How do I fix an “Invalid license data. Reinstall is required.” error in Visual C# 2010 Express?

Question

I\'ve tried to install Visual C# 2010 Express edition onto my PC, but whenever I try to run it, I get a error message.

Invalid license data. Reinstall

Answer 1

I was stuck for several days with the same problem. Investigating the registry i found several keys in HKCR were i was denied access even as adminstrator. Among these keys were the Licences key. Tried a lot of things to resolve this access problem but could not fix it.

Finally i worked around this problem with a reinstall of Windows 7 - choosing the Upgrade option when prompted to choose between upgrade or a fresh install. Had to reinstall video drivers but all my programs and user accounts survived.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7

After the upgrade i have access to the HKCR\Licenses again and Visual Studio 2010 starts as expected.