I've tried to install Visual C# 2010 Express edition onto my PC, but whenever I try to run it, I get a error message.
Invalid license data. Reinstall is required.
I've already tried reinstalling it, and the message persists.
OS is Vista Home Premium. I already have VC# 2008 Express installed.
I am using Visual Studio 2013 and I have the same issue but it occurs when I try to open a solution that was made using Visual Studio 2010.
The solution for me is to open the solution file (.sln), using notepad and change this line:
[# Visual Studio 2010]
to this:
[# Visual Studio 2013]
I just right-clicked, and opened with Visual Studio XXXX (in my case 2015). Then save it. Done.
I have the same problem with Windows 7 Pro. Have tried everything suggested by the Microsoft people, including uninstalling, cleaning up, reinstalling both from the web installer and the VS2010 Express iso - with the same result every time.
To say it's frustrating is an understatement and the disinterest from Microsoft in fixing what appears to be a common problem (you can find lots of search engine 'hits' for the problem, none for a solution) is quite unbelievable.
Since this is virtually a virgin Win7 install, the only conclusion is that MS have broken their licesing checks again (why check for a license on a free product?).
Edit: Following further investigation I have concluded that the advice given by Microsoft is useless and does not attempt to diagnose the problem. It simply assumes a corrupt installation source. I believe that the problem is in fact corrupt permissions/ownership of registry keys. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Licenses and subkeys needs to be owned by SYSTEM with admins having full access. On my affected system the owner cannot be displayed and no permissions are shown when viewed by admin.
I don't have the definitive fix for this so far, as I cannot adequately edit the permissions for the affected registry keys.
Re-installing Windows is an almost certain fix, but also an extremely drastic one.
I have had this EXACT problem with VS2010 Professional Trial / Evaluation download. I can provide clear and concise steps to reproduce:
Set your system clock ahead by 1 day (oops!)
Install the trial software.
Set your system clock back to the correct date.
Start VS2010, you will receive the vague message indicating "Invalid license data. Reinstall is required."
In my case, the resolution was quite simple - set the clock back ahead to the wrong date. The next day, I was able to set the clock back to the correct date and continue using the product.
Based on other answers to this question, it would appear there are numerous reasons that you could receive this message. This specific issue is most likely to be encountered by someone with a "virgin" install of Windows since it is not so difficult to set the clock incorrectly when setting up a new computer and then fix it later (and if you fix the clock hours after installing the product, it might be hard to put it all together and realize what happened).
Hope this helps someone else.
I had this issue but I was able to resolve this by right clicking and using Run as Administrator. This boots up the program just fine.
This worked for me on Vista. It's based on work-around at MS: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/520110/invalid-license-data-reinstall-is-required
Download subinacl command line tool
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en
Run these commands:
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses /setowner=everyone
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses /grant=everyone=f
Start VS 2010 Express again and this time it asks for a license key.
(On Windows 7 Home I had to run the above commands twice before they worked correctly)
I got the problem when instelled MS SQL 2012 with IngegrationService, the MS Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated) was installed from sql installer .
This VS returned error: Invalid license data. Reinstall is required.
I've fixed the problem by reinstalling SSDT with MS VS 2012 (Integrated)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj650015
I had this problem when installing a new SQL Server 2012 standalone Server.
Cause: When installing SQL Managemnt Tools it will install the VS Shell. It seems like this is all you need but this ist not enough! (it actually shows it will install VS)
Strangly the path and the application are shown in windows put you can't open them without the error.
Fix: You need to also install "SQL Server Data Tools" via Feature Add with the SQL-Server.iso
Hope this helps someone... i took me quite a while.
I get this error only when trying to open older solution files. For instance, I've got VS2013 installed and this error message pops up when I double click on a VS2010 solution file.
Getting rid of it is so simple:
Launch VS2013
Open the old solution file by clicking
"File->Open->Project/Solution..." from the menu (or simply by
pressing Shift+Ctrl+O)
Save the solution with the new format by clicking "File->Save
Solution As..." and overwrite the old file.
It appears that this has been reported as a bug, but has been closed as "Not Reproducible". One suggestiong from the Microsoft supporter is to redownload and reinstall:
Please try downloading the complete ISO from http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2010-All, mount it as virtual drive. Then execute Visual C# setup from the ISO media and select an option to remove the product. Once the Visual C# has been uninstalled, please try installing it again from the ISO media.
