Visual Studio 2013 License Product Key

Visual Studio 2013 License Product Key - visual-studio

I installed Visual Studio 2013 Professional as a Trial version while waiting for my company to complete the license purchase.
They completed the purchase of 4 licenses (64 bit), but were not given Product Keys. Instead, there is a particular .iso file with the license or product key embedded in some way.
I want to avoid having to uninstall Visual Studio 2013 only to reinstall Visual Studio 2013 and re-setup all my settings. Is this possible? Is there a way to extract the license/product key from the .iso or from other coworkers desktops that did a clean install?
Here is what I have tried (with 2 coworker installations):
Looking for the license info in:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Licenses\*
but it is unique on both computers.
Looking for the Product Key in:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Registration\2000.0x0000\PIDKEY
One install had one, which my install said was invalid when attempting to use it. The other install had a blank PIDKEY.
Looking inside SW_DVD5_Visual_Studio_Pro_2013_English_MLF_X19-20996.ISO but I see no mention of a License or Product Key.
Checking their Help > Register Product in Visual Studio, which simply says
License: Product key applied
Tried doing an install/repair from the ISO but it says:
The product version that you are trying to set up is earlier than the version already installed on this computer.
Likely because of the Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and 2
Again, I would really like to avoid the multi-hour process of reinstalling VS 2013. Is there any way?

I solved this, without having to completely reinstall Visual Studio 2013.
For those who may come across this in the future, the following steps worked for me:
Run the ISO (or vs_professional.exe).
If you get the error below, you need to update the Windows Registry to trick the installer into thinking you still have the base version. If you don't get this error, skip to step 3
Click the link for 'examine the log file' and look near the bottom of the log, for this line:
open regedit.exe and do an Edit > Find... for that GUID. In my case it was {6dff50d0-3bc3-4a92-b724-bf6d6a99de4f}. This was found in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall{6dff50d0-3bc3-4a92-b724-bf6d6a99de4f}
Edit the BundleVersion value and change it to a lower version. I changed mine from 12.0.21005.13 to 12.0.21000.13:
Exit the registry
Run the ISO (or vs_professional.exe) again. If it has a repair button like the image below, you can skip to step 4.
Otherwise you have to let the installer fix the registry. I did this by "installing" at least one feature, even though I think I already had all features (they were not detected). This took about 20 minutes.
Run the ISO (or vs_professional.exe) again. This time repair should be visible.
Click Repair and let it update your installation and apply its embedded license key. This took about 20 minutes.
Now when you run Visual Studio 2013, it should indicate that a license key was applied, under Help > Register Product:
Hope this helps somebody in the future!
Reference blog 'story'

Related

Cannot install Microsoft Visual 2015 [duplicate]

When installing Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition on Windows 10, using the web installer, everything runs fine, however, the following packages fail to install:
Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2015 -> Fatal Error
Microsoft NuGet - Visual Studio 2015 -> Package Failed
Microsoft Visual Studio Connected Services -> Packages Failed
Azure AD Authentication Connected Services -> Packages Failed
Microsoft Azure Mobile Services Connected Service -> Package Failed
Microsoft Azure Storage Connected Service -> Packages Failed
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Office365 -> Package Failed
I have attempted a few work around including uninstalling every Visual Studio Version on my system, manually deleting the files in C:\ProgramData\Program Cache, and even gone as far as to uninstall my Antivirus (AVG) having attempted to disable it and see if that works before hand. I even ran the command fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 L2R:1 R2L:1 R2R:1
I have even tried to use the ISO but ran into the same issue.
Since I don't use either Azure or Team Explorer any solutions which mean I won't have access to them will suffice.
The log file that was generated by the Installer can be found here as it was over 65,000 characters long (just scroll to the bottom for all the fun).

After the failed install you have to repair the 2015 vc redistributables and restart the visual studio installer.
The redistributable installer is messed up, it mixes up 64bit and 32bit dll's. You can check if you have this problem by looking at the vcruntime140.dll file size. Search your windows folder for vcruntime140 you should see 4 files (64 and 32 bit in both release & debug versions). If any files have the same size, you need to run a repair on the redistributable.
On my system the 32-bit dll is 83,3KB, the 64 bit is 86,6KB (release versions).

