Microsoft 365 | Licensing Information for Personal Devices

Owned by Katie Dufner (Unlicensed), created
Last updated: Jul 20, 2023 by Joe Swenson
2 min read

Anyone affiliated with Minnesota State Colleges and Universities with an active StarID is given five complimentary Office 365 ProPlus licenses to use while their affiliation remains active.

At Minneapolis College your affiliation lasts for one year after no longer being a currently enrolled student.

In order to align to Microsoft's licensing model, individual campus issued computers will consume one of your five complimentary licenses. 


Background Information: 

Office 365 ProPlus is a version of the Office suite.  Though similar to Office 2016 and 2019, Office 365 ProPlus licensing is connected to and managed through the Office 365 subscription, whereas Office 2016 and 2019 licenses are managed using a KMS (key management server). 
Device Based Activation (DBA) was intended to ease license management in shared computer environments, such as students utilizing computers in labs, classrooms, libraries, etc., and was not intended to be used in the mass deployment of Office 365 ProPlus across all organizational devices. 
Microsoft’s replacement to DBA is Device Based Subscription (DBS).  DBS requires devices to be joined (or hybrid joined) to Azure AD.  With our current architecture, joining devices to Azure AD removes them from local domains.  This would mean campuses could no longer manage their own devices, and removes their ability to utilize tools like SCCM and Group Policy. Conversely, the System Office - Office 365 team is not currently in a position to handle the mass management of all campus devices for all institutions. 

Keep in mind that SCA is only intended to be used for shared devices, not single user scenarios.  Additionally, there is no support for DBA, DBS, or SCA for Office 365 ProPlus on MacOS computers.  Shared MacOS devices should use Office 2019. 
If SCA is not an acceptable solution for your campus, there is still the option of deploying Office 2016 or 2019 and managing licenses via KMS.  It is important to note that students and employees who have utilized the free Office 365 ProPlus installation on their personal devices will experience a different look and feel compared to Office 2016 or 2019, as the versions do have their differences. In all cases, campuses that have been using DBA should update their computer build processes to move away from DBA before May 31, 2020.