How is Visual Studio 2015 licensed for MSDN subscribers?

Question

I installed Visual Studio 2015, and it is asking for a product key.

So, like always, I went to my msdn subscription, and asked for one.

MSDN says:

"A product key is not offered with this edition of Visual Studio. To unlock the product, you must sign in using the Microsoft account associated with your active MSDN subscription. By signing in, your IDE settings will sync across devices, and you can connect to online developer services."

uhhhhhh, we have a gold msdn, and are gold ms partners, so we should have five visual studio licenses.

How do we make this happen?

UPDATE: Wow, managing VS 2015 for a team is a mess. We just want a product key. But no, we must have multiple IDs built under the company msdn, go through building on line profiles for devs (who dont want those profiles, so we have to create alias emails that go to an admin). Bottom line: A couple of hours of admin time to deal with it.

Answer 1

Microsoft seems to be moving to a monthly subscription model for Visual Studio 2015, so licensing is linked to Microsoft accounts instead of product keys. You assign MSDN subscriptions to individual developers and they log in to Visual Studio with their Microsoft accounts.

Here's what worked for me:

1. Add a developer license. There are a few ways you can do this:
   • If you're a BizSpark member, add the developer through BizSpark » Manage » Members.
   • Or if you have a volume licensing agreement, add the developer through the Volume Licensing Service Center.
   • Otherwise you can create a Visual Studio Online project and add developer licenses.
     _{This is free for up to five developers, then you can pay per developer.}
2. For the developer activating the license:
   1. Follow any emailed instructions (depending how you added the license).
   2. Sign in during the Visual Studio 2015 install to activate Visual Studio.
      _{If it's already installed or the license isn't recognised during installation, they can update the license through Help » About Microsoft Visual Studio » License Status.}

If you don't have MSDN, Microsoft offers various monthly plans with different sets of features (including a free Community edition that includes most development features).