How to get Windows for free (Legally!)

So how is this possible? Well, Microsoft decided not too long ago that it would be beneficial for them to allow motivated yet financially devoid young people to begin practicing the art of computer programming on the cheap. Following this, they made available some amazing bundles of software for absolutely no cost to college students (and has since expanded the program to high school students as long as their schools sign up for the program). They called it DreamSpark and made everything available online for download.

While software sets like Visual Studio 2008 may be no more than a curiosity to those who have no interest in software development, a full operating system like Windows Server 2008 may perk up more than a few ears. The operating system is indeed designed to be used in a server/development environment, but it can be easily tweaked to function just like any normal desktop or laptop workstation. Below are the steps that should get you up and running in relatively little time.

Step 1: Go to dreamspark.com and verify your student status

Click here to see directions for college/graduate students

Click here to see directions for high school students

Step 2: Download Windows Server 2008 here.

Step 3: At the bottom of the download page, click on "Get Key" (write it down, but you can always retrieve it again later)

Step 4: Burn the resulting disk image to a DVD disk (There are lots of software packages available for this. On a Mac, the program called "Disk Utility" is in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder; open the disk image with Disk Utility and simply click on the "Burn" icon)

Step 5: Install Windows Server 2008 as you would install any other operating system, whether it be on a computer or a virtual machine through VirtualPC, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels (This is generally a very straight-forward process, but I apologize if you get stuck; there's unfortunately not enough time or space to go through that whole process here)

Step 6: When the system has completed its installation, you may find that you cannot successfully activate Windows with Microsoft. Don't fret -- you just need to enter the activation key that you got from DreamSpark: While in Windows, click the Start button, then right-click on Computer, then click on Properties. Look for where it says "Windows activation" in the following screen; you can change your product key there. Replace the key that is there with your new personal key that you copied down earlier.

Step 7: Now for the tweaking! Someone else has already gone through all the trouble, so rather than reinvent the wheel, I invite you to visit his simple yet comprehensive instructions at win2008workstation.com. I know that "simple" is extremely relative in the computer world, but this is pretty doable as far as these types of things go.