Trial Editions can only be used for a limited amount of time, usually 90 to 180 days. After that time period has expired, you cannot use the product again without a valid product key.
Purchase a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition at a retail location. The product key is listed on the sleeve of the DVD or CD.
—or—
Order a Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition product key online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/howtobuy/. The product key is sent to you in an e-mail message.
On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, open Add or Remove Programs.
Select Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional and then click Change/Remove.
On the Visual Studio 2005 Maintenance screen, enter the product key in the section Upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 Professional and then click Upgrade.
Don't want to wait for a product to ship, just want to pay for the serial number, upgrade my trial version and be done with it. I keep getting directed around in circles and it's annoying.
Give me one link to click to buy the serial number please.
Granted the upgrade process (should be) painless and is apparently intended to be painless, there is no mention out here about upgrading from an install of VS Pro 2008 90-day trial version to a VS Pro 2008 Academic version.
I had the academic version installed on this very same machine, on a Vista Ultimate installation, and lost my partition over the holiday weekend. After rebuilding my machine and having to use a trial edition of VS over the weekend, I am now unable to use the Product Key for the education version previously installed.
This makes - zero - sense. I dont want uninstall, then reinstall. It is the exact same product. There is absolutely no difference here. So why isnt the license accepted when I use these steps?
Please provide the correct steps, the appropriate link, a link to a KB article, or a phone number that one needs to call in this scenario.
Thanks much - keep up the excellent work.