I spent a whole week trying to solve this issue. What finally did it for me was disabling my anti-virus programs. Before I stumbled upon my solution, I went through a lot of other solutions. I thought, I'd post some of the solutions that might prove to be useful for those who are still having trouble with installing Visual Studios 2015 Community Edition.
Solution 1: Minimal Installation
Try installing with minimal extra features. Run the Visual Studios 2015 installation, then click "Custom" and on the following screen, uncheck everything and proceed with the installation.
Solution 2: Delete installation cache
Perhaps the installation failed due to corrupt files in the cache. When installation fails, remove all Visual Studio cache related items and do a full re-installation. To do this, run command prompt (Run as Administrator) and type: "cd /programdata/package cache/" then press enter. Then type "del /f /s *.msi /f /s *.cab" then press enter.
Now run the Visual Studios 2015 installation again.
Solution 3: Delete temporary file data stored on your computer
Open up File Explorer and go to "C:\Users\[Your User Account Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft". Then delete the following folders: VSCommon, VisualStudio, Blend, VsGraphics, ApplicationInsights, vshub, Team Foundation, Web Platform Installer and MsBuild. After this, run the Visual Studios 2015 Installer again.
Solution 4: Enable all four evaluations of Symbolic links
First, check to see if all four evaluations are enabled. Open up command prompt (Run as Administrator) and type "fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation". All 4 evaluations should be enabled. If they aren't then type "fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 R2R:1 L2R:1 R2L:1". Once those 4 evaluations are set, clear up temporary files and clear installation cache (see Solution 2 and Solution 3) then run the Visual Studios 2015 installation again.
Solution 5: Repair the Redistributables
Perhaps, the problem is that your VC-redistributables are faulty and are in need of repair. To do so, run "Add/Remove programs" and look for all the x86 and x64 versions of Microsoft Visual C++ [Year] Redistributable (Version). Then press Change for each of them and when the uninstallation screen pops up, press Repair. I did it for all the versions I had previously installed: 2012, 2013 and 2015. Therefore, I repaired 6 of them: 2012: x86 and x64, 2013: x86 and x64, 2015: x86 and x64.
Solution 6: Check to see if x86 and x64 sizes are the same
As mentioned by others in this discussion, do a search for vcruntime140.dll and see if the x86 and x64 versions. They should NOT have the same size. If they do, see solution 5 or you can manually delete them (** Be cautious when deleting files from the Windows folder!) and re-install them (from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=48145). Also do the same check for msvcp140.dll. I personally did a search for these files in "C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and C:\Windows\System32" and compared the files from the two folders. Moreover I also checked for differences of vcruntime140.dll and msvcp140.dll in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0" and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0"
Solution 7: Temporarily disable all Anti-Virus Protection and Firewalls
For me, it turned out that the problem stemmed from having ByteFence Anti-Malware and Norton Security with Backup protection. I disabled real-time protection from ByteFence Anti-Malware and I disabled Auto-Protect and Smart Firewall from Norton Security with Backup. Before I ran the installation again, I repeated Solution 2 and Solution 3 (scroll up). And Voila, installation was successful. But how did I find out that the Anti-Virus Program was the culprit? Read Solution 8.
Solution 8: Carefully monitor Visual Studios Installation Process for Intrusions
I resorted to this solution in order to find out the problem. After reading Ezh's article, I decided to download Process Monitor v3.2 and Process Explorer v16.1. I was carefully monitoring 3 programs side-by-side: Process Monitor, Process Explorer and the Visual Studios 2015 Installer, and I watched very closely all the processes that the installer was invoking. Then I noticed that when VSIXInstaller.exe process came on and attempted to install something from a remote server, it kept failing over and over again because my Anti-Virus Program would suddenly appear on screen (as a process) and decide to hog/block some important DLL files that VSIX installation needed. Temporarily disabling the anti-virus program solved my issue!
Solution 9: Complete Windows format and re-installation
If all else fails, and you are really desperate to get Visual Studios 2015 working, I suggest a complete Windows re-installation. At this point, the problem is most likely some type of interference/intrusion with a program which you do not know of.

My problem did not go away with just reinstalling the 2015 vc redistributables. But I was able to find the error using the same process as in the excellent blog post by Ezh (and thanks to Google Translate for making me able to read it).
In my case it was msvcp140.dll that was installed as a 64bit version in the Windows/SysWOW64 folder. Just uninstalling the redistributables did not remove the file, so I had to delete it manually. Then I was able to install the x86 redistributables again, which installed a correct version of the dll file. And, voilà, the installation of VS2015 finished without errors.

Success!
I had similar problems and tried re-installing several times, but no joy. I was looking at installing individual packages from the ISO and all of the fiddling around - not happy at all.
I finally got it to "install" by simply selecting "repair" rather than "uninstall" in control panel / programs. It took quite a while to do the "repair" though. In the end it is installed and working.
This worked for me. It may help others - easier to try than many other options, anyway.

