VWD 2010 Express Registration Errors

Question

Hi,

The program says, "Registration is required to continue using Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express. Registration is free and provides you with access to additional benefits".

But the registration process goes wrong every time I try it.

Whether I follow the link "Help > Register Product > Obtain a registration key online" in VWD itself or browse via the Resources tab at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-web-developer-express, it always fails.

I login with my MS Live Id, enter data and tick the boxes (after a dozen attempts this is becoming very tedious...), click on the Continue button and then a web page error crashes the process.

In IE8 the error occurs at page https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/Error.aspx with the following error message:

"An unknown error occurred while processing your request. This is most likely due to a connection failure. Please try again".

In Firefox 5 the error occurs on a different page and the message is somewhat more specific:

"XML Parsing Error: no element found Location: https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/Wizard/WizardHandler.ashx?WizID=345281f9-6588-4888-820f-2695af056d4f&Lcid=1033&MultiCP=0&readonly=false&submit=1 Line Number 1, Column 1: ^"

Switching off the firewall and configuring MSE to disable real-time protection, which were suggested by others having registration problems, had no effect on this.

How can I continue to use the product when I am unable to register it?

JPL

Answer 1

Hi JPL,

 

Thank you for your post.

 

From your post, you failed to register Visual Studio via IE or Firefox.

 

Here are my suggestions:

·         Make sure your internet proxy settings are configured correctly.

·         Try resetting all the IE security settings to default (even if it's not your default browser).

·         Make sure you are signed in with the correct email account that you have a Live ID with. If you're signed in with a different account, then it won't work.

·         Try to register Visual Studio on any other machine or network. Here is the registration link: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-web-developer-express

 

If you have any other concerns, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 2

Alexander,

Thanks for your help.

I have checked my internet proxy settings, and they are OK (No proxy is defined).

I tried resetting the IE8 security settings to the default, and this did change the response, which maybe indicates that the root cause is security related.  However, there is still an error on clicking the Continue button:

On page https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/Error.aspx:

"500 - Internal server error.
There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed."

I am entering the same mailbox as used to login with my Live Id (copied/pasted, so no typo here, but checked carefully anyway).

I tried another PC, also running XP SP3, and the behaviour was the same.  I do not have access to another network.

Incidentally, there is a typo on the registration page: it says, "Regsiter within 30 Days". Perhaps there is a typo in the code too...!?

What should I try next?

JPL

P.S. I have in the past successfully registered Express editions of VS 2005 and VS 2008, but these are no longer installed as I use VS 2008 Pro. for my VB work.  VWD is required for HTML5/CSS3 development, taking advantage of the Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1.

Answer 3

Hi JPL,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Frankly speaking, your problem confused me much. In my opinion, your issue is probably related to your network. First, to test if you can open any Microsoft website, I recommend you try to open Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

 

Second, the “Register within 30 days” means you should register your Visual Studio within 30 days. Your code will be safe whether you have registered Visual Studio or not.

 

If you have any other concerns, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 4

Hi,

I have no problems with the main Microsoft website per your link, nor for that matter with any others of the dozens of websites I visit regularly.

I appreciate that failure to register does not compromise my code.  My issue is that it will prevent me from continuing to use VWD.

In what way do you think the problem might be related to my "network"?  Do you think that profile.microsoft.com requires something of the ADSL modem/router supplied by my ISP that is not required by other websites?  This seems unlikely to me.

JPL

Answer 5

Hi JPL,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Could you please try this link? http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=163984

 

The network problem I said is just my assumption. You are right, and it does not related to the network.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 6

Alexander,

Thanks for your help.  Apologies for so much trouble with an everyday process that ought to be so straightforward.

I tried your link (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=163984) in both IE8 and FF5 and had the following results:

IE8:

"An unknown error occurred while processing your request. This is most likely due to a connection failure. Please try again."
on URL "https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/Error.aspx"

FF5:

"XML Parsing Error: no element found Location: https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/Wizard/WizardHandler.ashx?WizID=345281f9-6588-4888-820f-2695af056d4f&Lcid=1033&MultiCP=0&readonly=false&submit=1 Line Number 1, Column 1: ^"

i.e. No change.

Since the error details were reported differently by IE & FF, I tried other browsers on another PC.  Google Chrome and Opera show the same error message as IE.  Both these browsers are used for website testing only and have had no manual changes to settings, no add-ons installed.

