Help, lost my Vista product key!!!!

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Unfortunately the OP was sent a Vista upgrade.
The sticker was probably on the shrink-wrap which is normal.
And it seems the OP threw away the shrink-wrap.

 

[KDE]

the Dell upgrade DVD comes in a paper sleeve, shrink wrapped to a piece of
cardboard. The new sticker (product key) is on the cardboard so you can
remove it and affix it to the bottom of the computer once the upgrade is
done. Your original materials that came with your computer will include a
way to restore your PC to factory state (i.e. revert back to the original
install of XP that came on your PC.) If you've thrown out the packaging
from your upgrade disk then unless you can convince someone at Dell to give
you a new key (Very unlikely) then you've probably screwed up your free
upgrade.

 

[Guest]

我的笔记本电脑是2003年在美国购买的，型å·ä¸ºï¼šCOMPAQ Presario R3000 è´­ä¹°åŽèŽ·å¾—四个标志贴在版é¢ä¸Šï¼š1.amda
2.nvidia 3.Mobile HotSP 4.Windows XP åºåˆ—å·æ˜¯ï¼šV8yt3ï¼23p3cï¼BKjHjï¼K2rf9ï¼8V7GB
我的女儿女婿都在微软总部工作，我2006å¹´9月去美国西雅图探亲结æŸ2007å¹´3月回国。由于英文版使用ä¸æ–¹ä¾¿ï¼Œå°±åŒ–钱请HPå…¬å¸æ±Ÿè¥¿ä»£ç†å•†é‡å®‰è£…了中文版的
xp
但是最近中国微软公å¸åœ¨ç”µè„‘上自动登陆我的电脑，并æ示说我是盗版软件，ä¸åœçš„æ示我è¦å®‰è£…正版软件。使得我无法正常上网。难é“è¦æˆ‘é‡æ–°è´­ä¹°è¯¥è½¯ä»¶å—？我希望给予澄清事实åŽå¹¶äºˆä»¥è§£å†³è¯¥é—®é¢˜ã€‚
中国移动电è¯ï¼š13065165169 使用者 蔡仕ç¦

 

[Guest]

Do you have trial access to Vista?
Try installing a diagnostic like Lavalys' Everest and the Software page will
read you your key for that product.

 

[Guest]

My thoughts exactly (well, almost, I recommended Everest...but this is much
cheaper). Good call, Rich.

 

[Sharon T]

Paste the product key sticker onto your PC tower, so you can easily access
it.

 

[Guest]

If he got an upgrade mailed to him it is on the package no on the computer.

 

[Guest]

First of all the upgrade is sent out by Moduslink second it is sent out in a
casing that looks like a CD comes with and the PK on it with the direction
for the costemer to take it of and stick to the computer. not a plastic and
card board .That is how I recived my upgrade.

 

[Guest]

I BOUGHT A DELL pc. It came with a free upgrade to Vista when it came out. I
received the upgrade pack from Dell but there was no product key or it got
thrown out--it came shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard!! I have done the
install but now am stuck because it wants the product key to continue. I
can't reverse it so the PC is basically useless. What do I do?? Dell says I
am screwed basically. Can I get it back? If not how do I get another one? Do
I have to buy a new full edition??

 

[Guest]

I BOUGHT A DELL pc. It came with a free upgrade to Vista when it came out. I
received the upgrade pack from Dell but there was no product key or it got
thrown out--it came shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard!! I have done the
install but now am stuck because it wants the product key to continue. I
can't reverse it so the PC is basically useless. What do I do?? Dell says I
am screwed basically. Can I get it back? If not how do I get another one? Do
I have to buy a new full edition??

I had exactly the same thing happen---only I did not throw away my product
key, Dell sent me the incorrect one. I too got locked out of my computer, it
telling me my originally installed Vista Home Premium -- that was on it when
they sent it -- was an illigal version. I called 800-microsoft, who then
gave me the number to the server for my area. Believe it or not, though I
was prepared for a fight, the guy on the other end of the phone was very
courteous, apolegetic, and helpful. My vista premium is back up, and since I
didn't feel like dealing with the upgrade anymore last night I still don't
have ultimate, but he assured me that all I have to do is call back and they
will find the correct product key then walk me through it. I asked him to
write to you but unfortunately he was in an inbound call center. Microsoft
has a dept. dedicated just to this problem. I was scared to death when I
read all of this stuff, thank goodness ms stands behind their product!

 

[Guest]

hi,go to download.com and download-Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder,it will
instantly show what you need,have used it before and just tried it again and
it worked fine,see ya

 

[Guest]

I BOUGHT A DELL pc. It came with a free upgrade to Vista when it came out. I
received the upgrade pack from Dell but there was no product key or it got
thrown out--it came shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard!! I have done the
install but now am stuck because it wants the product key to continue. I
can't reverse it so the PC is basically useless. What do I do?? Dell says I
am screwed basically. Can I get it back? If not how do I get another one? Do
I have to buy a new full edition??

 

[Michael M.]

If you bought the licence from from DELL you should have your sticker with
the Key on it, if not this is their problem and they have to replace it.

If you threw out the key, then you are at fault.

Mike.

 

[Guest]

Linux is FREE and more usefull then Windows. Plus it comes with Open Office
and you can test drive Linux just by downloading a LIVE-CD verison of Linux
and the best part is that most live cd's will let you save settings to your
hard drive and even use the live cd to install the OS on the HardDrive.