As described from other answers, but with steps:
1- go to control panel -> uninstall programs -> uninstall all Microsoft C++ ((year)) Redistributable
2- delete those files if they still exist manually:
c:\windows\System32\vcruntime140.dll
c:\windows\SysWOW64\vcruntime140.dll
3- download and install:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
after that rerun the installation of Visual Studio, and hope that error won't show again.

None of the resolutions outlined in this question solved my issue. I posted a similar question and ended up having to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get it resolved. See my answer here if none of the other suggestions help: Error Installing Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 1 with Team Explorer

Okay, so if you're on the same boat as me and found that none of these solutions helped you, you most likely have a problem where NuGet (or any of those packages) is failing to install from the VSIX program due it calling a method that doesn't exist on your computer (not sure what .dll it's referencing), so try this out from the following post:
Delete all instances of Visual Studio 2015- this includes all registry values.
Install a version of Visual Studio older than Update 1 (RTM version.); this is available here.
If you still get an error, try repairing just the Visual Studio 2015 program. This is what ultimately fixed it for me.
Hope this helped someone out. It's really frustrating that the installer's log file doesn't help at all. I had to look at the log file specific to NuGet, and that's where I noticed the error:
The installation was unable to install the extension to all the
selected products. For more information, click on the install log link
at the bottom of the dialog.
Method not found: 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509ChainStatus
Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.IInstallableExtension.get_InvalidCertificateInformation()'.

(I encountered the identical issue. After many tries I SOLVED it and located the MY ROOT CAUSE. I keep my try path here but you can skip to the end if you want.)
I want to point it out that BE VERY CAREFUL WITH enden's solution 2. Some other programs may cache installation packages in the C:\ProgramData\Pacakges Cache folder. If you remove data from that folder, you may jeopardize other programs installation/uninstallation.
I encountered this multiple failures during install VS2015. And after I remove all the content from the C:\ProgramData\Pacakges Cache, both my VS2013 and VS2015 stuck in the Programs and Features window and I cannot change/repair/uninstall them.
To fix the change/repair/uninstall failure, I have to go to below 2 registry keys:
First of all: BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TO IT.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall]
And remove every key whose InstallLocation points to the C:\ProgramData\Pacakges Cache AND whose DispalyName looks related to Visual Studio 2013/2015 (this may requrie some experience/intuition).
Then, the stuck items of VS2013/2015 in Program & Features window are gone. And now I am able to re-install the VS2013.
But I still cannot install VS2015 with the installer. The error is still as below:
But at least I can change/repair/uninstall VS2015 in the Prgram & Features window. So I choose to repair it. But the repair doesn't work. I still got the same error as above.
Then I uninstalled the failed VS2015 and tried to repair the VC++2015 redist as said in TimVdG's marked answer. And then reinstall VS2015 with the installer.
Still failed.
Then I tried Brian Swart's solution to install VS2015 without Update 1. But it still failed with TeamExplorer. I checked the log and found this:
MSI (s) (48:A0) [14:53:34:997]: Windows Installer installed the
product. Product Name: Team Explorer for Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.
Product Version: 14.0.23102. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer:
Microsoft Corporation. Installation success or error status: 1603.
And I googled a bit about 1603 error. Now I am trying to add full control to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0 folder and try again.
Still doesn't work.
Some refs:
https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/remove-program-from-add-remove/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/247501/how-to-manually-remove-programs-from-the-add-remove-programs-list
https://superuser.com/questions/401511/how-to-remove-a-broken-program-from-the-programs-and-features-list-in-windows-7
=========> The Final Solution <=========
So in my scenario, it has nothing to do with the VC2015 redistributables.
My root cause is the incorrect .NET version number in the registry.
On a 64bit Windows, .NET version is stored in 2 places in registry:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full\Version
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE**WOW6432Node**\Microsoft\NET Framework
Setup\NDP\v4\Full\Version
Below is what my box has:
Note that leading character v in the Version? I don't know who put it there. But once I removed it, my VS2015 with Update 3 can be installed smoothly!
So you may wonder how could I find this. Well, since I couldn't install VS2015, I turned to VS2017. But after intalled VS2017 successfully, I couldn't launch it. It says this:
So I decided to check the installed .NET version and saw the interesting difference above. Once I removed the leading v, VS2017 can be started.
But anyway, I still don't know who put the v there... Shame on it!
Last but not the least: Please also make sure the Release, Version registry key value are consistent and can work with your Windows version. Refer to below:
.NET and Windows version dependencies.
how to determine the installed .NET version.
Windows 10 version info
Add some more findings:
After I finished this install sequence: VS2017 -> VS2015 -> VS2013, I noticed that there's even no VC++2015 redist on my box:
Because both VC++ 2015 and VC++2017 redists are 14.xxx. So having the higher version is enough. When I try to manually install VC++ 2015 redist, it says this:

