Microsoft Products for Stanford IT Professionals

Overview

Microsoft Desktop and Server Operating Systems, Back Office Products, Office, and Client Access Licenses (CALs) are available to Stanford as a result of the Microsoft Campus-wide License Agreement. University IT has made downloads available for the most popular titles to IT professionals at Stanford. Access to software is managed through Workgroup Manager and delegated to department supervisors. Please check with your IT supervisor first to see if they have access and can give you access. If you are in charge of IT for your area, please submit a Help request to ask that a new workgroup be created for you.

License Activation

A Microsoft Key Management Server (KMS) host on campus is used to activate Windows Operating Systems and Office products. See the Microsoft License Activation page for instructions for activating operating systems, activating Office and getting Multiple Activation Keys (MAK).

As of our Microsoft Campus-wide License Agreement effective November 1st, 2018, KMS activation of Office is no longer the preferred method. Instead, the recommendation is to install the Microsoft 365 ProPlus product and activate by SUNet ID login.

Installing Microsoft site-licensed software for Stanford

Stanford’s site license agreement includes upgrade licenses. According to Microsoft, each of these conditions must be met in order for a base computer to be eligible for an upgrade license:

• Software under the qualifying* OS license must already be installed on the device that will be assigned the Volume Licensing upgrade.
• You must remove the existing qualifying OS from the device in order to deploy the Volume Licensing upgrade license, unless the PC is covered by Software Assurance. (Stanford’s EES agreement provides us with Software Assurance.)
• Customers who wish to install or run more than one licensed OS at one time (including the qualifying OS), may either:
  • Acquire Software Assurance for their Volume Licensing upgrade license.
  • Purchase full Windows 11 or Windows 10 licenses, separately.

* Please make sure you have a qualifying OS on any Stanford-owned server or client endpoint you order. Updated information about qualifying OS can be found on  Microsoft's Volume Licensing page. (Select the Qualifying operating systems link, and download the Windows 10 Qualifying Operating Systems Chart. Refer to the Academic and Charity column.) Specifically note that Linux OS of any type is not a qualifying OS and you may not install the Stanford site-licensed software over Linux.

Microsoft Software Available to Faculty and Staff