Hello,

Today I logged into one of SQL 2012 Servers and tried to launch the Management Studio.  When I did I received a message: "Invalid license data. Reinstall is required".

Ok - So I uninstalled the Management Studio and re-installed it but I was still receiving the message.  So I uninstalled SQL completly then re-installed it.  And I am still receiving the same message.  I can however connect to databases on the server using SQL Management studio from another machine.

Anyone have any thoughts on what data SQL is looking for that is 'Invalid' and how I can get around this issue?

Server - Windows Server 2008 R2 running SQL 2012 SP1.

Thank you,
Matt

Can you have a look at this article see for answer provided by Alen

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/9e50de75-6119-4963-8d5e-9d8b0367bc8e/evaluation-period-has-expired-sql-2012-ssms

Hello,

Thank you for your reply but this is not a trial version - it is a full version - and there is nothing to upgrade.  If that reg key has something to do with an upgrade then there is not a way for me to re-start the upgrade process as it is a full version.

~Matt

Hello ,

I suppose you did nto cheked below link provided in discussion

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971268

.Below link discusses about even if you have license version you still might get this error and has provided work around see if that help you

Just for your help same workaround is present in link also

1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedt32, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the Registry Editor:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\ConfigurationState
3. In the right pane of the Registry Editor, select CommonFiles DWord value.
4. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
5. Type 3, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Rerun the edition upgrade (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707783.aspx) procedure to complete the upgrade of all the components to a licensed edition.
8. After the edition upgrade is complete, refer to the following Knowledge Base article to prevent issues with future updates to the instance.
   
   970608 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970608)  Updates to Microsoft SQL server 2008 will fail after an edition upgrade

Hello,
As stated before - this is not an upgrade - the KB you are refering to is for a different error message relating to trial software.

~ Matt

Hello,

Did you install multiple instances on the computer? If so, please verify that you use and runinstall the right version of SSMS. You can run the SQL Server discovery report  from the SQL Server Installation Center to get the installed SQL Server features and version information.
If it is the only one instance, please you try to rerun the uninstall to remove all components of SQL Server instance completely? And then rerun the setup.exe to reinstall SQL Server. The following thread is about the same issue, please refer to:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/SQL_Server_2008/Q_28035305.html

Regards,
Fanny Liu

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Hello,

It has taken some work to resolve this but here is the root cause of the issue and how to repair it:

1. Verify the issue - SQL Management Studio relies on Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated) edition.  If you browse to the following location: C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE and run devenv.exe then you should see the same "Invalid License Data" message.

2. Uninstall Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated) using Add/Remove Programs.

3. Click on SQL 2012 in Add/Remove Programs then click Uninstall/Change then choose Repair.  On the screen where you select the instance to Repair change the drop down to "Repair shared features only" and complete the wizard.  This will reinstall the Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated) files.

Management Studio will sucessfully lauch afterwards.

Good luck and thanks to Jolin Qiao at Microsoft for helping to resolve this.

~ Matt

• Marked as answer by MB2009-1 Friday, September 06, 2013 5:33 PM

I had the same issue with SQL Server 2014 Express which these steps resolved. 

I knew it was related to Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) as that component was raising this error when the Server tried opening the debugger - before the entire SSMS failed.  The only difference I found is that attempting to "Repair" SQL Server 2014 from Add/Remove Programs didn't kick in.  I had already redownloaded and unpacked the installer so I reran SETUP.EXE and chose the repair option and this fixes the problem for me.

getting same message with a solutions file from my trainer's site.  Microsoft offered to help for $499.  
Not good in my judgement.   Product does not work and I need to spend $499 just to get it to install properly.

I have spent 6 hours on this on various web solution sites.

Please help... mike0008@comcast.net

Assalam u alikum i also got the same error "invalid license data"from SQL server management studio 2012 and dear Matt i have tried your method of repairing SQL server and it automatically installed visual studio 2010(isolated)system so it is successfully repaired and its working so thank you very much Matt for your help.

thanks

Regards

Zohaib Khalid.