This was killing me as well, I must have re-installed visual studios a thousand times before Stack Overflow helped me! First is began with a Windows update problem While installing Visual Studio 2015 the Update flagged me that it needed
- the update KB2919355.
Went to the Windows update and saw several failed updates. No matter how I tried did not work. The Error code that were cited was 80070543 did some research found nothing worked until I encountered this advice http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN293803/en Having followed those instructions did the Windows update again and it worked. Went back to to do the Visual Studios update got the same error again! So I decided to research KB2919355 and was frustrated until I found this site http://www.eightforums.com/windows-updates-activation/45441-update-kb2919355-finally-successful-after-multiple-fails.html
followed the instruction precisely about loading other updates and they worked. KB2919355 was finally updated so I tried again and a different error came up involving language packs. “Fatal Installation error”. After going through a series of frustrating reinstallations, uninstallations light broke through of the advice of that came this (the above) Stack Overflow entry “repairing the C++ Redistributables” which involves:
Going to Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features
Right mouse-clicks on each the redistributables (from the bottom up) and click repair for all. If any ask for a “Restart” do it immediately right then and there!
Then I did the Visual Studio installations….finally after days and days of trying….it worked.

If no other option in this thread works, you can try the steps given in this guide (see below): https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/heaths/2015/07/14/how-to-install-visual-studio-to-another-directory-when-a-pre-release-is-installed/
Download and install http://psmsi.codeplex.com (Note: new site https://github.com/heaths/psmsi) These are general-purpose PowerShell cmdlets I created for all sorts of development and troubleshooting operations for Windows Installer-based installs. You do not need to elevate to install them, though if you pre-elevate you can install them per-machine (by default they are per-user).
Open an elevated PowerShell command prompt and run the following to discover which products have installed the key shared component:
get-msicomponentinfo '{777CBCAC-12AB-4A57-A753-4A7D23B484D3}' | get-msiproductinfo
If you’re fine with uninstalling all the listed products (especially given that you’re probably going to install RTM next), run the following:
get-msicomponentinfo '{777CBCAC-12AB-4A57-A753-4A7D23B484D3}' | get-msiproductinfo | uninstall-msiproduct -properties IGNOREDEPENDENCIES=ALL
Personally, this worked for me. I forgot that I had some old files laying around on an old drive, which appearantly later on messed something up in the registry (I think..?). Anyway, with everything clean, it installed just fine!
Note: if you have issues with importing the PSMSI-tools in PowerShell, check this out: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn568022.aspx
In summary, you may need to run the command
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned to be allowed to import the software.
Hope this helps someone in need!

I did the redistributable repair thing, but for me it worked after I installed Office365.
(for me it also was the last failing package on the list).

For me, nothing from this list of answers worked.
What finally did the trick is:
Performing an uninstall of VS by running the installer with the /uninstall /force command-line options (ref. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt720585.aspx)
Manually renaming all VS14 and nuget related folders from the following places:
%AppData%/Local and its sub-folders
%AppData%/Roaming and its sub-folders
%ProgramData% and its sub-folders
%ProgramFiles% and its sub-folders
%ProgramFiles(x86)% and its sub-folders
%ProgramData%/Package Cache itself
Rebooting the machine
Installing again.

Make sure to check your machine.config files in both locations
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework[version]\Config
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64[version]\Config
I found out after trying all the solutions on this page.

I've faced the same problem with Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition Update 1. The problem in my case was, the installer somehow could not install Visual C++ Redistributable x86 version. When I checked Add Remove Programs only x64 version was installed.
If that's the case for you, you can get the missing redistributable package from here; or you can find the version appropriate to you through a google search.

In my case the solution had to do with enabling symbolic links. See How do I overcome the "The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled." error when getting the target of a symbolic link on Server 2008? for multiple ways to do it.

Like the rest of you, I've spent days trying to figure this out. I've been down this thread trying every combination of what you have all said, and nothing. I finally went to AppData/Local/Microsoft/VisualStudio and deleted all the folders in there. Then proceeded to turn off everything in my Anti virus and I finally got the basic installation to go all the way through. Frustrating, but hopefully this will help someone else who has tried everything.

Also you can find log files in %Temp% folder about exact problem, in my case the problem was with symlinks.
if with "fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation" you get message .."is currently controlled by group policy" check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Filesystems\NTFS or simply search throug registry for "Symlink".

