Visual Studio Community 2019 keeps locking me out

Question

User1423214553 posted

Hi. Every time I open Visual Studio Community 2019 it says my 'extended free trial' has expired. I thought this was free software? I can't even work out how I'd go about buying it! I'm very confused, and this is VERY frustrating. I'm just trying to learn how to code, and didn't expect the most difficult part to be making the software work! Reinstalling lets me use it once, but then it 'expires' again. What do I even do?

Answer 1

User753101303 posted

Hi,

It is free but you need to sign in. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/signing-in-to-visual-studio?view=vs-2019

Don't have Community handy but it should be in the upper right as for other versions...

Answer 2

User1423214553 posted

I've got a sign-out button, so I'm pretty sure I've done that. I've tried several accounts too.

Answer 3

User753101303 posted

What if you sign-out and sign-in again?

As reported as the same location it needs to connect from time to itme which should be done automaitcally unless if your macnine is not always connected to the internet or if not usign VS for quite some time. I woud expect sign-out and sign-in to reinstall the free licence. I never had any problem with this licensing scheme.

Edit: remember an old machine on which I don"t use VS Community and yes it was installed. I had a messsage telling that tVS is not licensed at launch (in the lwoer right corner, still accoiunt settings told it is licensed). I signed out and in again and it seems to have removed this message at launch time.

Answer 4

User1423214553 posted

Well, I just signed out then in again - but I just get the same message. It's connected to the internet too.

Answer 5

User475983607 posted

Well, I just signed out then in again - but I just get the same message. It's connected to the internet too.

Maybe you installed a trial version of enterprise or professional rather than community.

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/

Answer 6

User1423214553 posted

I thought that too, but I went to download it again but I already had vs_Community (1).exe

I can try and reinstall it yet again, but I don't think it will work.

Answer 7

User475983607 posted

I thought that too, but I went to download it again but I already had vs_Community (1).exe

I can try and reinstall it yet again, but I don't think it will work.

Keep in mind, this is not a common issue.  Be sure to uninstall all the versions of Visual Studio before installing yet another; Community (2).exe.  Otherwise, see the following on Visual Studio support; https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/support/community-edition-expired-buy-license/

Answer 8

User1423214553 posted

There doesn't seem to be a solution for this. I'm really confused as to why this is happening.

Answer 9

User753101303 posted

From a quick look using the "registry" app, it might be written to  HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\16.0_<id>\Licenses\<guid> under which I find a REG_BINARY key value.

Do you see something at this location if using "regedit" ? if not maybe an anntivirus sofware it blociking writinng there (or overwirtting an existing value) ???

AFAIK it usually works just fine. Try maybe to disable your antivirus and sign-out, sign-in again ???

 

Answer 10

User1423214553 posted

There's not HKCU in the registry. I checked Users in it, but no /SOFTWARE/. 

I may try disabling antivirus and signing in out, but signing in on its own doesn't seem to help. Reinstalling it makes it work for a day, but that's it. 

Answer 11

User753101303 posted

Sorry, HKCU is a common shortcut for HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

According to https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/vs-community-dont-register-the-licence/601646 it seems someone had an issue following a VS 2017 uninstall (on my side I have both or I ever installed VS 2019 depending on the machine).