Action Pack problems

[ic2]

I assume some of the X# users do own Microsoft Action Pack. I recently filed a support issue because of the annoying question asked every time if I wanted to use my business or personal account while I actually only have one. I read there was a time consuming way to get rid of the "business account", one of the many confusing Microsoft inventions.

I was told by, as it looked a knowledgeable support guy (from Poland) that I could no longer use my personal account to renew action pack but that he would help me migrate to a new Partner account. When either my Action Pack would expire (May 1) or the included Azure subscription would start a new month (today) I had to buy Action Pack on my new account and they would care for the rest of the migration.

Needless to say it didn't work. I could login with to my new account, clicked 'Buy Action Pack' and then I had to login again ...only to read that the newly created account "did not exist". After the usual struggle to find the right place to issue an incident, which ended with a "XML Parsing Error: no root element found" error I finally was able to post a 'critical incident' which is now over 24 hours ago without any reaction from Microsoft.

I decided to re-evaluate the value of Action Pack.

1 We currently use Azure as a work environment of our trainee. But it's dreadfully slow (I estimate it's the speed of a Celeron Pc).
2 Windows licenses are already included with our Pc's
3 De-installing Office 2016 would be a delight (Office 2003 works much better) and the only good Office 2016 program IMO, Onenote, can be used for free.
4 Visual Studio Community only misses CodeLens.
5 The 10 included support incidents worth a few 100 dollar each have never been useful (usually you get the reply that they can't help you with that specific issue.

Given the fact that, according to Microsoft, I can't renew on my current account and it does not work on the new Partner account, plus the above considerations, I will most likely continue without Action Pack which I bought half price last year for 190 euro while it's full price and 400 euro this year).

Anyone who does not want to give up Action Pack I would recommend to start working on it a couple of weeks before the expiration date, should you also hear that it can't be renewed on a non migrated account.

PS: to my surprise I just got a new 85 euros Azure credit on my personal account despite not having renewed Action Pack 11 days ago.

Dick

[wriedmann]

Hi Dick,

I have also the Action Pack, and thanks to your warning I will start renewing it on time.

But I have activated the Action Pack not on my personal Microsoft account, but on a spedific Microsoft partner account.

For me the Action Pack is worth the money as I can use the Office and the OS licenses (both server and client).

In my company, I'm the only that uses Office 2010 (I need that because I need to access MDB files). All others are using Office 2013 and Office 2016, and one of these licenses is from the Action Pack.

The Action Pack helps also to get Windows 7 or Windows 8 installations for testing purposes, and my next office server will use the license from the Action Pack.

I have to admit that I have never used any Azure credit or support call.

Currently, we are using VS Community and not the Action Pack licenses, but that could change sometimes (when I change my machine).

Wolfgang