It sounds a bit far fetched to me, but you might want to give it a try.
If that does not help you, I would suggest that you either post a new bug report to Microsoft or vote to reopen the existing one (I am not sure if/how this is possible).
I have faced this problem when installing the Visual studio 2010 - C# express using the local administrator account, then trying to register the application using another account that doesn't have Admin privileges, due to corporate polices this account can’t edit in the Registry by any means, so suddenly that’s how I figured out how to solve this issue I open VS 2010 as a local administrator then entered the registration key, and it is worked , I don’t understand how do that Microsoft itself didn’t mention this solution or even try hard to investigate or solve this issue
I just encountered this problem on a virgin install with a system that has a bad clock battery (when I turn off the power, it resets the date/time. Syncing to time.windows.com again allowed me to run VS2010 successfully.
It was not the clock for me, and all the hours spent re-downloading and reinstalling were a waste of time (except for the last one, of course....).
Also, for some odd reason, just adding Read permissions to the HKCR node using psexec -i -s regedit did not work by itself.
To fix my problem on Windows 7, I made sure (using psexec -i -s regedit) that my login account had full control permission over every node in the registry and that the everyone group had read permission over every node in the registry, and did all of the steps in the following link (rebooting after each step):
http://windows.microsoft.com/troubleshootwindows7sp1
This is probably overkill, but after spending 10+ hours trying to get this working, I am just happy it works... Good luck!
I was stuck for several days with the same problem. Investigating the registry i found several keys in HKCR were i was denied access even as adminstrator. Among these keys were the Licences key. Tried a lot of things to resolve this access problem but could not fix it.
Finally i worked around this problem with a reinstall of Windows 7 - choosing the Upgrade option when prompted to choose between upgrade or a fresh install. Had to reinstall video drivers but all my programs and user accounts survived.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7
After the upgrade i have access to the HKCR\Licenses again and Visual Studio 2010 starts as expected.
I had this problem and finally got passed it. I tried the solutions above to no effect. (I set my license keys to open permissions, set my clock forward, etc.) After two days I gave up...
In the end, I installed VS 2012 Express, which could handle VS 2010 solutions but could not compile 2010 code (without a COFF error). After finding this article on requiring VS 2010 to be installed to compile 2010 solution in VS 2012, I reinstalled VS 2010 even though I assumed it wouldn't work on its own. I tried opening 2010 anyway and it worked!
Analysis: as per the previous correct note by reece (and the original workaround author), I used ProcessMonitor to see what devenv.exe tries to do and fails.
Unfortunately, it was attempting to read a number of reg keys which were not under the Licenses node (so it wouldn't have been enough to take ownership of the latter with subinacl). Furthermore, even after taking ownership, the affected keys still yielded "ACCESS DENIED". Doing it as Administrator was equally useless. Plus, Visual Studio didn't fall for any date change nonsense either.
Solution - Don't try this at home :D though: I downloaded pstools and ran psexec -i -s regedit to get System privileges, then I changed permissions on the entire HKCR node to allow Everyone to Read (:P what can I say, viva el comandante).
I want to point out that adding "Everyone" to have read permissions on HKEY_Classes_Root did fix this issue for me.
I am not sure exactly what permission is needed, but this "worked for me" ... YMMV
This may also occur if you are trying to invoke an xml file instead of the exe application.
An another solution I have found to work is the one mentioned Mac by over at SuperUser: https://superuser.com/questions/651261/how-do-i-fix-an-invalid-license-data-reinstall-is-required-error-in-visual-s
When simply reinstalling the Visual Studio 2010 shell doesn't work, he points out that installing it through SSMS 2010 can solve the problem:
I was able to resolve my issue without making any manual changes to
the Windows Registry by installing SQL Server Data Tools 2010, which
is also free and includes the Visual Studio 2010 Shell.
You don't have to go through the entire install process. I cancelled the process when it was done installing the shell and it worked our fine.
If you're here from Google and are experiencing this issue with GFI MailEssentials's config export tool, check to make sure you aren't trying to open WebMon.SettingsImporterTool.exe.xml instead of WebMon.SettingsImporterTool.exe
If you have "hide common file extensions" enabled, you will see the .exe but not the .xml
Just happened to me with a new install of Visual Studio 2010 ultimate in a new computer.
