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However, another group on campus wrote to tell us that if you let your expire for more 30-days before renewing, you'll have to apply as if it were a new account. So that's what they did.
This document has what appear to the instructions for renewing our type of license:
It states:
How do I Redeem a Free VLA Benefit Subscription?
Some organizations receive free DreamSpark subscriptions as a benefit of an Academic Volume License Agreement (VLA) with Microsoft (e.g. Campus Agreement, School Agreement, EES, OVS-ES). These subscriptions are not activated
automatically when they are issued. To activate a DreamSpark subscription that was issued as an academic VLA benefit, visit:
You will be prompted to supply the promo code from the Welcome email you received when your benefit was issued. Contact your Microsoft account manager if you cannot locate this code. If you were issued multiple subscriptions (e.g. a DreamSpark Premium subscription for each eligible department at your school), each activation must be handled individually and will require a distinct promo code.
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This information was collected as part of ChemIT's DreamSpark investigation project page.