How to change Visual Studio 2012 2013 or 2015 License Key

Question

I have a Copy of Visual Studio 2012 Pro on my machine with a Serial key that i m no longer suppose to use because i have to use another one  My problem is i keep Uninstalling Visual studio but the Registration information is still there after re-install and i cannot figure out which registry path i have to delete  i deleted a few  with no luck   Is there a easy way to remove tha reg info or swap my keys   Thanks

User · Answer

See my UPDATE  at the end   before reading the following answer    I have windows 8 and another pc with windows 8 1  I had License error saying  Prerelease software  License expired    The only solution that I found which is inspired by the above solutions  Thanks   was to run process monitor and see the exact registry keys that are accessed when I start the VS2013 which were   HKCR Licenses E79B3F9C-6543-4897-BBA5-5BFB0A02BB5C  like what are mentioned in the previous posts  However the process monitor said that this registry is access denied   So I opened regedit and found that registry key and I could not open it  It says I have no permission to see it   SO I had to change its permission    Right click on the  HKCR Licenses E79B3F9C-6543-4897-BBA5-5BFB0A02BB5C  key Permissions Add In  Enter object names to select  I have added my windows user name  Ok  check on Full control Advanced Owner click on  Change  In  Enter object names to select  I have added my windows user name  Ok  Ok  Ok  Ok    I found that this registry key has several sub keys  however you have to restart regedit to see them   By seeing which other registry keys are access denied in process monitor   I knew that VS2013 will specifically deal with these subkeys which are ACCESS DENIED also  06181 0bcad  and these subkeys should be changed their permissions as well like above   After making these permission changes everything worked well   The same thing has been done to Microsoft visual studio 2010 because an error in the license as well and the solution worked well   UPDATE    It turned out that starting visual studio as administrator solved this issue without this registry massage  Seems that this happened to my pc after changing the  required password to login   removed in the user settings   I wanted to let the pc start running without any password after restart from a crash or anything else   This made a lot of programs not able to write into some folders like temp folders unless I start the application as admin  Even printing from excel would not work  if excel is not started as admin

User · Answer

For those of you using Visual Studio 2017 Professional  the registry key is      HKCR Licenses 5C505A59-E312-4B89-9508-E162F8150517   I also recommend you first export the registry key  before you delete it  so you ll have a backup if you accidentally delete the wrong key

User · Answer

For those who will need to remove product key from Visual Studio 2015    remove registry key HKCR Licenses 4D8CFBCB-2F6A-4AD2-BABF-10E28F6F2C8F repair Visual Studio installation   That s it  now you can change the product key if necessary

