Can I upgrade from VS2017 Community Edition to a paid-for edition?

Question

_{Thursday, March 16, 2017 9:02 PM}

If I install the community edition (to try it out), and then decide to buy a licence, can I just add the licence to the installation, or do I have to uninstall the Community Edition and install the other one?

The reason I ask is that VS has to be one of the most difficult pieces of software I've ever had to uninstall (along with SQL Server), and I'm not keen on installing it if I might have to take it off again.

Thanks for any help you can give.

All replies (7)

_{Monday, March 20, 2017 2:40 PM ✅Answered}

Hi,

In previous versions, until VS 2015 included, different editions could not coexist, so installing VS Professional would replace the Community Edition.

In VS 2017, several editions can coexist, they are installed in different folders:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional

So installing VS 2017 Professional does not replace the Community Edition, you need to uninstall it.

My portal and blog about VSX: <a href="http://www.visualstudioextensibility.com"> http://www.visualstudioextensibility.com</a> Twitter: https://twitter.com/VSExtensibility MZ-Tools productivity extension for Visual Studio: https://www.mztools.com

_{Friday, March 17, 2017 5:28 AM}

Hi Mr Yossu,

Welcome to the MSDN forum!

Visual Studio 2017 Community Editor is a free version, it does not need to use licence key, but it needs a Hotmail account to check for an updated license.

Please refer to the following screenshot (Start VS in Run as Administrator mode->Help->Register Product), thanks.

This is the relevant link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg442061.aspx

And we could not update Community to Enterprise or Professional. We could download Enterprise and Community Editor in same machine. Please refer to the following screenshot:

and:

Best Regards,

Oscar

MSDN Community Support
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_{Sunday, March 19, 2017 2:47 PM}

Sorry, just realised that I didn't make myself clear. What I meant was, if I later decide to buy a licence for the professional version, would I need to reinstall VS, or could I just add the licence key to unlock the extra features?

_{Monday, March 20, 2017 3:16 AM}

Hi Mr Yossu,

Thanks for your reply!

>> if I later decide to buy a licence for the professional version, would I need to reinstall VS

If you have installed VS professional edition, you don’t need to reinstall VS again. Please refer to the following screenshot to Unlock with a Product Key.

>>or could I just add the licence key to unlock the extra features

Yes, you can get access extra features. Please refer to below link know more information, thanks.

https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/compare/

Hope it helpful for you :)

Best Regards,

Oscar

MSDN Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected].

_{Monday, March 20, 2017 2:19 PM}

Thanks, but you haven't answered the question.

I want to know, if I install the Community edition, and then later want to upgrade to the Professional edition, will I need to uninstall the Community edition first?

Installing Professional isn't much use if I don't have a licence for it, as the trial licence is only for a short while (90 days?), and then it stops working.

_{Tuesday, March 21, 2017 1:34 AM}

Hi Mr Yossu,

>>I want to know, if I install the Community edition, and then later want to upgrade to the Professional edition, will I need to uninstall the Community edition first?

I answered this question in my first reply, you need not. VS2017 Community and VS2017 Professional will both exist in our machine. They are independent of each other.

>>Installing Professional isn't much use if I don't have a licence for it, as the trial licence is only for a short while (90 days?), and then it stops working.

Yes, you are right. VS professional and Enterprise are paid versions.

Hope it helpful for you.

Sincerely,

Oscar

MSDN Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if not. This can be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. If you have any compliments or complaints to MSDN Support, feel free to contact [email protected].

_{Sunday, March 10, 2019 2:03 PM | 1 vote}

For clarity...

I believe you do not need to uninstall anything.

However, you do need to install the professional/enterprise version. 

Pro is a separate product that cannot upgrade from community version by just entering a pro license number.  So, if you don't uninstall your community version, but you install the new pro version, you'll end up with two versions of Visual Studio on your machine.  Which works just fine (if that is what you want).

Please correct me if I am wrong about this. Thank you.

Scott