Action Pack and Windows 11

[jimerb1]

Now that Windows 11 is officially released, any word when the final version will be included in the Action Pack?

Seems like a core thing that should be available for lab analysis.

[halamihfa1]

Hi

our Action pack expired and i need to renew it.

we have new emails and new name. 

i managed to update all new company emails, address, others.. but i am stuck at changing Global Admin Login Name: my old email to be my New Email.

Is there a way to do that?

any help is appreciated

thanks

Hani

[JanoschUlmer]

@halamihfa1 : You need to do this change via another Global Admin account. You can not change the upn for the user account you are currently being signed in with. See also https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/enterprise-users/domains-manage#frequently-asked-questions (2nd question)

[JanoschUlmer]

There are updates planned, but no specific ETA I can share.

[stinsora]

REPOST

@JanoschUlmer - My Action Pack is up for renewal soon and I'm hoping there is an update to the offering to include current app releases. For example, it includes Project 2019 and Visio 2019, despite the current versions being released for some time.

Are there planned/scheduled updates to the Action Pack?

[stinsora]

BUMP...

@JanoschUlmer Any help or information you can share would help greatly with my business planning.

[JanoschUlmer]

@sbrutsch : OK, then please reach out to Visual Studio Subscriber support - those are not controlled by MPN benefits.

[sbrutsch]

Thank you @JanoschUlmer for you work.

Now we have Windows 11 as Download. But Windows 10 21H2 is still missing. Could you ask the Team what's the problem is?

Kind regards

Stefan

[Rosie]

Hi, I am new to this thread.  We have just renewed our gold partnership and under our benefits I do not see Windows 11 licences  to replace our Windows 10 licences.  In fact Windows 10 is still there.  Do i need to wait a few more days before I will see Windows 11 download and key or do I have to purchase the Action Pack to get Windows 11?

[JanoschUlmer]

@Rosie Yes you need to wait, and no, since as Silver Partner you also have M365E3, which includes Windows 11 E3 as well. And no, buying Action Pack additionally does not change the situation.

[jimerb1]

@JanoschUlmerhow do you access Windows 11 E3 inside M365E3?   I don't see that anywhere from the admin screen of M365E3.

[JanoschUlmer]

@jimerb1 : You assign the user the license, then the user logs in to Windows 11 Pro device and get Windows 11 E3 activated automatically. See Windows 10/11 Subscription Activation - Windows Deployment | Microsoft Docs

There is no media and no key.

If you start off with Windows 10 Pro, you first need to do the (currently free) upgrade to Windows 11 Pro via https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 You can also start from bare metal by deploying Windows 11 Pro with the above mentioned Media Creation Toolkit.

Also you need to ensure that you use wither AzureAD joined devices, or AzureAD hybrid Join scenario (Domain Join + Sync of computer accounts to AzureAD, and thus device is registered in AzureAD). 

Finally the Windows 11 Pro installations needs to be activated - or the PC needs to have the license embedded in BIOS/UEFI.

See first mentioned for more details on requirements and setup

[stinsora]

@JanoschUlmer - My Action Pack is up for renewal soon and I'm hoping there is an update to the offering to include current app releases. For example, it includes Project 2019 and Visio 2019, despite the current versions being released for some time.

Are there planned/scheduled updates to the Action Pack?

[jimerb1]

@JanoschUlmerThank you.  So this is not "Windows as a service" but rather local renewable licensing much the same way office 365 differs from Office 2019?

I was hoping to be able to kick the tires on windows as a service using a VM hosted in the cloud.  Is that available anywhere using action pack licensing?

[JanoschUlmer]

@jimerb1 : Office 2021 vs. M365Apps actually has more differences, because O2021 will not receive feature updates (the right analogy  to this would be Windows LTSC vs. Windows Semi-Annual Channel). It is a different activation method, that also provides automatic downgrade once the E3 license expires.

If you need Windows-As-A-Service the license itself would not help, you need both a license and the compute capacity. You need Windows 365.

This is not available as MPN benefit and I don't think there are currently plans for that because of the much higher infrastructure costs. For very small, targeted, short-lived test scenarios you could use the Azure benefit in Visual Studio to set up Azure Virtual Desktop though.

Unfortunately, for Windows 365 you can't currently even sign up for trials: Windows 365 Business Cloud PC | Microsoft

[JanoschUlmer]

@sbrutsch : You are referring to specific version download in Visual Studio Subscriber downloads you use for testing, the VS subscription you get as benefit? If yes, I would advise to contact Visual Studio support, since the downloads are maintained by this team., from MPN side just the VS Professional/Enterprise subscription is provided.

For the normal MPN benefits that can be used for production use, available directly in Partner Center, Windows11 replaces Windows 10 licenses, so Partners are now also required to deploy Windows 11, latest when they renew MPN next time.

[sbrutsch]

We already talk about this. On the Visual Studio Download, I have only the English Version. But we need to have the German one.

[wizardofwor]

Any further update?  It's been 5 weeks since the last response.  Thanks.

[JanoschUlmer]

@wizardofwor : No update at this time.

[ChrisKnight]

I can't help but wonder that with the absence of Office 2021, Windows 11, Windows Server 2022 and M365 from the Action Pack if this is Microsoft's passive-aggressive way of implementing the IUR changes they wanted to implement back in 2019.

The only product that received any love in the second half of last year was Exchange 2019, which received CU10 and CU11. You'd have to be a bit worried if you're running ConfigMgr - that's still stuck on Current Branch 2103.

The concern here is that there's a growing backlog of products that need refreshing to consider the Action Pack as something other than being on life support.

I completely get the cost burden of O365/M365 on the Gold/Silver/Action Pack programs (solvable by providing these at cost), but the on-prem software is essentially a zero cost to MS, unless internal transfer pricing is at play.

It will be interesting to see how Action Pack will fare over the course of 2022. At this point in time I'm unlikely to renew beyond this year.

[wizardofwor]

I have to agree with you Chris, it doesn't seem like they care, as the point of Action Pack is to promote the latest software, and the list is getting old.