After battling with this problem on and off for a couple of months, I finally got it to install.
I downloaded the Visualstudio2015AzurePack which uses the web installer.
One of the requirements it to install VS2015 community edition which worked without problems.
I hope this helps someone.

This is a very elusive problem. No (simple) solution looks to apply. I tried -all- the previous options with the same negative result: multiple packages errors.
Resorted to install VS 2013, success no issues, then VS 15 (Preview) success no issues (btw very cool).
Finally what works for me, was to install the very basic first 'Visual Studio 2015' with -NO- updates. During the installation, setup automatically downloaded 'Update 2' and the installation finished successfully.

For some reason the installation broke while in process. After this, nothing helped and repair/unistall only produced package errors. What finally helped was this thing:
https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller
after I ran it a couple times (it didn't remove everything on the first pass...es) I was finally able to start a fresh installation and it worked.

I just found similar issue and I tried to fix it by uninstall, and reinstall several time both using the web installer and the ISO but it cannot solved the problem. Finally, I have fixed it by reset the PC and installing Visual Studio 2015 again by using the ISO.

Since the marked answer mentioned repairing the VC Redist 2015, I list all the ones I can find instead of burying them in the comments.
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 Update 1
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3
This thread discussed the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 Update 2. But all the links are broken and I didn't find it.

I did.
1) Stopped Avast Internet security.
2) uninstall all Microsoft C++ 2015 Redistributables.
3) install vs-2015 community.
installation finished.
thanks.

Visual Studio 2015 Community Installation Failure

I'm encountering a problem while attempting to install Visual Studio 2015. At one point, it wasn't even able to run an .iso file.
I followed tips from:
Error Installing Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 1 with Team Explorer
That gave me hope for a while, and the installation appeared to be working, but then I got this error.
What should I attempt next? I'm at the end of my rope here.

I had a similar issue with the general "TeamExplorer/vs_teamExplorerCore" error and finally got Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition Update 2 to install with these steps on Windows 7 (some of which are outlined here and here.)
Since you said you have tried at least some steps in the first article, I will note that it wasn't until I combined steps (and added a couple) that this worked for me after multiple repeated failures. I had previously tried some steps individually without any luck.
Note: If you are only interested in trying the VS 2015 Community RTM installer for some reason (rather than all the steps outlined), I have listed a link to just that file at the bottom of this answer.
The steps I took, in order, were:
1.) Update Windows - Make certain Windows is up to date (as necessary, including reboots).
2.) Enable all four evaluations of symbolic links:
Check to see if all four evaluations are enabled. Run cmd.exe (Run as Administrator):
fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation
All 4 evaluations should be enabled. If they aren't:
fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 R2R:1 L2R:1 R2L:1
Once those 4 evaluations are set, clean up your old directories/registry keys, temporary files and package installation cache (below).
3.) Uninstall any entry for VS 2015 in the Control Panel - If present in the Add/Remove Programs section, uninstall any entry for VS 2015.
Note: I did not manually uninstall any of the dependencies that were installed during the failed installation (e.g. .NET x.x.x, IIS 10 Express, etc.).
4.) Clear out old VS 2015 files, folders and registry keys:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0
C:\users\user\Documents\Visual Studio 2015
C:\users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
C:\users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
C:\users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VSCommon\14.0
Note: Of course the first two might be different depending on where you attempted to install VS 2015.
Clear your registry entries with:
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
REG DELETE HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0
REG DELETE HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0_Config
5.) Remove cached or temporary items - Completely remove all items in
C:\ProgramData\Package Cache
and
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp
Note: Temp you can be more selective with if you like since some items will be clearly unrelated to VS.
6.) Uninstall previous redistributables - Uninstall any previous redistributables you may have. I made it a particular point to uninstall all three copies of 2015 (RC, Update 1 and Update 2).
If you are unsure about uninstalling all three, I would suggest at least doing Update 2, even if you leave the other two alone (since I am assuming you are attempting to install VS 2015 Update 2).
I had previously manually removed:
c:\windows\System32\vcruntime140.dll
c:\windows\SysWOW64\vcruntime140.dll
but did not do this on the final attempt outlined here.
Note: Make sure these are not in use when you uninstall them. If you receive any complaints, stop any associated programs before continuing.
7.) Reboot the PC.
8.) Temporarily disable AntiVirus, if any - The brand I use has the ability to disable all items until a time of my choosing.
Note: I would suggest that if your program has a time limit on disabling items, you ensure that time limit is not reached while attempting to install VS 2015.
9.) Clean up any remaining registry entries with CCleaner, as needed - In my scenario, there were still some unused keys left over after uninstalling the last VS 2015 failed attempt.
10.) Reinstall VC++ redistributables manually - all VC++14 versions were reinstalled in my scenario but I would be especially concerned with Update 2 or whatever you are trying to install.
The redistributables I used for Update 2 were version 14.0.23918.
11.) Use the VS Studio RTM installer appropriate to your installation - Per the chosen answer here, there may be a problem with using the current installer for VS 2015 Update 1 or Update 2.
For my scenario particularly I:
Downloaded the Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition RTM ISO.
(SHA1:BAAD3CEBAB7A5834D8F78F7D02E4880C010F3BA9)
Copied the installer "vs_community.exe". For this scenario, I was not using the ISO contents, so I unmounted it.
Ran the RTM installer from a directory without spaces. I am unsure if this was strictly necessary, but a comment made elsewhere a long time ago seemed to indicate that this might be a potential problem.
Used the default installation directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14). Previously, I had used a installation custom directory.
Had about 20-25GB free, since there is a lot to download and install. =P
If you need other VC 2015 RTM ISOs other than for Community, links can be found at this blog post.
If you trust strangers on the internet, this is a link for the VS 2015 Community RTM installer (only) I used, no 3.9GB ISO download required. =P
Regarding the installer, as I mentioned, I did not have to use the RTM ISO. The RTM installer pulls web updates just like the installer for Update 1 or Update 2.
Using the RTM installer I successfully installed VS 2015 Update 2 with all optional C++ selections, Python Tools for Visual Studio and Clang with Microsoft CodeGen via the web. I chose not to install the Web Development Tools, but I don't believe this made a difference since I had previously had the TeamExplorer Core error prior to successful installation with no options selected whatsoever.

