Fix: Visual Studio 2012 RC - Invalid License data

I downloaded Visual Studio 2012 RC today and installed it on my laptop hoping to explore the much talked about features of VS and .NET 4.5, but I dint read through the statement clearly

Visual Studio 2012 RC will run along with Visual Studio 2010

That’s correct.  I have VS 2010 installed on my laptop, but VS 2012 RC din’t work perfectly.  Just had I opened this application that it pop’ed up with an error dialog

Invalid License data

Installing VS is always tricky as there are so many components bundled with it that if one of them fails, it rolls back the setup.  However, this time it went through smoothly and then while executing the application it threw this error!

Now, here’s the solution – you don’t need to uninstall VS 2012 RC.  The trick is that VS 2012 RC works along with VS 2010, but it does not work with VS 11 Beta.

So uninstall VS 11 Beta so that the VS 2012 components start working correctly. Why so?

Visual Studio 2012 RC has a lower license level than VS 11 Beta. Whatever the reason be, when you have a better version at play why would you want to keep a Beta in your basket?

Now start VS 2012 RC.  You might get some package issues.  Just click No to those messages and go ahead.  If still the problem persists, you have no option but to reinstall Visual Studio 2012 RC from the ISO image.