Visual Studio 2015 - Prerelease software. This license has expired

Question

I have installed Visual Studio 2015 with an .ISO that works for a colleague. On opening the application I've signed into my MSDN account which has an Active subscription.

However I'm presented with the following splash screen:

License: Prerelease software This license has expired.

I've no option but to close at this point (pressing the Close button closes Visual Studio completely) – even though I can generate a license key via MSDN I have no way of entering it.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Go into Programs and Features and repair the installation of Visual Studio 2015. After the installation is repaired you should be able to open the program successfully.

I had this same issue today and these steps worked for me.

Answer 2

For me it was a matter of Time / Timezone error. My computer time was set to 06:27 when the actual time was 14:27.

Setting the time and timezone to the correct values made VS work again.

Answer 3

[EDIT]:

This is the only thing I eventually got to work having this problem with Visual Studio Community 2017!

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/reset-windows-10-pc

• References:
  • Visual Studio 2017 - Prerelease software. This license has expired
  • Visual Studio Community Support Ticket

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Below is the original post of stuff that DIDN'T end up working for me:

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I had the EXACT same problem with Visual Studio 2017!

"Prerelease software. This license has expired"

I tried everything above AND a bunch of things you'll probably find BELOW this search result in Google (ie. people at Microsoft can't seem to give a fix either!). DO NOT do what I did and attempt to uninstall all your VS related apps, and .NET & Visual C++ distributions, and then repair/reinstall VS, etc! NOT NEEDED (like some people have suggested) and a complete waste of time!

• FIX --- Remove the offending product key!

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1. Open register editor
   • Start Menu -> Search regedit -> Right-Click -> Run as Administrator
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses\5C505A59-E312-4B89-9508-E162F8150517 and delete it
   • Back it up first, if you want...
3. Execute a repair installation of VS 2017

BOOM! Jump for joy! I was stumped by this for a few days setting up an old machine as a new dev machine... apparently, I had an out-dated license in there! Hope that helps anyone else that shows up here!

[Edit] Seems to have reverted after restarting the machine and now the problem persists...

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• Reference: How to change Visual Studio 2017 License Key?

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Tried theses too:

• Devenv.exe /ResetSettings from this post on MSDN Forums
  • Ref: License expired after installation Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 community
• Offline install (replaces iso install method from 2015): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/install-vs-inconsistent-quality-network