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From: PeeCee on 11 Dec 2009 02:48 "Owen Holm" <oldfart(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:MPG.258b7252e826a62e989681(a)news.bigpond.com... > > Is there a free program to find the product key on a CD that you have > lost, I have lost the key for my winXP I had on my old computer when it > died I have now win7 on my new one, and have rebuilt the old computer > and went to install my old XP and can't find the book that had the > sticker on it so need to find the product key to install, the old hard > drive is not working so can't access it to try the programs that are > available to find the keys on your hard drive. > Thanks in Advanced > oldfart Owen There is 'no' key on the CD When you enter the license key during a Windows install, the installer runs some complex mathmatics to see if the result matches that of a genuine key. Presumably the sums done are very complex and as 'wasbit' say's in his post the maths are different for each version of the XP CD. By doing this Microsoft doesn't have to idividualise each CD. The cynical would also say it encorages more sales when the slip of paper with the key on it get's lost! By the way Microsoft regard the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker as 'the' valid evidience of your 'License' to use that copy of XP (or Vista, Win7 etc) You can have as many XP install CD's you like, even copies of the CD are ok, but without that little COA to match the key in the computer .... Now if by "the old hard drive is not working" you mean it is dead as in unreadable then your license key is history short of sending your drive to a data recovery specialist. If on the other hand you mean it is readable but windows is knackered then there is a chance you 'may' be able to read the key from the Registry. The program "License Crawler" mentioned by Caesar Romano has this to say : http://www.klinzmann.name/licensecrawler.htm <quote> My system is damaged. How to find out the serial numbers, if the computer can't boot again? There is a way. All you need a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick. Start Linux or BartPE and save the following file: Windows\System32\Config\software (no extension) Open Regedit: (WIN+R) enter regedit In the Registry editor use "load hive..." to bind the file "software" run the LicenseCrawler Regedit "unload hive..." </quote> Alternatively you may be able to manually extract it by followning the instructions on this page: http://superuser.com/questions/32367/recovering-a-windows-xp-license-key <quote> If that doesn't work, you'll have to dig it out of the registry file manually by searching C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\softwarefor the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductIdusing a hex editor I think. Bytes 52-66 (0x34 - 0x42) of this key hold a 15 byte number. In Hex, it's a 30 digit number: A2 23 51 D0 2A 38 5D 22 C4 41 6B 87 43 C1 00 In Binary, a 120 digit number: 10100010 00100011 ... 11000001 00000000 Converted to base 24: 751AA001EHCCLAB3JH8KDIGAG Mapped to Microsoft's custom base24 alphabet "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789" and a hyphen every 5 chars: KHCQQ-BBCW2-TT7QR-F42M6-V3YQY </quote> Obviously you'll have to fill in the details, the original drive 'must' be readable and the Windows\System32\Config\software file uncorrupt. Other than that the most practical option if you want XP is to buy a case with XP COA from the likes of Ebay. BTW the number of possible key's is huge: (25 characters from a 24 character set, see manual method above) 7962624 * 7962624 * 7962624 * 7962624 * 7962624 (ie 3.2009658644406818986777955348251e+34 whatever that works out at in gizuptatrillions) So don't think you might 'guess' one. Best Paul.
From: Owen Holm on 11 Dec 2009 03:45 In article <hfstjd$899$1(a)news.albasani.net>, abuse(a)local.host says... > > "Owen Holm" <oldfart(a)gmail.com> wrote in message > news:MPG.258b7252e826a62e989681(a)news.bigpond.com... > > > > Is there a free program to find the product key on a CD that you have > > lost, I have lost the key for my winXP I had on my old computer when it > > died I have now win7 on my new one, and have rebuilt the old computer > > and went to install my old XP and can't find the book that had the > > sticker on it so need to find the product key to install, the old hard > > drive is not working so can't access it to try the programs that are > > available to find the keys on your hard drive. > > Thanks in Advanced > > oldfart > > > > Owen > > There is 'no' key on the CD > When you enter the license key during a Windows install, the installer runs > some complex mathmatics to see if the result matches that of a genuine key. > Presumably the sums done are very complex and as 'wasbit' say's in his post > the maths are different for each version of the XP CD. > By doing this Microsoft doesn't have to idividualise each CD. > The cynical would also say it encorages more sales when the slip of paper > with the key on it get's lost! > > By the way Microsoft regard the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker as > 'the' valid evidience of your 'License' to use that copy of XP (or Vista, > Win7 etc) > You can have as many XP install CD's you like, even copies of the CD are ok, > but without that little COA to match the key in the computer .... > Thanks all, I have good news, I rememberd that I did a backup of the registry once and it was burnt to a cd I have with a lot of other files from the old computer, I used license crawler and found the reg number and have written it down in a couple of places as well as the win xp cd. Thanks to all for the help. Regards oldfart > > Now if by "the old hard drive is not working" you mean it is dead as in > unreadable then your license key is history short of sending your drive to a > data recovery specialist. > If on the other hand you mean it is readable but windows is knackered then > there is a chance you 'may' be able to read the key from the Registry. > > The program "License Crawler" mentioned by Caesar Romano has this to say : > http://www.klinzmann.name/licensecrawler.htm > <quote> > My system is damaged. How to find out the serial numbers, if the computer > can't boot again? > There is a way. All you need a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick. > Start Linux or BartPE and save the following file: > Windows\System32\Config\software (no extension) > Open Regedit: (WIN+R) enter regedit > In the Registry editor use "load hive..." to bind the file "software"
From: Oldphart on 11 Dec 2009 04:15 Mister2u wrote: > http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ Excellent tool for recovering keys. +1
From: Franklin on 13 Dec 2009 15:21 Bear Bottoms wrote: > In article <MPG.258c1717c661125e989682(a)news.bigpond.com>, > oldfart(a)gmail.com says... >> >> In article <hfqs9u$8ma$1(a)reader1.panix.com>, retsuhcs(a)xinap.moc >> says... >> > >> > In article <MPG.258b7252e826a62e989681(a)news.bigpond.com>, >> > Owen Holm <oldfart(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> > > >> > >Is there a free program to find the product key on a CD that you >> > >have lost, I have lost the key for my winXP I had on my old >> > >computer when it died I have now win7 on my new one, and have >> > >rebuilt the old computer and went to install my old XP and can't >> > >find the book that had the sticker on it so need to find the >> > >product key to install, the old hard drive is not working so can't >> > >access it to try the programs that are available to find the keys >> > >on your hard drive. >> > >> > You need to retrieve the key from the computer. Installation CD's >> > are mass produced and do not have individually numbered licenses. >> >> Then how does it reject a key if you put in one digit wrong when >> installing??? if it doesn't have anything to refer to, my old >> computer isn't a brand one, I put it together myself a few years ago >> and has been great. > > I don't know but I am rationalizing as best I can. It seems to me, the > password couldn't be stored anywhere but within the CD or file in some > manner, as my test included isolating the file away from any /known/ > source...original program or computer, and ran a fresh copy of the > program on a different computer and carried the encrypted file to it. > I supplied the password and it decrypted the file. So I'm thinking > that the program creates a file or language within the encrypted file > and the password provides the information needed for the key. At this > point, I'm virtually certain this is what happens. > > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp.freeware/msg/31767e7c80c18762 > ?hl=en In that thread Bottoms pretended to be confused and invited more and more explanations: "I've yet to see anyone explain this satisfactorily." He seemed to be mysteriously unable to understand anything. In the end it was obvious no one could be that dumb.
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