User · Answer

To see what s inside these HKCR Licenses use API Monitor v2  API-Filter find       RegQueryValueExW           -Enable all from Advapi32 dll      CryptUnprotectData          - Enable all from Crypt32 dll            Breakpoint   after Call   sample data that ll come out from CryptUnprotectData   HKEY CLASSES ROOT Licenses 4D8CFBCB-2F6A-4AD2-BABF-10E28F6F2C8F 07078   length 0x1C6  0454         00322-20000-00000-AA450                  lt - PID2     7d3cbcbb-90b1-411f-9981-6e28039a9b82     lt - Ver     7C3WXN74-VRMXH-J8X3H-M8F7W-CPQB8         lt - PID3  HKEY CLASSES ROOT Licenses 4D8CFBCB-2F6A-4AD2-BABF-10E28F6F2C8F 0bcad   length 0xbcad  0534          0000  00000025 ffffffff 7fffffff   07064  00000007   07078  00000007 ffffffff     0020  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     0040  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     0060  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     0080  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     00a0  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     00c0  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     00e0  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     0100  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff ffffffff     0120  7fffffff ffffffff 7fffffff 10 2015  c2a6 11      0134                              installation date    Useful here is maybe the Installation timestamp  11 10 2015 here   Change this would required to call  CryptProtectData   Doing so needs some efforts like written a small program OR stop with ollydebug at this place and manually  crafting  a CryptProtectData call      Note  In this example I m using Microsoft   Visual Studio 2015  -  For a quick n dirty sneak into an expired VS I recommend to read this post  However that s just good for occasional use  till you get all the sign up and login crap  properly done again     Okay the real meat is here   LOCALAPPDATA  Microsoft VisualStudio 14 0 Licenses       - This path comes from HKCU Software Microsoft VisualStudio 14 0 Licenses 715f10eb-9e99-11d2-bfc2-00c04f990235 1  1 3jdh3uyw   crtok    -after some Base64 decoding    lt ClientRightsContainer      xmlns  http   schemas datacontract org 2004 07 Microsoft VisualStudio Services Licensing       xmlns i  http   www w3 org 2001 XMLSchema-instance  gt       lt CertificateBytes gt          00000000   30 82 06 41 30 82 04 29  A0 03 02 01 02 02 13 5A   0    A0             Z         00000010   00 00 BC CB 23 AC 52 9C  E8 93 F9 0A 00 01 00 00            R                       00000020   BC CB 30 0D 06 09 2A 86  48 86 F7 0D 01 01 0B 05       0       H                   00000030   00 30 81 8B 31 0B 30 09  06 03 55 04 06 13 02 55    0    1 0   U    U         00000040   53 31 13 30 11 06 03 55  04 08 13 0A 57 61 73 68   S1 0   U    Wash         00000050   69 6E 67 74 6F 6E 31 10  30 0E 06 03 55 04 07 13   ington1 0   U            00000060   07 52 65 64 6D 6F 6E 64  31 1E 30 1C 06 03 55 04    Redmond1 0   U          00000070   0A 13 15 4D 69 63 72 6F  73 6F 66 74 20 43 6F 72      Microsoft Cor         00000080   70 6F 72 61 74 69 6F 6E  31 15 30 13 06 03 55 04   poration1 0   U          00000090   0B 13 0C 4D 69 63 72 6F  73 6F 66 74 20 49 54 31      Microsoft IT1         000000A0   1E 30 1C 06 03 55 04 03  13 15 4D 69 63 72 6F 73    0   U    Micros         000000B0   6F 66 74 20 49 54 20 53  53 4C 20 53 48 41 32 30   oft IT SSL SHA20         000000C0   1E 17 0D 31 35 30 33 30  35 32 31 32 39 35 36 5A      150305212956Z         000000D0   17 0D 31 37 30 33 30 34  32 31 32 39 35 36 5A 30     170304212956Z0         000000E0   25 31 23 30 21 06 03 55  04 03 13 1A 61 70 70 2E    1 0   U    app          000000F0   76 73 73 70 73 2E 76 69  73 75 61 6C 73 74 75 64   vssps visualstud         00000100   69 6F 2E 63 6F 6D 30 82  01 22 30 0D 06 09 2A 86   io com0     0                            000002B0   6E 86 36 68 74 74 70 3A  2F 2F 6D 73 63 72 6C 2E   n   6http   mscrl          000002C0   6D 69 63 72 6F 73 6F 66  74 2E 63 6F 6D 2F 70 6B   microsoft com pk         000002D0   69 2F 6D 73 63 6F 72 70  2F 63 72 6C 2F 6D 73 69   i mscorp crl msi         000002E0   74 77 77 77 32 2E 63 72  6C 86 34 68 74 74 70 3A   twww2 crl   4http          000002F0   2F 2F 63 72 6C 2E 6D 69  63 72 6F 73 6F 66 74 2E     crl microsoft          00000300   63 6F 6D 2F 70 6B 69 2F  6D 73 63 6F 72 70 2F 63   com pki mscorp c         00000310   72 6C 2F 6D 73 69 74 77  77 77 32 2E 63 72 6C 30   rl msitwww2 crl0         00000320   70 06 08 2B 06 01 05 05  07 01 01 04 64 30 62 30   p           d0b0         00000330   3C 06 08 2B 06 01 05 05  07 30 02 86 30 68 74 74    lt         0    0htt         00000340   70 3A 2F 2F 77 77 77 2E  6D 69 63 72 6F 73 6F 66   p   www microsof         00000350   74 2E 63 6F 6D 2F 70 6B  69 2F 6D 73 63 6F 72 70   t com pki mscorp         00000360   2F 6D 73 69 74 77 77 77  32 2E 63 72 74 30 22 06    msitwww2 crt0           00000370   08 2B 06 01 05 05 07 30  01 86 16 68 74 74 70 3A          0     http          00000380   2F 2F 6F 63 73 70 2E 6D  73 6F 63 73 70 2E 63 6F     ocsp msocsp co         00000390   6D 30 4E 06 03 55 1D 20  04 47 30 45 30 43 06 09   m0N  U   G0E0C           000003A0   2B 06 01 04 01 82 37 2A  01 30 36 30 34 06 08 2B           7  0604            000003B0   06 01 05 05 07 02 01 16  28 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F            http            000003C0   77 77 77 2E 6D 69 63 72  6F 73 6F 66 74 2E 63 6F   www microsoft co         000003D0   6D 2F 70 6B 69 2F 6D 73  63 6F 72 70 2F 63 70 73   m pki mscorp cps         000003E0   00 30 27 06 09 2B 06 01  04 01 82 37 15 0A 04 1A    0           7             000003F0   30 18 30 0A 06 08 2B 06  01 05 05 07 03 01 30 0A   0 0           0          00000400   06 08 2B 06 01 05 05 07  03 02 30 25 06 03 55 1D             0   U          00000410   11 04 1E 30 1C 82 1A 61  70 70 2E 76 73 73 70 73      0     app vssps         00000420   2E 76 69 73 75 61 6C 73  74 75 64 69 6F 2E 63 6F    visualstudio co         00000430   6D 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48  86 F7 0D 01 01 0B 05 00   m0       H                                                                       U      lt  CertificateBytes gt       lt Token gt                 typ   JWT            alg   RS256            x5t   i7qX-NUrehXBYdQC5PSH-TdvzXA             lt  Token gt   lt  ClientRightsContainer gt    Seems M  is using JSON Web Token  JWT  to wrap in license data  I guess inside CertificateBytes will be somehow the payload - you re email and other details   So far for the rough overview what s the data inside   For more wishes get ILSpy   Reflexil   lt - to changes correct little things   and then  browser amp correct  files like c  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 14 0 Common7 IDE  Microsoft VisualStudio Licensing dll   or check out  Microsoft VisualStudio Services WebApi dll