This new computer had the internal time correctly set, but the date was set to one day late. I installed Visual Studio 2010 with the incorrect date. Then, I noticed of the incorrect date and changed it by sync'ing with a NTP server, and from that moment Visual Studio 2010 would not work... so I'll have to stop using Visual Studio 2010 until DateTime.Now > installationDate.
I met the same problem yesterday.And I fixed already.
Please follow the steps:
Run setup.exe again; Change or Remove Microsoft Visual Studio 2010;
Upgrade license Key (Enter new license key); Complete.
GOOD LUCK !
To everyone who has internet connection. Don't mingle with your
registry it's just a waste of time. Set your CMOS clock right then
just click on the button that say's "Obtain registry key online" fill
up the form(two fields are only required) then the registry key would
show up to your screen then just copy and paste it. then everything
works fine. sorry I can't post any images I still need to earn more points...
Background: Visual Studio 2012 Pro installed by Administrator account.
As "Joe User" (member of Win 7 Users group, but NOT Adminstrators) I got the error message.
On reading this forum I concluded this is a generic error message.
Steps to fix:
As an adminstrator, open HK_CLASSES_ROOT.
Open context menu on the Licenses subkey
Select Permissions...
Set Full Control for all users.
Now log on as "Joe" again.
Voila!
Next, as Administrator change the permission on HKCR/Licenses back to read only for Users.
Two hints for developers.
If you can develop and run an application as an ordinary user, then presumably your poor
clients don't need admin rights to run it either.
Don't leak security information in "helpful" error messages. Microsloth are probably following their own advise and giving a vague and unhelpful error message here.
I have no idea why changing the permission to FC then back again to the original setting worked. I can only assume the Visual Studio writes something to that key the first time it runs.
While none of the above solution worked for me (else than running the application with an other username),Renaming the application folder in %appdata% fixed the porblem for me.
"C:\Users...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MS Project"
I had this issue while installing dynamic ax setup in VM, while installing it was showing me to 'licence is not valid, Reinstall visual studio shell 2010 version', so i uninstalled the visual studio shell 2010 version and its following component and tried to install again the AX admin it worked.
I'm having this problem with Visual Studio 2015 installed.
ramonsantana over at forum.unity3d.com had the solution for me: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/if-anyone-is-having-visual-studio-shell-2010-invalid-license-data-reinstall-is-required.298824/
Copied here for reference
Use regedit go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and look for Visual Studio.DTE
Since i have Visual Studio 2015 CTP installed i have 3 DTE, one is
VisualStudio.DTE, the other Visual StudioDTE.10.0 and
VisualStudio.DTE.14.0 Go to VisualStudio.DTE.14.0 ( or whatever
version of Visual studio you have installed) and click CLSID.
Copy the
Default (Double click Default and Copy the key inside), now go back to
Visua Studio.DTE and double click the Default there and paste the key
you just copied.
Almost there
On VisualStudio.DTE go to CurVer and
double click the key there to Edit it. Change the 10.0 in the end to
12.0 or 13.0 or 14.0, depending on what version of Visual Studio you have and you are done.
Installing SQL server data tools for visual studio 2010 did it for me! SSDT has an VS2010 IDE along with it, which overwrites the required registry entries.
You can find SSDT here.
My problem:
VS works fine, but when I create new Solution Setup and Deployment it make Setup file but when I run this Setup file, it say: "Invalid license data. Reinstall is required."
subinacl do not work.
My PC:
OS: Windows 7 64bit.
Visual Studio 2012
My way:
Close Visual Studio
Run regedit.
Pull down HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Looking for Licenses
Right click on Licenses -> click Permissions... -> click Advanced -> click User you want edit -> click Edit -> choose This key and subkey -> check all Allow: Full Control, Query Value, SetValue, Create Subkey, Enumerate Subkeys, Notyfy, Create Link, Delete, Write DAC, Write Owner, Read Control... -> check Apply these permissions to objects... -> click OK -> click OK -> click OK -> Close Registry Edit
Start VS
Hope this help
This was my problem with my Visual Basic Net 2005.
This is how I got it solved:
Click start :-> type run (Or press win+r)
Type regedit
Click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Click Licenses
Double click (Default)
Clear all text written in Value data field
Press Ok
Run again Microsoft visual studio
Believe it or not, I have found cases where this problem occurred due to a build error when the build error was due to an error in xcopy in the pre-build events.
We had this problem at a colleges computer, and after trying everything here we set to forget it and fix the error from xcopy. When this was fixed the Visual Studio 2010 shell error stopped popping up, for some reason.
