Article ID: 818532 - Last Review: February 24, 2006 - Revision: 2.5

"Please enter a valid product key to use this product" error message when you start Visual Studio .NET

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SYMPTOMS

When you start Visual Studio .NET for the first time, you may receive the following error message after the Visual Studio .NET splash screen appears:

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MS Development Environment
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Please enter a valid product key to use this product - setup has detected that the product key is missing or invalid.
You will find this 25-character key on your Certificate of Authenticity or the yellow sticker on the back of the CD case.

A Windows Installer dialog box appears briefly and Visual Studio .NET does not start.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs if you have installed Visual Studio .NET by using the wrong Product Key (PID) for the version that you installed. The Product Key mismatch is not detected during installation.

Examples of mismatched PIDs that cause this error:

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Product	Product Key/PID
Visual Studio .NET 2002 Academic	Visual Studio .NET 2002 Professional
Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Any version)	Visual Studio .NET 2002 (Any version)
Visual Studio .NET 2002 (Any version)	Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Any version)

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, remove Visual Studio .NET, and then reinstall the program by using the correct Product Key for the version that you are installing.

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