See these wonderful links to remove Visual Studio completely:
Create a "remove all remnants of Visual Studio from your system" program.
Github: VisualStudioUninstaller

Multiple Errors Installing Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition

When installing Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition on Windows 10, using the web installer, everything runs fine, however, the following packages fail to install:
Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2015 -> Fatal Error
Microsoft NuGet - Visual Studio 2015 -> Package Failed
Microsoft Visual Studio Connected Services -> Packages Failed
Azure AD Authentication Connected Services -> Packages Failed
Microsoft Azure Mobile Services Connected Service -> Package Failed
Microsoft Azure Storage Connected Service -> Packages Failed
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Office365 -> Package Failed
I have attempted a few work around including uninstalling every Visual Studio Version on my system, manually deleting the files in C:\ProgramData\Program Cache, and even gone as far as to uninstall my Antivirus (AVG) having attempted to disable it and see if that works before hand. I even ran the command fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 L2R:1 R2L:1 R2R:1
I have even tried to use the ISO but ran into the same issue.
Since I don't use either Azure or Team Explorer any solutions which mean I won't have access to them will suffice.
The log file that was generated by the Installer can be found here as it was over 65,000 characters long (just scroll to the bottom for all the fun).

After the failed install you have to repair the 2015 vc redistributables and restart the visual studio installer.
The redistributable installer is messed up, it mixes up 64bit and 32bit dll's. You can check if you have this problem by looking at the vcruntime140.dll file size. Search your windows folder for vcruntime140 you should see 4 files (64 and 32 bit in both release & debug versions). If any files have the same size, you need to run a repair on the redistributable.
On my system the 32-bit dll is 83,3KB, the 64 bit is 86,6KB (release versions).

My problem did not go away with just reinstalling the 2015 vc redistributables. But I was able to find the error using the same process as in the excellent blog post by Ezh (and thanks to Google Translate for making me able to read it).
In my case it was msvcp140.dll that was installed as a 64bit version in the Windows/SysWOW64 folder. Just uninstalling the redistributables did not remove the file, so I had to delete it manually. Then I was able to install the x86 redistributables again, which installed a correct version of the dll file. And, voilà, the installation of VS2015 finished without errors.

Success!
I had similar problems and tried re-installing several times, but no joy. I was looking at installing individual packages from the ISO and all of the fiddling around - not happy at all.
I finally got it to "install" by simply selecting "repair" rather than "uninstall" in control panel / programs. It took quite a while to do the "repair" though. In the end it is installed and working.
This worked for me. It may help others - easier to try than many other options, anyway.

As described from other answers, but with steps:
1- go to control panel -> uninstall programs -> uninstall all Microsoft C++ ((year)) Redistributable
2- delete those files if they still exist manually:
c:\windows\System32\vcruntime140.dll
c:\windows\SysWOW64\vcruntime140.dll
3- download and install:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
after that rerun the installation of Visual Studio, and hope that error won't show again.

