Management Studio licensing issues We have a licensed SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition instance, that for some reason keeps getting license expiration messages in Management Studio.  Sometimes it gets this message:


  Your Microsoft SQK Server Management Studio evaluation period has expired.
  
  You can get a key to extend your trial by registering this copy of Microsoft     Management Studio online.  You may also purchase a key to activate the product.


Other times, it says a key has been entered:


  A valid product key has been entered for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.


Still other times, SSMS just closes, prompting you to save files.

This machine has had various versions of Visual Studio installed and uninstalled by a developer who once had administrative rights, and I suspect that's what's got this all messed up.  However, I've removed Visual Studio, and uninstalled SQL all the way to the ground, and re-installed, but the message doesn't go away.

Has anyone experienced this, and is it worth trying to fix?  Or should I install on a new platform and migrate off this machine?
Just uninstall client tools completely, using Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> SQL Server 2012 -> Change. This should launch the setup program and allow you to uninstall the management tools. If the Control Panel method doesn't work, I have a more brute force way of doing it, just make sure you only remove those CLSIDs that relate to SSMS.

Then grab the Express edition of 2012 SP2 (x64 | x86), which has the same functionality as the version you had installed, but without the licensing and the expiration. For more details (or links to more modern versions of SSMS), see this answer.

There are more cumbersome workarounds listed here and here (yes, they say 2008, but they still apply). I think uninstall/reinstall is cleaner.