User · Answer

The ISO is probably pre-pidded  You ll need to delete the key from the setup files  It should then ask you for a key during installation

User · Answer

For me  with Visual Studio 2013  it wasn t enough to remove the license key and perform a repair  the repair restored the license key instead of reverting to a trial  and running it without the repair  after deleting the key  claimed the license had expired but wouldn t let me enter a new key    I had to    Discover what license key Visual Studio was looking for in the registry with Process Monitor  it was HKCR Licenses E79B3F9C-6543-4897-BBA5-5BFB0A02BB5C  Completely uninstall Visual Studio 2013  save CurrentSettings vssettings first  Delete the license key from the registry by hand in regedit Install Visual Studio using the publicly available web installer  which doesn t have any baked-in license key -- it installs a 30-day trial  Enter my new license key  Re- install updates  Update 1 at this time  Restore settings by importing the backup I made of CurrentSettings vssettings

User · Answer

The solution with removing the license information from the registry also works with Visual Studio 2013  but as described in the answer above  it is important to execute a  repair  on Visual Studio

User · Answer

I had the same problem and wanted to change the product key to another  Unfortunate it s not as easy as it was on VS2010   The following steps work    Remove the registry key containing the license information  HKEY CLASSES ROOT Licenses 77550D6B-6352-4E77-9DA3-537419DF564B If you can t find the key  use sysinternals ProcessMonitor to check the registry access of VS2012 to locate the correct key which is always in HKEY CLASSES ROOT Licenses After you remove this key  VS2012 will tell you that it s license information is incorrect  Go to  Programs and features  and repair VS2012  After the repair  VS2012 is reverted to a 30 day trial and you can enter a new product key  This could also be used to stay in a trial version loop and never enter a producy key

[visual-studio-2012] How to change Visual Studio 2012,2013 or 2015 License Key?

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