Windows XP and Vista Product Key Recovery

try xp key checker is free and works like a charm

pls i need a product key for Microsoft windows vista home premium.

I read somewhere that OEM systems use a common key so they can install windows on many machines at once. Also, the key supplied with the re-installation disk is different so the disk will not take the “common” key. If this is true you should mention it in your article. Someone with a lost key might use their OEM disk only to find they no longer have a working machine when the problem might only be a bad virus or something else fixable.

I had used vista operating system before. Again i want to install it to the same system. I have original CD & product key. But i forgot my earlier user name which i had gave to first time installation. Please advice me how i can install vista again? Thank you

When using LoadHive.exe with NTUSER.dat under Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > Current Version, there was no DigitalProductID in the right window to double-click on.
So I was able to find & retrieve DigitalProductID in the right window by looking in the registry @ HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion. I then used your Decryptor tool and it was a success. Thank you PB

Thank you to much!!! werry good tuttorial!!!

I need a product key for Microsoft windows xp home edition

http://www.whatsmypass.com/getkey-3-0
getkey worked for getting the key and it even tells you what type of CD product key was used to install (like oem,msdn,retail key) so you know which CD type to use to reinstall windows

Mine problem discovering installation drom XP, Vista, win 7 CD/DVD

http://techie-buzz.com/tips-and-tricks/find-windows-xp-product-key-from-installation-disc.html

Oh My God! You can get the window XP key from C drive itself! Dont waste your time using softwares….Just copy paste this link in your explorer browser on top..or browse through this link to access the file. You will find the XP key under [UserData]

C:\WINDOWS\system32\$winnt$.inf

The Windows 25-character Product Key is stored on the CD packaging on a bright orange sticker
that says “Do not lose this number.” If it was an factory installed license, it’s stored on a label that the PC manufacturer affixed to the exterior of the PC case, or on the bottom of a laptop.
If you can’t find your product key, Password Genius will help you solve this problem easily.
Check it out: http://www.password-genius.com/how-to/how-to-recover-my-windows-xp-product-key.html

This tool is excelent, it only lacks the ability to copy paste the key that is generated from the code… )))))))))))

http://www.whatsmypass.com/getkey-3-0
can get local off offline product key of windows or office

easier fix …. if you can not boot into the machine use an external drive connection and extract ’software’ hive located here: \%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software (from non booting machine) (usually C:\System32\config\software (no extension))

use a program from nirsoft called ProduKey from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Run the program with admin rights
Click File -> select source -> use select procuct code from extrenal registry hive and browse to where you extracted the software file to -> click ok -> and you have your keys from the system remote hard drive…..
If you can boot into windows then run the program and it will extract the codes (along with office codes)

ran this process on a non bootable machine and was able to load in windows Vista and Office 07 again

Hi
There’s also a software that does this at http://www.password-genius.com/how-to/how-to-recover-my-windows-xp-product-key.html.The advantage is that it can even find out your Windows system CD Key when your Windows can’t startup.Also, This software will find many other keys like office XP, office 2007 and more .
Hope this can help you!

thinkinking of writing a VB prog but cannot understand the algorythm to decode. Ionce knew this but the years dont help

I forgot to say also your real answer is magicjellybean key finder
open source no trojans etc

I cannot remember what file you have to scroll down in it

hi frends ,i’m gettingi notice in my pc dat is “you may b a victim of software encounerting pls tel me if u have 25 digit key word for windows xp crack..pls send me ur valuable suggesions and solutions to me pls its my humble request mail me at
venkatjdm@in.com

You are too cool. What a great tool and service. Followed
directions exactly and found the key on a free bee 40G drive.
It was OEM ver and nothing in ntuser.dat, but found in
sys32/con fig/software.

Nice tool…
I wondered if the first couple of numbers count as 0 or 1 in the 52 to 66 count reference…

Anyway, I’ll extract two sets and see which one is the good… tnkz!

Hi,

My problem is like this. I have a HP dv3510nr with VISTA HOM PREMIUM OEM. It crashed for some reason and i can’t get it to recover. I tried to recover from the RECOVERY PARTITION, but it didn’t work. I tried reinstalling Vista from the recovery partion but it stops at the completion stage.

I even tried to install from another VISTA INSTALLATION CD, and the same thing happens. It stops at completion stage.

Can anyone help me out ? Please inform if we need any other details.

thanks
Greg

I cant believe this frekin worked!!!!!! Iv been sitting here for hours trying to fig this out! A couple of beers later and a stroke of luck on the search engine and I GOT IT! Cant thank you enough!!

i need a window vista product key

For those having problems finding the DigitalProductID I have found an alternate place to find it.
After loading they SOFTWARE hive you can find the key at HLM > SOFTWARE_00 > Microsoft > Internet Explorer > Registration
This location also has the ProductId which can help you identify which disc was installed.

joel to solve ur permission issues right click on the loadhive.exe program and click run as administrator.
my problem is i can’t find the ‘digitalproductID’ in the current version folder. any help?

I’m running into permission issues when trying to open using the loadhive. Does anyone have a work around? my hard drive in my laptop won’t boot, but I can see the data if connected as a usb drive.

Ok, guess it’s just getting late. I went over it one more time and got it. Thanks a million!

I could not find the ntuser.dat file on a Windows XP Spanish installation. I have the sectors and would like to know when the instructions are to get the numbers in bytes 52 to 66, what sector is it referencing. There are several sectors with position 52 to 66 in each sector. Which sector should I get the numbers to decrypt?