Yes, I know... I could set up a virtual machine running XP. Unfortunately our build environment is such that we need to be running VC2003, 2005 and 2008 concurrently and it would be much more convenient if I could run 2003 natively on Windows 7 for the few projects we have that require it.
I realize some things may not be available in the IDE, but I was able to run 2003 under windows Vista and if I could get the same base level of functionality under Windows 7 I would be extremely happy.
Right now I get an error opening the *.pdb file when I compile after switching vc2003 to run as Administrator under compatibility mode for XP SP 2.
Thanks!
Give XP Mode a try if you can't get it to run natively.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
I wrote a blog entry about this a while back that you can check out - http://technikhil.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/visual-studio-2003-and-windows-7-can-get-along-really/
The only thing I am stuck on right now is the global search functionality of VS 2003 - it hangs the application. My workaround is to use windows 7 search :-). Other than that - so far so good...
Update: I got the search to work as well by disabling the Aero functionality - I have updated my blog post with the details...
(Much of this repeats what's already been written above.)
I need to run VS2003 as adminstrator under Win7 64-bit, to support legacy projects (e.g. those that run on the original Xbox). The old XDK requires VS2003, so upgrading is not an option. I could run WinXP but I prefer Win7.
VS2003 is not officially supported under Win7 and trying to do so creates a couple of fairly annoying problems:
Find-in-files causes VS2003 to hang.
Linking fails due to a PDB file handle leak.
The Find-in-files hang is solved by using "Disable visual themes". Navigate to the VS2003 shortcut (Start-->Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003), right-click to get context menu, select Compatibility tab, Settings pane, and check "Disable visual themes".
The linker failure (LNK1201) happens when you run the program through the debugger, stop it, modify a file and build. The error is that a Visual Studio hold a handle to the PDB file, while the linker tries to write to that file. You can stop and restart VS2003 to bypass the issue. Works but is annoying.
You can also use the Microsoft SysInternals "handle.exe" utility to find, then close handles held by a process on a particular file. Write a script to call handle.exe and set up the VS2003 project to run that script as a Pre-Build Event. (See this thread.) But handle.exe requires running as admin.
You could hypothetically change handle.exe to run as admin using the usual steps (e.g. as a compatibility setting) but then handle.exe (apparently) runs in a nested shell, and then the stdout text does not get to the calling script.
You can make VS2003 run as admin, in which case the Pre-Build script also runs as admin, hence does handle.exe, and that works.
The remaining trick is to get VS2003 SLN files to open properly. If you simply make VS2003 run as admin automatically then the VS version selector fails to run VS2003. I don't know why, but it is the case.
You could associate SLN files to open using VS2003 devenv.exe instead of VSLauncher.exe. That works but then all new SLN files (2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, ...) fail to open.
So the final step then is to make VSLauncher.exe run as admin. This fails as of KB2492386 as this thread indicates. Uninstalling that update was the final step in this saga, to get everything to work.
PATCH NOW AVAILABLE
After some reverse-engineering, I found the incorrectly refcounted COM object responsible for the leak (it was off by 1) and developed a stable patch and corresponding article describing the fix. This addresses problems encountered while using Windows 7 thru Windows 10. Details and download available at:
http://bytepointer.com/articles/vs7.1_2003_on_win7_pdb_handle_leak_bug_unofficial_fix.htm
If you want to perform the patch manually, those details are also included.
NOTE: The SysInternals Handle tool workaround did not work for files on a network-share. The .PDB was not completely unlocked although the Handle tool claimed it was closed. My fix eliminates the problem once and for all and avoids any side effects.
Run this install. You need to run it from the setup directory, the setup.exe on the root of the cd will not work.
D:\setup\SetUp.exe /NO_BSLN_CHECK
Solution i found on the web which helped: For your visual studio, use application compatibility = windows vista SP2, and NOT WinXP SP3
I have a really dirty and pathetic workaround for the pdb problem.
Download and run Sysinternals-ProceXP, press CTRL-F enter the name of pdb(smt like ($ProjectName).pdb) that can't be created while linking. Double click when it is found.(if it can't be found run procexp with administrator priviliges)
Then you will see that the .pdb file is highlighted in the lower pane of the main screen. Right click it and select Close Handle. When you retry building your solution it wont raise an error.
I dont know if this solution can be scripted but it is at least better than restarting visual studio.
