Hope someone can help as i'm at the tearing my hair out stage. I had the evaluation copy of sql server 2014...It expired so i bought the developer version from microsoft online store..Downloaded and installed ok...When I went to use it however through start menu and sql management studio my problems began. I get the popup telling me that the expiry period is up and directs me to buy a license key. I then try to use the upgrade wizard to use my product key and it says invalid key. I uninstall the shared components...still same message. I uninstall evaluation instance - same message. I have now one instance but still can't access the management studio and am getting the same message (invalid key). I guess I need to change something in the registry but what?

hope someone can help

Angela

Hello,

If you uninstalled the evaluation edition then please read the following thread for a solution.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/63c1afbc-9a3e-477d-84f3-feed42514544/sql-server-2014-management-studio-expired?forum=sqltools#0b151c3a-369d-4bc1-b941-c0b0671180eb

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Alberto Morillo
SQLCoffee.com

Hi Alberto...thanks for trying to help...unfortunately I tried this already and it didn't work...

thanks

Angela

Hi Angela,

Could you please post the full error message when you launch SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)? And please check that if you encounter the similar issue in this thread, if so, uninstall Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) and repair your SQL Server 2014 instance.

In addition, from your description, it seems that you get the following error message when upgrading SQL Server 2014 evaluation edition to SQL Server 2014 developer edition, right?

The SQL Server product key is not valid. To proceed, re-enter the product key values from the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) or SQL Server packaging.

If that is the case, it indicates that the SQL Server product key is incorrect. The issue might be caused by several reasons such as corrupted installation file, antivirus scanning and so on. There are some proposals for you troubleshooting this issue.

1. Please ensure that your SQL Server installation file is not corrupted. If you are using ISO download, please copy the content of the ISO image to the local disk on your computer and upgrade SQL Server from there.
2. Make sure you use corresponding license key matched the edition and version of SQL Server.
3. Make sure that you dont exceed the limit of allowed activations of the product key.
4. Turn off any Anti-virus software when upgrading SQL Server.


Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

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Are you sure that you purchased SQL Server 2014? Edition upgrade should be done from same version of SQL.

http://sqlserver-help.com/2011/06/03/help-can-i-upgrade-sql-edition-without-reinstall/