How to get Windows 8 Pro from MSDN Subscriptions

I made a silly mistake last night and then saw someone asking about the same thing on an email list this morning, so thought I would drop this bit of information here.

There are plenty of resources explaining the different version of Windows 8. For example, this Microsoft blog post: Announcing the Windows 8 Editions

The one that most of us developers probably wan tis the Windows 8 Pro. But when you look on MSDN Subscriptions you will see variations on Windows 8, WIndows 8 Enterprise that you can download. Windows 8 Pro VL is listed but that’s for Volume License subscribers and there’s a “you can’t download this one, sorry” note beside those.

I gave up trying to figure out how to get Pro and downloaded Enterprise. Wrong!

Then this morning, someone pointed out my mistake.

The simple Windows 8 download is for [simple, aka Consumer] Windows 8 *and* Windows 8 Pro. The trick is that there are different keys:

So with one download, you’re good for either the consumer version or the Pro version of Windows 8.

If I didn’t live in the boonies, this wouldn’t have been a big deal. But since it took me over 3 hours to download the Enterprise and then another 3 to download the normal versions, it’s a mistake I won’t forget!