[Xtreme2damax]

I managed to get Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and a legit serial key through Dreamspark for school, since installing Windows 7 I am unable to activate VS2008 with my key. In fact I am unable to enter my key at all since this option is missing from Visual Studio 2008 Professional in Windows 7.

Unfortunately the VS2008 Professional from Dreamspark comes with the license key field pre-filled and blanked out, so you are unable to change the key before installation.

On Vista after installing I would have to go to add/remove programs, select change or remove VS2008, select upgrade and enter my legit license key.

However the upgrade option to enter my license key is missing on Windows 7, I am unable to enter my key and install VS2008.

Has anyone heard of this problem or experienced the same problem and has a workaround or solution?

Thank you.

 

[@ruantec]

mmmm its the first time i hear from that

am on Win7 and am also using VS2008 pro and i have 0 problems here..

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

the version of VS2008 i can download has the key built into it..... hmmm

If your own Win7 just get VS2010 beta

 

[GeominorAI]

-> How to change Visual Studio 2008 Product Key | IT Solutions Knowledge Base

 

[Xtreme2damax]

-> How to change Visual Studio 2008 Product Key | IT Solutions Knowledge Base

Unfortunately I can't do that, the option mentioned in the third step is absent on Windows 7, but was present in Vista and XP.

It seems to be a bug with Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2008, I Googled the problem and found other people having the same problem. I wasn't unable to find a solution via Google and hoped someone here may know what to do.

@Squall, I don't feel like downloading anything else as it is painstaking for me to do on my connection, I've downloaded enough the past couple weeks. I just want to find a solution or workaround to activate Visual Studio 2008 Professional with my legit license key.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

Rerun the installation in Vista SP2 compatibility.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

Just tried that and it didn't work, has anyone had this problem or heard of it?

 

[@ruantec]

mmmm that´s really weird... i´ll check out to see if i can find something... eitherway its the first time i heard from it

 

[GeominorAI]

Unfortunately I can't do that, the option mentioned in the third step is absent on Windows 7, but was present in Vista and XP.

It seems to be a bug with Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2008, I Googled the problem and found other people having the same problem. I wasn't unable to find a solution via Google and hoped someone here may know what to do.

Have you tried modifying setup.sdb under the installation DVD's setup folder as implied in the first part of the article?

 

[Xtreme2damax]

No, I was unaware that was what I had to do. I only modified the file that was copied to my hdd.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

theres a way to make a copy of the dvd with the legit key included..... at this time im not sure how that is though

 

[GeominorAI]

The steps for that were included in the article. Best of luck, Xtreme2damax.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

What can I use to edit the DVD image I got from Dreamspark?

Is there any free programs I can use to edit the image with, I'd really hate to need to install some shareware/trialware crap.

 

[GeominorAI]

Try copying all files from the DVD into a folder, editing it, and installing it from there.

 

[@ruantec]

What can I use to edit the DVD image I got from Dreamspark?

Is there any free programs I can use to edit the image with, I'd really hate to need to install some shareware/trialware crap.

Just as mentioned copy all the files to your HDD and create a iso from those files using Starburn a damn great burning app and the best of it.... its free

Regards
@ruantec

 

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks Geo.

I used an image editing program to extract and edit the file, then reconstructed the image. I reinstalled Visual Studio with my license key pre-filled and now all is well.

This was kind of a strange bug on Windows 7, I don't understand what was causing it.

 

[GeominorAI]

Cheers, glad it helped. This was probably one of the reasons why the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor flagged VS2008 as having minor compatibility problems.

 

[Silenus]

OH man I came to this thread thinking it was S.T.A.R.S. posting again...

But anyways, great you resolved your problem x2x.