Autodesk: When opening Autodesk products Error “Unable to connect to desktop licensing service”

May 21, 2026 Jeff Arbogast

 
Issue:
Autodesk: When opening Autodesk products Error “Unable to connect to desktop licensing service”.

 


Figure 1


Causes:
Corrupted Visual C++


Solution:
Although there are other fixes for this issue. We have found recently Visual C++ 2012 forward have been corrupted.

  • Right click the Windows Start Button.
  • Select Installed Apps
  • Scroll down to Microsoft Visual C++.
  • Select Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributed (x64) and select the “…” to the right Select modify.
  • Then on the dialog box select repair.
  • Perform this for both x64 and x86 on 2012 forward.


Note: if one takes a long time this is normally the corrupted version.

About the Author

Jeff Arbogast

Manufacturing Solution Center Team Lead<br><br>Jeff is responsible for manufacturing Technical Support for both internal staff and customers. In addition to the daily activities of the support center, he helps write for the National Support Center blog, and has written online classes for the IMAGINiT training on demand site.

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