JPL

Answer 7

Hi JPL,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

All the links I am able to open on my side. Your problem is interesting. First, I recommend you contact your IT, if you are in a company. If you are a family customer, I suggest you contact your ISP.

 

Second, you can go to the suggestions and feedback forum to ask for helps: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/suggest/threads

You also can go to the Microsoft Support to ask for helps: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus#tab0

 

If you have any other concerns, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 8

I suppose it is possible that my ISP has something in its network configuration that works fine for the entire web with the exception of the Microsoft registration process, and so I shall contact them, but I am not confident of a helpful response.

I have tried some other options to try and register, but they were of no help:

1. changing from my ISP's DNS to others had no effect.

2. the same error occurred using IE6 on a Windows 2000 PC with neither firewall nor antivirus installed.

I tried telephoning Microsoft.  It took some time to establish that I had called the wrong number, and I was told to call another number.  After some discussion I was told that that number, too, was incorrect and I should dial a third one.  I did so, and spoke to a succession of people until the final one said that it was a free product and the only option is to register via the website.  I tried to explain that the only reason I was phoning was that the website method did not work, but was unable to get them to understand what I was saying.  That ended the call.  All this took more than half an hour.  It would have taken only a minute or two if any of the Microsoft people had been fluent in spoken English.  None of them had even heard of VWD.

I followed your "Contact Us" link, but do not wish to pay £199 for email support to help me register a free product.  It would be more sensible to spend the money on a commercial HTML5/CSS3/JS development product.

After such a good experience in the past with the 2005 and 2008 versions of the Visual Studio Express products, it is very disappointing to find that the 2010 versions are just not viable for me.

JPL

Answer 9

Hi JPL,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I am sorry that registration of Visual Studio 2010 lead to such a horrible experience to you. Frankly speaking, it is the first time that I meet this kind of issue. I am sorry that I have not helped you resolve your problem as soon as possible, but I will continue to do my best to help you. Could you please let me know what the state is? Any update?

 

If you have any other concerns, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 10

Alexander,

No need to apologise.  Thank you again for your help.

I'm afraid that in the end I gave up and cheated - a friend registered it for me.  This just worked without any problem, just like it did for me in the past with various 2005 & 2008 Express products.

Perhaps this was a network/ISP problem as you suggested, or perhaps my MS Live profile has become corrupted.

JPL

Answer 11

Hi JPL,

 

I am glad to hear such a nice news of you. If you have any other question, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Alexander Sun [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 12

Hi Alexander and JPL,

I just wanted to inform you that the problem is still around. I tried to register Visual Basic 2010 Express without no luck.

Sending me to:  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163981

Resulting in: An unknown error occurred while processing your request. This is most likely due
to a connection failure. Please try again.

I have also tried to search ms pages for a solution without any luck. And support are, as before stated by JPS, manned with people without any knowledge whatso ever about anything. When the regular "netwok error" came up I tried get information about what specific ports and protocols that ms uses on their registration page in order to verify my "netwok" capabilities. This demand was met with "hums" and "ums".

In the future I advice you to actually have bug report tools with a nice unique id to different precedures. perhaps this would help you to atleast see theese oh so annoying and rare ..but yet possible errors

Answer 13

I can confirm this. DNS-Settings are ok, firewall is ok, no proxy, no problems with other websites. Why is it so hard to get this working?

Answer 14

I too have the same issue!

It should NOT be this difficult to register a free product and clearly there are issues here that need to be addressed! Its VERY frustrating frankly!

You can download an iso file and burn a DVD to install the program thus not needing to register. I would suggest this is what people who are unable to register online due to some unknown error microsoft don't have the first clue about, are doing!

Answer 15

Same issue here. I get EXACTLY the same problem when trying this download as well as SCVMM. Have registered a new live account, as well as using an old hotmail account that I knew a few months ago worked because I downloaded something else!

Also, it can't be a network problem as as I've tried on my work PC with proxy on, proxy off, IE / firefox, my own home computer and even a brand new imaged laptop running on a WiFi hotspot connected to my mobile phone!

Sort it out guys!

Answer 16

Thanks CBC,

Can you please tell me where/how to download this iso file that you mentioned?

Thanks,

AC