How to tell the product by looking at the product key

  • Thread starter Thread starter Udaya
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Udaya

I recently took over IT functions of a small company. With this job,
I inherited a small bundle of Microsoft certificates of authenticity that have
been cut out from the original software packaging with no product name written
on it. The certificates have just the product key with no mention of
the product. Is there a way to tell what product it is by looking at
the product key?

This is bugging me as I cannot tally our installed software with
available licenses.

Thanks in advance.

Amar.
 
Usually under the product key there's a place where it
says serial number, it's 7 digits long. What you can do is
match up the serial number on the product key to the
computer. It might take a while but it's the fastest and
easiest way. The serial number that is under the product
key will be the same as a grouping in the product id. For
windows you find the product ID by right clicking on the
My Computer icon and selecting properties. It's the #
under "registered to." For other Products you'll click on
help, then about microsoft. If that doesn't work, call
Microsoft at 1-800-936-5700. If it's a retail copy, they
should be able to help as well.
 
Tara,

Thanks for your reply. The serial number I see on the certificate of
authenticity is 9 digits in all cases. The problem still is not
knowing the product that it belongs to. It's not practical for me to
go to 30+ possible machines and open up each Microsoft product in each
machine to compare serial numbers. I tried this with a few known
items (serial number of an installed Win 98 copy with serial number of
a win 98 certificate of auth.) and found no part of the serial number
matching what's in the certificate of auth.

I also called the phone number you provided and noticed that it's a
fee based support call. So that will be my last resort.

Any other ideas/MS E-mail addresses etc?

Thanks again.

Amar.
 
Tara,

Thanks for your reply. The serial number I see on the certificate of
authenticity is 9 digits in all cases. The problem still is not
knowing the product that it belongs to. It's not practical for me to
go to 30+ possible machines and open up each Microsoft product in each
machine to compare serial numbers. I tried this with a few known
items (serial number of an installed Win 98 copy with serial number of
a win 98 certificate of auth.) and found no part of the serial number
matching what's in the certificate of auth.

I also called the phone number you provided and noticed that it's a
fee based support call. So that will be my last resort.

Any other ideas/MS E-mail addresses etc?

Thanks again.

Amar.
Click to expand...

You could try the Belarc Advisor from http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

It's freeware for stand-alone systems, so you'd probably need a licence for
commercial use.....

One of the useful things it does is give this sort of data:-

Microsoft - Internet Explorer
55999-999-0779947-04999 (Key: R9D99-9DHG9-DQ99W-W9DXQ-999DY)

under Software Licences.

[No, that isn't a valid serial number or key - just an example!]

HTH

--
John Thow
an optimist is a guy/ that has never had/ much experience -
certain maxims of archie; Don Marquis.

To e-mail me, replace the DOTs in the Reply-To: address with dots!
 
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