Action Pack News and Info - Jan Update review and info on some current MAPS issues
Most of you should have gotten your January Update to the Action Pack by now. If you have not received your update kit yet, you can send mail to: maps-na@microsoft.com to check into the delay. As you know, the JAN Update brought you the RTM bits for Vista Business (Upgrade) and the Office 2007 Enterprise Suite, as well as Expression Web, and the updated Small Business Assessment Toolkit.
In case you missed the most recent "Getting More Action Out of Your Action Pack" webcast (on the Jan Update), you can register for on-demand version at: http://www.msusapartnerreadiness.com/wscart.asp?eid=5080
Along with the discussion of the Action Pack elements above, there was a brief FAQ section at the end which I'll summarize below.
Downgrade Rights -- In accordance with the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) agreement and the program guide, Partners are encouraged (but not required) to upgrade to the most recent version of any product included in the MAPS kit within six months. To the extent you have certain constraints that prevent you from upgrading your systems to Windows Vista, you may keep using your existing product licenses, even if you are renewing your subscription and the product is no longer included in the subscription. For more information on this see also: http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/02/15/update-what-downgrade-rights-are-included-in-my-action-pack-subscription.aspx
Vista Business vs. Ultimate rationale -- Windows Vista Business is recommended for a majority of the business customer segment and thus is considered the most appropriate version for Action Pack subscribers to experience. Windows Vista Business is also available thru Volume License scenarios which also aligns with the preferred way partners should be selling Vista to qualified customers.
Windows Vista Ultimate is predominantly a consumer and small business edition that is aimed at high-end users, gamers, multimedia professionals and personal computer enthusiasts. One of the interesting aspects of this is that Partners can upgrade to Ultimate for $139 using a new technology available with Windows Vista called Windows Anytime Upgrade.
Move from full version to upgrade only -- Microsoft now offers only the UPGRADE version of the Windows desktop operating system within Action Pack, which is consistent with how this product is distributed to our Volume Licensing customers. The total number of Windows Upgrade licenses remains at 10 although now it can be a mix of XP and Vista per the info in the downgrade paragraph above.