Microsoft Offers 2-for-1 Vista Ultimate Promotion to MSDN, TechNet Vista Testers

Are you an MSDN or TechNet subscriber and did you beta test Vista? If so, you may have received an email (which, phishing being what it is, you may be suspicious of) announcing some offers from Microsoft, including a 2-for-1 Vista Ultimate offer. In the email I received, Microsoft said:

As we approach the one year anniversary of launching Windows Vista® we want to remember you as one of the many people who downloaded and tested one of the Windows Vista Beta or Release Candidates through TechNet or MSDN®.YOU were a significant contributor to the development of Windows Vista. Your participation was extremely valuable to Microsoft, and we would like to say, “Thank You!”

To show our appreciation, we have several special offers exclusively available to you.

Despite my suspicions about the veracity of this email, Microsoft has confirmed it on the TechNet forums.

The most interesting one is the 2-for-1 deal, so we'll talk about it last.

Offer 2: One hundred $250 Amazon.com gift certificates. Take a short online survey and you are entered to win a $250 Amazon gift certificate.

Offer 3: An ASUS W5fe personally signed by Bill Gates (10 available).

And, Offer 1: a complimentary Vista Ultimate upgrade product key if you buy a standalone version of Windows Vista Ultimate, full or upgrade version. This offer expires on January 15, 2008, however.

If you decide to opt-in for this offer, don't forget the trick to perform a clean install of Windows Vista which I wrote about earlier. I've tried it and it works.

For all of these offers you have to go to http://www.windowsvistaevalcomp.com and sign in using the same Windows Live ID that you used to download the beta or RC versions of Windows Vista.

Remember also that these offers only apply to TechNet and MSDN subscribers who beta tested Vista.