One thing that seems to have pasted a lot of people by is the fact that Microsoft gives copies of Vista away, for free.  No I’m not talking about MSDN.  Microsoft will give anyone how can provide a  International Student Identity Card (ISIC) number a copy of Windows Server 2008 Standard and Windows Server 2003 under their DreamSpark program.  Windows 2008 is with few exceptions everything like Windows Vista Ultimate.  You can use Vista drivers, change the language and can use RDP without a hack.  The only problem you might run into is  the fact that a number of moronically programed installers will check to see if you are on a “supported” version of windows and will complain when they see Server 2008.  Microsoft’s Zune software is included in this group although you can get around it by extracting the needed files from the installer. Windows 2003 on the other hand while being like XP does not share the same base which means you would be much better off with 2008.

Getting a ISIC isn’t even all that hard although it might cost a few bucks, in my case I was out $16CDN. The ISIC homepage has more information if you are interested.Microsoft also gives other programs away under the same program such as Visual Studio PRO although they do not give any of the office suite products away.

So why should you use this method vs just grabbing a torrent? After all its not like this supports the development of windows in any way. Well its simple really, no need to use your precious bandwidth since Microsoft provides a direct download. It is also faster, the Microsoft servers can saturate your connection. You also do not have to worry about WGA or its ilk.