"Invalid License Data. Reinstall required." caused by Atmel Stdio 6

This week I made an attempt to build the Clang Static Analyzer using Visual Studio Express 2010 following the Clang Visual Studio Build Instructions. I was greeted with:

"Invalid License Data. Reinstall required."

I wondered what that was about, as Visual Studio Express was licensed as needed. Searching Internet came across many people with the same issue, with few resolutions other than a complex registry patch job, or reinstalling Visual Studio, which is a complete waste of time. One should never have an error message that directs a user to do something, unless the program is sure it needs done.

I then remember that I'd installed Atmel Studio 6 a few days earlier. After removing Atmel Studio 6 the Invalid License Data error went away.

For inexplicable reasons Atmel decided to ignore their customers number one request about what to replace AVR Studio with, which was that it should be cross platform. Instead Atmel Studio 6 is based on Microsoft Visual Studio Shell.

Unfortunately it seems installing Atmel Studio 6 corrupts installs that are outside of its own purview. So if you are having the Invalid License Data error, check and make sure that no custom Microsoft Visual Studio Shells have been installed by any other program.

Atmel actually does have a Linux version of Atmel Studio 6 hidden on their website, which is just about impossible to find any useful data anymore without lots of time wasting clicks: Atmel AVR Toolchain 3.4.0 for Linux.

Getting back to the Clang Static Analyzer, it fails to build using Visual Studio Express. The Makefiles created by CMake do not seem to be compatible with it, in that it fails to build key parts of the tool chain. Pete Akeo does give MinGW build instructions that do work.