None of the resolutions outlined in this question solved my issue. I posted a similar question and ended up having to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get it resolved. See my answer here if none of the other suggestions help: Error Installing Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 1 with Team Explorer

Okay, so if you're on the same boat as me and found that none of these solutions helped you, you most likely have a problem where NuGet (or any of those packages) is failing to install from the VSIX program due it calling a method that doesn't exist on your computer (not sure what .dll it's referencing), so try this out from the following post:
Delete all instances of Visual Studio 2015- this includes all registry values.
Install a version of Visual Studio older than Update 1 (RTM version.); this is available here.
If you still get an error, try repairing just the Visual Studio 2015 program. This is what ultimately fixed it for me.
Hope this helped someone out. It's really frustrating that the installer's log file doesn't help at all. I had to look at the log file specific to NuGet, and that's where I noticed the error:
The installation was unable to install the extension to all the
selected products. For more information, click on the install log link
at the bottom of the dialog.
Method not found: 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509ChainStatus
Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.IInstallableExtension.get_InvalidCertificateInformation()'.

If no other option in this thread works, you can try the steps given in this guide (see below): https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/heaths/2015/07/14/how-to-install-visual-studio-to-another-directory-when-a-pre-release-is-installed/
Download and install http://psmsi.codeplex.com (Note: new site https://github.com/heaths/psmsi) These are general-purpose PowerShell cmdlets I created for all sorts of development and troubleshooting operations for Windows Installer-based installs. You do not need to elevate to install them, though if you pre-elevate you can install them per-machine (by default they are per-user).
Open an elevated PowerShell command prompt and run the following to discover which products have installed the key shared component:
get-msicomponentinfo '{777CBCAC-12AB-4A57-A753-4A7D23B484D3}' | get-msiproductinfo
If you’re fine with uninstalling all the listed products (especially given that you’re probably going to install RTM next), run the following:
get-msicomponentinfo '{777CBCAC-12AB-4A57-A753-4A7D23B484D3}' | get-msiproductinfo | uninstall-msiproduct -properties IGNOREDEPENDENCIES=ALL
Personally, this worked for me. I forgot that I had some old files laying around on an old drive, which appearantly later on messed something up in the registry (I think..?). Anyway, with everything clean, it installed just fine!
Note: if you have issues with importing the PSMSI-tools in PowerShell, check this out: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn568022.aspx
In summary, you may need to run the command
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned to be allowed to import the software.
Hope this helps someone in need!

I did the redistributable repair thing, but for me it worked after I installed Office365.
(for me it also was the last failing package on the list).

For me, nothing from this list of answers worked.
What finally did the trick is:
Performing an uninstall of VS by running the installer with the /uninstall /force command-line options (ref. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt720585.aspx)
Manually renaming all VS14 and nuget related folders from the following places:
%AppData%/Local and its sub-folders
%AppData%/Roaming and its sub-folders
%ProgramData% and its sub-folders
%ProgramFiles% and its sub-folders
%ProgramFiles(x86)% and its sub-folders
%ProgramData%/Package Cache itself
Rebooting the machine
Installing again.

Make sure to check your machine.config files in both locations
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework[version]\Config
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64[version]\Config
I found out after trying all the solutions on this page.

I've faced the same problem with Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition Update 1. The problem in my case was, the installer somehow could not install Visual C++ Redistributable x86 version. When I checked Add Remove Programs only x64 version was installed.
If that's the case for you, you can get the missing redistributable package from here; or you can find the version appropriate to you through a google search.

In my case the solution had to do with enabling symbolic links. See How do I overcome the "The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled." error when getting the target of a symbolic link on Server 2008? for multiple ways to do it.

Like the rest of you, I've spent days trying to figure this out. I've been down this thread trying every combination of what you have all said, and nothing. I finally went to AppData/Local/Microsoft/VisualStudio and deleted all the folders in there. Then proceeded to turn off everything in my Anti virus and I finally got the basic installation to go all the way through. Frustrating, but hopefully this will help someone else who has tried everything.

Also you can find log files in %Temp% folder about exact problem, in my case the problem was with symlinks.
if with "fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation" you get message .."is currently controlled by group policy" check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Filesystems\NTFS or simply search throug registry for "Symlink".

After battling with this problem on and off for a couple of months, I finally got it to install.
I downloaded the Visualstudio2015AzurePack which uses the web installer.
One of the requirements it to install VS2015 community edition which worked without problems.
I hope this helps someone.

