Microsoft ending free Developer accounts for VBA?

[mcomp72]

About a year ago, I signed up for a free Microsoft Office Developer account, because of a macro-enabled workbook I made for budgeting TV/video productions like commercials (www.truebudget.net). They granted me one, and then every 3 months I had to keep asking for it to be renewed. They kept doing it -- until the other day, that is. They've now declined to renew it again without giving much of a reason. I'm curious if the same has happened to any of you? I am wondering if they are no longer considering VBA development to be sufficient for having one? I know they are trying to get people to focus on office.js instead of VBA, but my understanding is that office.js cannot yet do all the things that VBA can do, so my plan is to stick with VBA until office.js catches up in functionality.

 

[6StringJazzer]

I had never even heard of this before, so I just joined. If I learn anything I'll let you know.

I though office.js was just for web versions of Office.

 

[Norie]

Jeff

I think there are ways to use JavaScript to create add-ins for Office, both on the desktop and on the Web.

I tried doing that last night but didn't get further than creating a non-functioning button in a task pane.

Here's a link to the tutorial I was following, Tutorial: Create an Excel task pane add-in.

​

 

[xenou]

90 day free trials are free. I don't think that includes new 90 day free trials every 90 days. That's how it looks to me. So maybe you can be glad you got 4x more than you should have?

 

[mcomp72]

90 day free trials are free. I don't think that includes new 90 day free trials every 90 days. That's how it looks to me. So maybe you can be glad you got 4x more than you should have?

If you are constantly developing, the software is supposed to somehow know that, and thus your free account is supposed to automatically renew every 3 months. So no, I don't believe what you are saying is correct. For whatever reason, I guess doing VBA development is not able to be tracked by the Office apps, so they don't know you are doing it. So you have to ask them to extend the Developer account every 3 months, and you have to give an explanation of the development you are doing. Up until now, the explanation I gave was satisfactorily, but apparentely it wasn't this time. I can't understand why, unless they no longer count VBA development as worthy of having a Developer account.

 

[Norie]

Eh, I've been 'developing' VBA code for many a year and I've never come across this 'account'.

Most of the support I've got has been from forums like this and my own research

Never paid for anything, from MS or anybody else.

Have I been missing something?

 

[sandy666]

Never paid for anything, from MS or anybody else.

illegal software?

 

[6StringJazzer]

Have I been missing something?

I don't know but here is a link to it. I haven't had time to figure out what it's all about yet.

Microsoft 365 Dev Center | Build intelligent experiences

Build the future of productivity, collaboration, and communication with intelligent experiences that extend Microsoft 365.

developer.microsoft.com

 

[MARK858]

If you are constantly developing, the software is supposed to somehow know that, and thus your free account is supposed to automatically renew every 3 months. So no, I don't believe what you are saying is correct. For whatever reason, I guess doing VBA development is not able to be tracked by the Office apps, so they don't know you are doing it. So you have to ask them to extend the Developer account every 3 months, and you have to give an explanation of the development you are doing. Up until now, the explanation I gave was satisfactorily, but apparentely it wasn't this time. I can't understand why, unless they no longer count VBA development as worthy of having a Developer account.

The normal fee for an individual account is about $19 USD, they have been offering a promo code for 1 year free which is probably why they let you renew your free 90 days.

Register as an app developer – Windows app development (microsoft.com)

 

[mcomp72]

The normal fee for an individual account is about $19 USD, they have been offering a promo code for 1 year free which is probably why they let you renew your free 90 days.

Register as an app developer – Windows app development (microsoft.com)

Ah... that's something different. What I'm talking about is a Microsoft 365 developer account. If you are developing for Office 365 or things like SharePoint or Teams, they will give you the software for free. So I had a free account for Office 365 while my developer account was active. But after looking at their website more, it does look like they no longer count VBA as development. Here's the site: Use your developer subscription to build Microsoft 365 solutions

Under the Office Add-ins section:

"You can use the Office Add-ins platform to build solutions that extend Office applications and interact with content in Office documents. With Office Add-ins, you can use familiar web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to extend and interact with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Project, and Outlook. Your solution can run in Office across multiple platforms, including Office for Windows, Office Online, Office for the Mac, and Office for the iPad."

There is no mention of VBA.