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

Answer 1

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_ROOTLicenses77550D6B-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_ROOTLicenses

• 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.