This is a very elusive problem. No (simple) solution looks to apply. I tried -all- the previous options with the same negative result: multiple packages errors.
Resorted to install VS 2013, success no issues, then VS 15 (Preview) success no issues (btw very cool).
Finally what works for me, was to install the very basic first 'Visual Studio 2015' with -NO- updates. During the installation, setup automatically downloaded 'Update 2' and the installation finished successfully.

For some reason the installation broke while in process. After this, nothing helped and repair/unistall only produced package errors. What finally helped was this thing:
https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller
after I ran it a couple times (it didn't remove everything on the first pass...es) I was finally able to start a fresh installation and it worked.

I just found similar issue and I tried to fix it by uninstall, and reinstall several time both using the web installer and the ISO but it cannot solved the problem. Finally, I have fixed it by reset the PC and installing Visual Studio 2015 again by using the ISO.

Since the marked answer mentioned repairing the VC Redist 2015, I list all the ones I can find instead of burying them in the comments.
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 Update 1
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3
This thread discussed the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 Update 2. But all the links are broken and I didn't find it.

I did.
1) Stopped Avast Internet security.
2) uninstall all Microsoft C++ 2015 Redistributables.
3) install vs-2015 community.
installation finished.
thanks.

Unable to uninstall, modifiy or repair visual studio 2015

I didn't not install Visual Studio 2015 to the C: (it's my ssd drive and its pretty small). I choose to install VS2015 to G: and G drive has died and most of the files do not exist, such as:
G:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0*
I would like to reinstall, but at this point, when I run the uninstaller, I am unable to repair, modify or uninstall VS2015, it fails with error:
"Cannot continue because some of the required components failed."
I am unable to install VS again, because of the same errors. I looked at a force uninstall, but the files do not exists to force the uninstall.
I really don't want to reinstall windows10. Any other ideas?

In my scenario, I had just performed a user migration from one PC to an AWS instance and was not able to use VS 2015 Enterprise edition upon migration. I attempted to run a repair from "programs and features", run setup.exe from the ISO mounted to a drive on windows and even tried to run it from a disk and I couldn't get anything to run. What I had found was a reg key that led me to an idea of how to repair VS from an internal installer. The reg key that I found was:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall{4983E758-4064-3D74-BB77-75C3F86C34B3}
which provided me with an install source for the currently installed version of visual studio. Within this registry key I found the "InstallSource" portion and followed it's location to other installers and uninstallers for Visual studio and other programs found at this location:
C:\ProgramData\Package Cache{14D1CABE-2B5A-3AED-B3A7-42315D062965}v14.0.23107\packages\enterprisecore
From here I went through each of the folders with a listing for v14.0...etc and was able to find the location for the vs_enterprisecore windows installer. From here I right-clicked the installer and ran a repair(you can choose to install, uninstall, or repair).
vs_enterprisecore functions
This allowed me to repair visual studio and inevitably re-update my licensing information on visual studio. Prior to doing this I was receiving a dialog to sign in and that my license was invalid no matter how many attempts I made at logging in with my enterprise issued MSDN account. As you can see below my VS2015 is operational again with Enterprise 2015 setup and is able to check for an updated key once again! This took alot of work, spent at least 8-12 hours working on this to avoid a complete re-image! I hope this helps someone later on down the road!
Visual Studio (Repaired)

I ended up just reinstalling windows, bummer.

You may have to remove any trace of what is left of it yourself. Even though the files of the installation are gone, the registry entries will still be lingering. You could try CCleaner to clean the registry. Typically when there isn't anything left and you try to uninstall from 'Programs and Features', Windows will ask you if you want to remove it from that list.
You can also use Revo, it has a 30 day trial period. CCleaner used to be free and you can still get the free version or a trial I believe.
Edit:
There are also some free ones that attempt to scan for leftovers:
IoBit Uninstaller, also at: Portable Apps
GeekUninstaller - Portable
Wise Program Uninstaller and Wise Registery Cleaner, - Portable Versions: Downloads Page

I had met with the same problem, while I found the solution after 1 day of research.
If you are seeing the fatal error for Built Tools x86. that's where I stuck with.
First of all, remember your previous version of Visual Studio Installed in your PC. And search for online to download the build tools for the specific version of Visual Studio.
Secondly, install the same and try to uninstall VS2015 with force command in an Admin privileged Cmd prompt.
vs_enterprise.exe /uninstall /force
You could find the above file in my case 'vs_enterprise.exe' from the package cache under ProgramData/PackageCache and respective package version number which you need to explore online. If you couldn't find the above simply uninstall vs2015 from Program and features under Control Panel.

How do I fix an "Invalid license data. Reinstall is required." error in Visual C# 2010 Express?

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.

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