Over the years, the vintage computing community has documented several keys that pass the VS97 installer checksum. These are not "cracks"—they are legitimate keys from retail copies that were shared back in the BBS era. Examples (for educational use only) include patterns like:
The term "new" is tricky here. This software is from 1997; "new" usually means an unused key, but it doesn't change the fact that the software is technologically ancient. Don't expect to install this on Windows 10 or 11 without severe virtualization hurdles or compatibility errors. Additionally, because this is abandonware-adjacent, the market is flooded with key generators. Buying a "new" key sometimes feels unnecessary when the software is no longer supported by Microsoft, but if you are a collector wanting a "clean" install, it serves its purpose.
Visual Studio 97 was designed for Windows 95/NT. If you are trying to run it on Windows 10 or 11:
If installing directly on Windows 10, right-click the setup.exe and set it to Windows 95 Compatibility Mode.