Doesn't sound like that's for me. What else you got? If you can spring for $199, you can purchase a one-year membership to TechNet's lowest-priced subscription plan, which lets you download the real deal, not a 90-day wonder.

The TechNet Standard plan -- at $199, the cheaper of the two available direct from Microsoft -- gives you access to Windows 8 Pro only. As a Standard subscriber, you get just two product keys for Windows 8 Pro. (Pay $349 and you also have access to Windows 8 Enterprise, which uses a single MAK-style key that as the acronym for "Multiple Activation Key," can be used several times to activate copies.)

Each TechNet Standard product key is good for one activation, although you can use the normal Microsoft channels -- online and telephone -- to reactivate a copy on the same machine you installed it on originally.

Is there a catch with TechNet, too? Of course ... what fun would it be if there wasn't?

Technically, you're not allowed to use the software you obtain via a TechNet subscription if you let it lapse. If your sub ends, "You must stop using the software ... and you must destroy all copies of the software in your possession," Microsoft says in the .