Upgrading Visual Studio 2008 from trial to full on Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000)

Question

I tried to upgrade from trial VS2008 to full... but, on Windows 7 Beta there is no \"Upgrade to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008\" option... anyone knows why?... did anyone else enc

Answer 1

For those who already installed VS2008 and it is late for them to use the solution with editing setup.sdb, and who don't wanna install AnVir Task Manager because it brings unwanted crapware to your PC, you may use WinSpy: http://www.catch22.net/software/winspy-17. It worked for me.

Answer 2

I found a solution for this. You need to enter your product key before installing vs2008:

Extract the iso somewhere. Edit the Setup\setup.sdb file and set your product key in the [Product Key] section. Then you can install it without needing to upgrade.

Answer 3

If you can reproduce it, it would be worth sending it as feedback (do you have the "send feedback" links on every window like I do?).

I could give it a try, but I've already installed Team Suite on my physical Windows 7 machine, so I'd need to sort out a fresh VM to give it a go...

Actually, though - it probably isn't a good idea to activate your upgrade (for real) on the beta Windows 7; at some point, you are going to have to scratch that OS completely. I agree that if the option is meant to be there, then it's absense is a problem. But I haven't used "trial" before, so I don't know if it is meant to exist!

Answer 4

Yes, there is no possibility to upgrade from the trial version of Visual Studio 2008 on Windows 7 as the upgrade button and product key fields are missing. But it is possible to restore back their visibility by using Anvir Task Manager. For an unknown reason those controls are hidden and disabled on Windows 7 but are ok on Windows Vista. I've successfully upgraded my Visual Studio once restored upgrade controls.

Answer 5

Here is a more-or-less complete guide to upgrading Visual Studio 2008 trial to pro in Windows 7.

1. Download and install/unzip AnVir Task Manager Free (portable version here: http://www.anvir.com/downloads/taskfree.zip)
2. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features.
3. Select Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional ENU, click Uninstall/Change at the top of the list.
4. Wait for the maintenance program to launch. When it does, click "Next >>" from the FIRST screen.
5. On the SECOND screen you will see three options: "Add or Remove Features", "Repair/Reinstall", "Uninstall Microsoft Visual Studio 2008". DO NOT click ANY of them. The controls you want are hidden just under these three options.
6. Launch AnVir Task Manager as an Administrator. (If you don't do this, you won't be able to enable the controls.)
7. In the Applications tab, find Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Setup - Maintenance Page. Right-click this item and select "Detailed Info". It may be helpful to heighten the bottom panel that appears now, if your screen is big enough.
8. In the bottom panel, click "Windows".
9. In the bottom panel, expand "Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Setup - Maintenance Page".
10. In the list that appears, several items appear to have no name. The bottom four items, which do have names, are "Visual Studio Setup Banner". Expand the anonymous item just above these four named items.
11. In the newly expanded item, you will see a number of lines, the icons for which are grayed out. This indicates they are hidden. For each disabled line, right-click and select "Visible", then right-click and select "Enabled". Don't forget to include the item in this list labeled "Upgrade" - that is the button to submit the license key data.
12. Check your Visual Studio maintenance window (we last looked at this in step 5). You should see the controls to enter your license key there. Put in the license key and click "Upgrade".

If you get stuck at one of these steps, it's possible that your maintenance window is varied slightly from mine. Once you get the main window expanded in AnVir, nose around in the hidden controls until you see the "Upgrade" button, and then make sure all controls that are siblings of that control are enabled.

Answer 6

Using WinSpy as suggested by Denis Avilov works pretty good and does not require installing any unwanted software, however apart from enabling (and making visible) the "Upgrade" button you must enable few more siblings controls specially the 5 "Edit" fields that will be needed to input a valid Visual Studio serial number.