All you have to do is find a working computer with a CD Burner or DVD
Burner, get some blank CD-R and go to google or yahoo and search for "Linux
Distribution" and choose one that works on an x86 or 64bit processor (I guess
you are useing a this type of processor since you had Windows on the machine
previously).

 

[Guest]

What do I do?

 

[Guest]

I BOUGHT A DELL pc. It came with a free upgrade to Vista when it came out. I
received the upgrade pack from Dell but there was no product key or it got
thrown out--it came shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard!! I have done the
install but now am stuck because it wants the product key to continue. I
can't reverse it so the PC is basically useless. What do I do?? Dell says I
am screwed basically. Can I get it back? If not how do I get another one? Do
I have to buy a new full edition??

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem. My Dell XPS came with a Vista installation disk
but no KEY password. I purchased and installed Vista Ultimate. I needed to do
a CLEAN INSTALL.Vista Home Premium installed instead of Vista Ultimate i had
purchased. I found a KEY from Produkey.exe but that key was not accepted by
my computer. I have written microsoft support, but have not called Microsoft
or Dell. Does anyone have advice what to do now to install Ultimate, which is

 

[Rock]

I have the same problem. My Dell XPS came with a Vista installation disk
but no KEY password. I purchased and installed Vista Ultimate. I needed to
do
a CLEAN INSTALL.Vista Home Premium installed instead of Vista Ultimate i
had
purchased. I found a KEY from Produkey.exe but that key was not accepted
by
my computer. I have written microsoft support, but have not called
Microsoft
or Dell. Does anyone have advice what to do now to install Ultimate, which
is
on the installation disk ?

<snip>

It's not clear from your post. You have a Dell PC which came with Vista
Home Premium, but then you bought a copy of Vista Ultimate? Is that right?
If so was it an upgrade version or a full version, and if full was it OEM or
Retail? Where did you buy it from? Is it this copy you lost the product
key for?

Then you installed with that CD, but somehow installed Home Premium instead
of Ultimate?

To begin with it sounds like you have some sort of retail disk for Vista,
because all versions come on the retail disk. The OEM disk is a single
version. Is that correct - you bought a retail version? It's the product
key that determines what version is installed. I'm guessing you didn't have
the product key and selected Home Premium installing that without a product
key.

If it's a retail version as I surmise and you have proof of purchase you can
contact MS through this KB article to get another product key.

How to Replace Lost, Broken, or Missing Microsoft Software or Hardware
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326246

If it's OEM, though I don't see how that can be, you need to contact the
vendor from which you bought it.

FYI next time don't ask you new question as a reply to someone else's
thread. Start a new thread with your issue.

 

[Guest]

Rock- Thanks for your reply. My Dell XPS 410 came with Vista Home Premium
installed,and an installation disk Using the internet to MS I purchased
Vista Ultimate. MS downloaded to my computer what was needed to install
Vista Ultimate. The sound on the Ultimate failed "no sound device installed"
Otherwise the Ultimate worked well, I thought that a clean boot would
reinstall Vista Ultimate with sound . Instead, using the installation disk
that came with with Dell XPS( but with no Key
anywhere on that disk). Instead Home Premium installed. Using Produkey.exe a
key number was produced, but when I tried to upgrade to Ultimate again, the
KEY was rejected as the wrong key, I will appreciate ANY further
suggestions. Thanks
MelvinShoul

 

[Rock]

Rock- Thanks for your reply. My Dell XPS 410 came with Vista Home Premium
installed,and an installation disk Using the internet to MS I purchased
Vista Ultimate. MS downloaded to my computer what was needed to install
Vista Ultimate. The sound on the Ultimate failed "no sound device
installed"
Otherwise the Ultimate worked well, I thought that a clean boot would
reinstall Vista Ultimate with sound . Instead, using the installation disk
that came with with Dell XPS( but with no Key
anywhere on that disk). Instead Home Premium installed. Using Produkey.exe
a
key number was produced, but when I tried to upgrade to Ultimate again,
the
KEY was rejected as the wrong key, I will appreciate ANY further
suggestions. Thanks

I'm getting a better understanding though I don't know if I can really help
here. When you bought Ultimate from MS was it the Anytime Upgrade version?
If so I'm not familiar with that other than you should have a digital locker
with a file in it for reinstalling Ultimate, but I believe the qualifying OS
needs to be installed first. I'm not sure of the whole process with the
Anytime Upgrade so maybe someone else will jump in here.

If it wasn't the Anytime Upgrade what was it? A boxed retail version?

As to reinstalling Vista Home Premium, yes when you used the Dell disk then
it installed Vista Home. Again I'm not familiar with the method Dell uses,
but for XP those recovery versions were BIOS locked so no key was needed.
Whether that's the same with Vista again maybe someone else will jump in
here.

I am not familiar with Produkey.exe, but Google shows it's a utility to show
the installed product key. Ok there are a variety of utils that do this. I
thought at first it was some sort of key generator. In any event, what key
did you use the first time you upgraded to Ultimate? Where did you get that
key? Did you not have to enter anything?

If this is the Anytime Upgrade you might want to contact MS tech support for
that and find out the procedure for reinstalling.

Also you could contact Dell tech support for info on how to properly install
Vista Home Premium.