You cannot open Visual Studio Report Designer and get the following error:

The provided metadata is not valid.

This error can occur when the following conditions are true:

To resolve this issue, set both finsql.exe and devenv.exe to run as an administrator.

To set a program to run as an administrator

  1. Right-click the .exe file, and then select Properties.

  2. In the Properties window, on the Compatibility tab, in the Privilege Level section, select Run this program as an administrator.

See Also