without code

Click on “Help” on the right side of the menu bar and select “Register Product”.

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Register your copy of Visual Studio

In the new window that opens, click on “Unlock with a Product Key” and enter the key obtained at the end of the previous section, when you downloaded the software from Azure Dev tools for Teaching. Successful activation will show “License: Product key applied.

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Unlock with a Product Key

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Enter your product key

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Successful activation

OnTheHub

OnTheHub is an agreement and service between multiple software vendors and the UK Computer Science Department.

It provides free and discounted software to current students who are:

  • Declared Computer Science Majors, and/or
  • Currently enrolled in a CS ### course.

To see if you have access to OnTheHub go to https://www.cs.uky.edu/csportal/ and login with your LinkBlue ID. Be sure that the Domain and semester fields are correct if you have trouble logging in.

Once logged in, click on “MSDNAA Info” on the left aside. The page will indicate when the accounts were last updated. There may be up to a day difference between the time you are enrolled in a course and when the CS department receives the information.

updated time

Updated rosters are typically provided to the CS department the day after enrollment after the semester has begun. If you have enrolled in a CS course and you still do not have access, please send an email to help@cs.uky.edu for further assistance.

FAQ

  1. Do I have a MSDNAA account?

Answer: Maybe. Computer Science majors and those enrolled in curriculum based courses have MSDNAA accounts on the CS site. Other Engineering majors (including Computer Engineering majors) have access based on THEIR site.

  1. How do I find out if I have one and what it is?

Answer: At the beginning of each semester, about 2 or 3 days before, and other times throughout the semester, the MSDNAA site is loaded with the email address of CS majors+CS enrolled students. This is a query based on actual enrollments and majors. If the IRIS system doesn’t have you listed as one of these, you will not be on the list.

You can login to the CS Portal (if you’re affiliated with CS): https://www.cs.uky.edu/csportal

using your LinkBlue credentials. The left-side menu has an item “MSDNAA”. Click on it and it will tell you if you are eligible and what email address was used. It also has a URL to the system managing the MSDNAA downloads (currently Imagine/OnTheHub.com).

  1. I had one at the beginning of the semester, but it now says it is expired, why?

Answer: Most likely, you changed your email address in the campus system. When the data was retrieved by the MSDNAA program, it saw the new address and changed it on the MSDNAA system.

  1. The CS Portal says my email address, but the MSDNAA site doesn’t acknowledge it!

Answer: There is a line at the top of the CS Portal MSDNAA screen like: MSDNAA accounts were last updated on 2012-09-06 10:17:55

If you’ve changed your email address since the last load, but it was after the date the CS Portal is showing, then MSDNAA still doesn’t know about it.

Note

Please note, during the summer period, MSDNAA is loaded with course enrollments for the summer semesters. If you are NOT enrolled in the summer and you are NOT a Computer Science major, you will most likely have to wait until the initial data load for the Fall semester.

Attention

If you are having download issues (incomplete files, etc), make sure you try using Internet Explorer (if IE fails try Chrome or Firefox). Sometimes it makes a difference.

  1. Why does it say my account has expired when I try to run the software?

Answer: If you can login and download, you haven’t entered the correct license key for the software. This key is presented to you when you download the software and can be found by looking at the order reciept on the msdnaa website.

Using A Mac

Boot Camp allows you to install and run MS-Windows on your Mac. Once installed, you can then install other Microsoft products like Visual Studio Enterprise with C++. This seems to be the most popular option for Mac users. You may be interested in this “how to” page from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201468