SQL Server 2008 Evaluation Edition Expired? Believe me, I already upgraded it. What’s up?

Once you install evaluation edition of SQL Server 2008 and then perform in place upgrade to full version, you may get below error message when you open SQL Server Management Studio.

Expired

For better search, below is the text of the message

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio:
Evaluation period has expired. For information on how to upgrade your evaluation software please go to https://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy

Have a close look at error… This is for Management Studio. This means that this is the problem with management studio only. If its not yet expired, inside of Management Studio, going to Help > About... still shows this the expiration countdown.

This is identified as a known issue where SSMS is not upgraded when you do edition upgrade for SQL Server 2008. To workaround the problem you can hack registry keys. Set CommonFiles registry value to 3 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\ConfigurationState Registry Hive. You will then need to reinstall (if the tools are not installed currently) or run edition Upgrade. Reference: connect bug

This is already fixed in SP1.

Update: 12 May 2009.

KB article published for same issue. https://support.microsoft.com/kb/971268

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2009
    Thank You, this fixed a major upgrade issue I had.
  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2009
    Thanks, you just saved me a bunch of time.
  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2009
    Dopo l’applicazione dell’SP1 di SQL Server 2008, se avete un’installazione che avete inizalmente installato
  • Anonymous
    July 31, 2009
    BIG FAT THANKS, this worked perfectly!
  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2009
    Thanks Eva, great to know that it helped.
  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2009
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2009
    Thanks - I thought I was going mad!
  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    February 10, 2010
    You are the Dood... good stuff.
  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2010
    Thanks a lotwork like a charm!
  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2010
    Thanks a lot. Great fix . Saved my hair.
  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2010
    How do I run an "Edition upgrade". I have distribution media but when I run setup.exe it does not offer an Edition upgrade.
  • Anonymous
    June 28, 2010
    1, Insert the SQL Server installation media. From the root folder, double-click setup.exe2, To upgrade an existing instance of SQL Server 2008 to a different edition, from the SQL Server Installation Center click Maintenance, and then select Edition Upgrade.ref: msdn.microsoft.com/.../cc707783(SQL.100).aspx
  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2010
    Thanks guys.. It works like a charm.. struggle with for two days as I was doing it cluster and I was little sacred that it might break my cluster. However Everything went well.. It is working fine now... Thanks again..
  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2010
    It is July 2nd, 2010 and I am experiencing the same problem so SP1 did not fix it.  I will try this work around
  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2010
    Hey William,Are you saying that you applied SP1 before Edition Upgrade to "full" version and its still SSMS expired?How about SQL Engine, is that running?-Balmukund
  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2011
    Hello, i have same issues just like this, have hacked the registry value to 3, then i tried to do the "Edition Upgrade" but i couldn't finish the installation. The error's feedback is on SQL Server 2008 edition upgrade which is failed.please help me..Ryo
  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2011
    hi Ryo,Could you please send me setup logs to my official email id = blakhani (at) microsoft (dot) com ?
  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2011
    Same problems (message) appears on SQLSERVER2008 R2 evaluation version.After 2 weeks, the sql server engine is down and management studio is also unavailable. Windows server is also eval version 2008 standard.... why it happens? I just want to eval product for 180 days not to write an essey about windows disability or installation problems.Could you help?
  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2011
    Can anyone help me to know the meaning behind the values 0,1,2,3 of ConfigurationState in the registory hive?
  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2012
    thanks for info
  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2012
    I am lookging at the Management console's Help/About and we are on SP2 but still received this error and our cleint did not do and upgrade eval this was a full blown install.  BUt I am verifying that the customer did not eval it then registered it.  But the Version is @ SP2.
  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2012
    Big Thanks!
  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2012
    You can use the below registry update to fix the issue. I faced the same problem and after applying this registry able to open SSMS.Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server100ToolsClientSetup]"SQLBinRoot"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Shared""checksumref"="""SQLPath"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools""SqlToolsPath"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE""Path"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn""checksum"=hex:38,38,33,66,66,66,30,65,62,38,32,62,30,34,37,62,31,30,35,31,36,38,32,31,30,30,63,64,36,37,34,31,65,31,38,31,37,35,62,36,38,31,33,38,62,33,32,62,61,37,39,36,65,61,37,65,66,36,38,39,63,35,38,39,32,31,39,32,38,35,62,36,61,31,61,38,35,36,31,63,65,34,63,37,39,65,35,65,30,38,32,66,62,32,30,31,39,66,63,36,62,31,34,64,35,34,36,39,34,30,39,39,33,34,63,30,38,35,34,39,30,36,37,36,35,64,33,38,61,62,38,64,39,39,33,33,65,39,65,32,31,39,30,37,38,63,38,36,64,36,66,64,65,65,33,39,39,61,63,33,32,32,38,37,36,63,30,61,33,64,65,66,64,31,35,37,34,38,00"VSToolsPath"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server100ToolsClientSetupCurrentVersion]"CurrentVersion"="10.0.1600.22""Language"=dword:00000409[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server100ToolsClientSetupSQLCEBinRoot]"3.5"="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\Tools"
  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2013
    didn't work for me, but i resolve this problem with uninstall sql server and install again... :D hope these help