Entered Worng Product Key

[timmiller]

Hey all,
I just purchased a referb dell with Windows 2000 installed (legit with key).
I went to upgrade to XP Pro using an older legit cd I have, but I must have
written the key on the cd wrong because it's not working. I've tried all the
obvious typo mistakes and am up against a wall. This copy was registered a
few years ago- Is there a way to confirm the proper key?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hey all,
I just purchased a referb dell with Windows 2000 installed (legit with
key).
I went to upgrade to XP Pro using an older legit cd I have, but I must
have
written the key on the cd wrong because it's not working. I've tried all
the
obvious typo mistakes and am up against a wall. This copy was registered a
few years ago- Is there a way to confirm the proper key?

You get your "confirmation" by typing the key and having it accepted. If it
is rejected then it is not confirmed. There are two possible reasons why it
might get rejected:
- The key is incorrect, probably due to a transcription error, or
- The key belongs to a different type of Windows CD

If you believe that the key is correct then you can try and repeat the
installation with a number of different CDs borrowed from your friends:
Windows Retail (i.e. not "Upgrade") or perhaps Windows OEM (which would not
work for an upgrade from Win2000).

 

[timmiller]

Actually I believe it to be typed incorrectly. It was registered by me two
years ago with a system that I is no longer working. Is there a way to
retreive the correct key from MS possibly?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You can extract a product key from a working system with a number of tools,
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml being one of them. I don't
quite see what you mean with "Is there a way to retreive the correct key
from MS". Ring Microsoft, give them an incorrect key and ask them to give
you a correct key in return? Not very likely - this would defy the whole
purpose of the product key scheme.

 

[DL]

If you can provide proof of purchase of a retail version
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326246

 

[John John (MVP)]

If you still have the hard drive of the no longer working system, and if
it still contains the old Windows installation, you can extract the key
from the registry.

John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you still have the hard drive of the no longer working system, and if
it still contains the old Windows installation, you can extract the key
from the registry.

John

How do you do this with a Windows installation that no longer boots?

 

[John John (MVP)]

How do you do this with a Windows installation that no longer boots?

You need to find/extract a 15 byte sequence out of the DigitalProductId
Value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
and then you have to use a decrypting tool to convert it to the Product
Key. This guy has a decryption tool to do it and he explains which 15
bytes to retrieve out of the DigitalProductId value.
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/windows-xp-product-key-recovery/

You will note however that he seems a bit confused as to which hive to
get the DigitalProductId bytes from. He says to load an ntuser.dat
hive, but, unless he knows something that I don't, I have never seen
that information there, the information is in the
\%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software hive, later in his instructions,
in the "Troubleshooting" section, the author correctly points the
readers to the proper hive. Otherwise all of the instructions are
accurate and I can confirm that his online decrypter does correctly
decrypt Windows 2000 and Windows XP product keys (he says that it also
works with Vista). I haven't tried the download version of his tool but
being that the Web version works fine I assume that the download version
must also work properly.

John

 

[Daave]

You need to find/extract a 15 byte sequence out of the
DigitalProductId Value at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion and
then you have to use a decrypting tool to convert it to the Product
Key. This guy has a decryption tool to do it and he explains which 15
bytes to retrieve out of the DigitalProductId value.
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/windows-xp-product-key-recovery/

You will note however that he seems a bit confused as to which hive to
get the DigitalProductId bytes from. He says to load an ntuser.dat
hive, but, unless he knows something that I don't, I have never seen
that information there, the information is in the
\%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software hive, later in his
instructions, in the "Troubleshooting" section, the author correctly
points the readers to the proper hive. Otherwise all of the
instructions are accurate and I can confirm that his online decrypter
does correctly decrypt Windows 2000 and Windows XP product keys (he
says that it also works with Vista). I haven't tried the download
version of his tool but being that the Web version works fine I assume
that the download version must also work properly.

Very helpful, John. Thanks!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You need to find/extract a 15 byte sequence out of the DigitalProductId
Value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
and then you have to use a decrypting tool to convert it to the Product
Key. This guy has a decryption tool to do it and he explains which 15
bytes to retrieve out of the DigitalProductId value.
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/windows-xp-product-key-recovery/

You will note however that he seems a bit confused as to which hive to get
the DigitalProductId bytes from. He says to load an ntuser.dat hive, but,
unless he knows something that I don't, I have never seen that information
there, the information is in the \%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software
hive, later in his instructions, in the "Troubleshooting" section, the
author correctly points the readers to the proper hive. Otherwise all of
the instructions are accurate and I can confirm that his online decrypter
does correctly decrypt Windows 2000 and Windows XP product keys (he says
that it also works with Vista). I haven't tried the download version of
his tool but being that the Web version works fine I assume that the
download version must also work properly.

John

Nice. I tried the download version and it generated the correct key. If I
had written the tool myself then I would have included some code to extract
the registry information automatically. Perhaps the author will do this too
at some time in the future.

 

[Gotde T Shirt]

How do you do this with a Windows installation that no longer boots?

Produkey is a freeware tool that can do that, using its command line mode.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

 

[Xandros]

If you build the Ultimate Boot CD from here http://www.ubcd4win.com/ , boot
the system using it and run the keyfinder it contains you can reveal the
Product Key from non booting hard drives.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hey all,
I just purchased a referb dell with Windows 2000 installed (legit with key).
I went to upgrade to XP Pro using an older legit cd I have, but I must have
written the key on the cd wrong because it's not working. I've tried all the
obvious typo mistakes and am up against a wall. This copy was registered a
few years ago- Is there a way to confirm the proper key?

Not without looking at the original Certificate of Authenticity, no.
The Product Key isn't stored on the installation CD in any way, shape or
form.

You need to examine the Product Key very carefully. It's awfully
easy to mistake a "B" for an "8," a "G" for a "6," an "S" for a "5," or
a "Q" for a "0" or "O." Fortunately, Microsoft had the good sense to
leave the "1's," "I's," "O's," and "0's" out of the equation. Also, be
sure that your <CapsLock> is _off_ while entering the Product Key --
this isn't supposed to make a difference, but I've seen it do so, on
rare occasions.

Troubleshooting Invalid CD Key Error Message During Windows XP Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310637


--

Bruce Chambers

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