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

Question

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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

This may also occur if you are trying to invoke an xml file instead of the exe application.

Answer 6

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.