Onward and UpwardKeith Ward, Editor in Chief, Visual Studio Magazine
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Visual Studio 2012 RC to Expire Jan. 15
If you're using the release candidate version of Visual Studio 2012, you have one day to come up with an alternative plan.
Starting tomorrow, Jan. 15, your copy of Visual Studio goes kaput. Sayonra. Buh-bye. And there are no workarounds to keep it running, according to Microsoft's Brian Harry, who wanted to soothe the souls of those developers who have been asking him about the looming expiration date for the RC.
The only option, Harry writes, is to upgrade to the final release build; the expiration can't be extended. How do you know if you're still on an RC? Harry explains: "You can tell if you have a release candidate build by looking at the version number and look for “RCRel” – like “Version 11.0.50522.01 RCRel”.
The top option for continuing to use VS 2012, in Microsoft's opinion? Not surprisingly, it's to buy it. But if you're cash-poor at the moment, you can install the trial edition of VS2012, which will give you 90 days more without paying.
VS 2012 is a worthy upgrade, and I'd call it essential if you want to build mobile apps using .NET technologies. Keep that in mind when deciding whether or not to spring for the retail version.
Posted by Keith Ward on 01/14/2013