I've been using Visual studio 2003 on win7 since the very first RC edition was released :S
why do people have issues?
I have attempted to install VS2003 on Windows 7 64-bit using the Virtual Windows XP feature. I'm reasonably certain that this will be successful. The issue I ran into is that the installer wants IIS installed, and the XP installation provided by the Virtual XP doesn't have that enabled by default.
If you go to Add/Remove components, and try to add it, it will ask for the disc, which I didn't have on hand. Once I get my hands on the disc, I'm pretty sure that it will run fine.
If you haven't tried it for other apps, the Virtual XP feature is really neat...
I am experiencing the same issue; devenv.exe is leaving pdb files open after running the project. I have made a batch file to work around it, it closes all .pdb files open by devenv.exe:
handle.exe .pdb | awk "/devenv.exe/ { split($4, fd, \":\"); system(\"handle.exe -c \" fd[1] \" -y -p \" $3)}"
You will need to have handle.exe by sysinternals and awk by gnu in your path to make it work.
Use at your own risk. Closing handles can cause application or system instability.
In windows 7, there is the compatabiliy mode in the executable properties.
open:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\
then right click on the devenv.exe and select properties. In the compatability tab, select the "Run in compatability mode" and select "Windows XP" in the dropdown.
Try that, I am not sure if it works, but it is worth a shot.
I am having no problems with Visual Studio 2003 on Windows 7 64-bit.
Navigate to VS2003 devenv.exe (probably C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe)
Right-click and select Properties
In the Compatibility tab, check "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)"
Check "Run this program as administrator"
I got Visual Studio .NET 2003 Working just fine on my HP EliteBook Workstation 8760W with an I7 processor and 12GB of RAM running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit by doing some advanced steps.
They go as follows:
Install FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions for IIS 7.0.
Install Visual Studio .Net 2003. Just skip when the installer command you to configure Frontpage 2002 Server Extensions.
Install .Net Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 (download here).
Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Highlight your machine, then double-click on ISAPI and CGI Restrictions. Change setting for ASP .NET v1.1.4322 to Allowed.
Then it will always show an alert with the following message
This program has compatibility issues...
just ignore that. Also, don't put it in compatibility mode in the properties of the IDE.
I did managed to install VS2003 on Windows 7 32 bit. However I had to do some IIS tricks in order to be able to run my ASP.NET project. When you install VS2003 Web Development component can't be selected. Basically you have to drop your VS2003 ASP.NET v1.1 into C:\inetpub\wwwroot\project_name and make it working on it's own as a standalone web portal first. Here is the steps I did.
Install IIS on Windows 7
Copy your VS2003 project to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\project_name. Right click on your project_name and Convert to application.
Following was my custom issue that didn't work until I enabled Windows Authentication even if I had no related settings in my web.config. Select your project_name > Authentication > enable both Anonymous and Windows Authentications.
Enable ASP.NET 1.1 in ISAPI and CGI Restrictions and make sure ASP.NET is added under ISAPI filters
Once I'm able to fire up my ASP.NET project in a browser go ahead and open project from your project location in my case is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MHSScoreOrg\MHSScoreOrg.sln. I was able to run my project only when it was fully integrated on IIS.
I'm sorry, your build environment requires you to have VC 2003, 2005, AND 2008 running concurrently? I would really bet that your efforts would be better spent simply consolidating your build environment to just one environment.
Have you considered upgrading your solutions to vs2005, using MSBEE to target .net 1.1?
Every time I try to create a new project or solution in visual studio (2005 and 2008), I get an error saying, "Project Creation failed." I even tried running vs in administrative mode, but I still get the same answer. Anyone have any suggestions, in short of uninstalling all of VS and reinstalling it?
It sounds like an Add-in behaving badly. Can you launch it in safe mode?
devenv.exe /SafeMode
Out of the blue i would guess a security/rights issue, eg. trying to create the solution on a drive/folder you don't have write access to, or has otherwise restricted rights.
Is it in Vista, I know 2005 is known to have compatibility issues in Vista, dunno about 2008, but do they both have current updates?
If you are running in administrator mode, and click run as administrator and have all the latest updates and no add-ins, I think you might have to reinstall it. Make sure you select all the development types you plan to use to get the sdks and not just the redistributables.
If that doesn't work, you might talk to the microsoft reps. With some quick online research people really only had probelms like this before Visual Studio SP1, anything with 64 bit Vista has just been unable to compile ASP.
Good luck.