I have followed the procedures outlined (Now run regedit. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE you will notice a new sub-key called NTUSER. Starting with NTUSER go to Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > Current Version.

In the right window, double-click on DigitalProductID)I don’t see the DigitalProductID. Any suggestion?

very thank you!

Thank you.

Had to redo my bosses old computer after a little “accident” he had and OF COURSE he did not have any CDs with the cursed thing.

This worked like a charm and quickly as well so thank you again

aarrghhh u ppl actually working so hard to get your pc running GO TO A TORRENT AND GET XP PRO IT WORKS THERE ARE 1000 TORRENT on windows or go get a disc from u friend i use an xp pro that 3 freinds use it works fine only vista has problen with single keys use on 2 pc !!!!

I’ve followed the steps but DigitalProductID isn’t showing up. Any ideas????

To find what version of XP you have, you will need to navigate to the following registry key:
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Installations\x86_Microsoft.Tools.VisualCPlusPlus.Runtime-<some numbering>\Codebases\OS\
and look at the “Prompt” key.

I’m also still wondering about that algorithm, anyone?
I’ve tried searching about but all I could come up with is that some German group discovered and leaked the algorithm but I can’t seem to find it!

I’m a computer tech and have to recover dozens of Key from customers ruined hard drives.

I can confirm that this tool works for Win XP, Win Vista, Office ‘07 and Office ‘03.
It’ll probably work for older versions of Office and probably for Win 7 when it’s released.

This tool is invaluable to me but one thing I really hate is that you can’t copy and paste the resulting CD Key into something like a text file for easy printing ad reference.

I also would really love to know the algorithm for the decrypting so that we can integrate it into some diagnostics software we use.

Thanks,
Nathan

hi i dont get any of this my windows xp needs validating and i dont have a key im only 13 so im not exactly a tech specialist and i dont know what to do
i have 4 days left for activision can anyone help me out

I read through some of the comments and a few people asked if there was a way to determine the type of install, ie OEM, Retail, Volume. Well the answer is simple. Load the system hive and once it is loaded, navigate to the Setup key, and then the Pid key. There you will fine a String with a value that tells you the install type. Its 8 digits long. The last 3 digits tell you the install type. OEM is OEM. 000 or 335 is Retail. 270 is Volume License. I hope this helps someone.

I first tried the first method from a USB thumb drive having downloaded the stand-lone program as well as the hive program to the USB and using Bert’s PE (after trying with Winternals) to access the program hive and then use Regedit. Still I did not see the DigitalProductID in the right-hand pane. I saw nothing at all. Then I went to the second method under the Software_00 and had the same result – no right-hand pane. It was not until I connected the problem drive into a working machine that I was able to see the right-hand pane and then to find the DigitalProductID and only under the software_00 not the first method.

Many thanks for such a great program. I tried many ways to find that damn number for the XP install, but only this method worked.

OK, the XP CD doesn’t have a working key on it. It might have something like a working key if you have an OEM installation CD from Dell, but it won’t be YOUR key. This works perfectly. If you need to pull data off another drive, use the Load Hive command, and you can find it under the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CONFIG\SOFTWARE key. It usually works for me. Thanks for the wonderful solution. Anyone know if this works on Windows 2000? Silly I know, since it doesn’t activate, but I was curious.

It is possible to retrieve your product key from a windows installation cd. Its called viewkey. You run the program and its limited to some windows OS and IE etc…..

You insert the CD/DVD and it will reveal the product ID and Product key

I wanted to find out, I was installing Windows XP SP2 on my PC and it replaced my OS of Media Center Edition 2005. So I carried on until it came to the point where I type in the Product Key. I have the product key on my disc but once I type it in it says “The Product Id you entered is not valid.” What must I do in this situation as I really need the installation to be successfull?

I would like to thank you for this ever-useful tip.

And I would like to report with ecstasy that, following a very similar method, one’s Microsoft Office key can also be extracted!

Just load the SOFTWARE hive from whichever machine you need it from, from \%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software
Then, select Microsoft > Office > 11.0 > Registration
OR Microsoft > Office > Registration if there is no “11.0″ subdirectory.

Finally, double click on “DigitalProductID” from the aforementioned registry entry and from herein do exactly as you would to extract your XP key (see way above for instructions).

I’m guessing that both Office and XP install keys use the same method of encryption, enabling this method to be applicable.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Hello.
Someone can tell me how can I figure out, using the windows Registry, which windows Xp have I installed?

Thanks

How can i copy the 15 bit code into the dagon program?

Worked like a charm, thanks so much

This was perfect! I was able to pull up the CD No problem! Awesome instructions! Finding this nugget of info was a God send for me since some r-tard at my office threw away the panel that had the COA on it.

Firstly, I’d just like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU for publishing this tutorial and the tools for finding the product key.
I’d just spent nearly 2 hours trying to find this information on the M$ website, with no luck whatsoever, their only solutions being to either call them with the sales voucher and COA or buy another copy… Totally unacceptable service in my opinion.
I repair, build and upgrade PC’s as a 2nd job, and I’m always coming across people with Windows installations that won’t boot. Most of the owners have either lost or damaged original Windows CD’s, and/or lost product keys which makes it very difficult to reinstall legitimately. Magicaljellybeans works well on working operating systems, but prior to finding this site, I had no alternative but to either sell them Windows or install Linux.

In response to QueenB’s questions,
from what I understand, you are trying to find the product keys for the programs that came with your computer, not Windows itself, am I right?
If that’s the case, then you need to use an older version of Magicaljellybeans or something similar… a quick Google of ” product key finder” should do the trick.

Admin: I don’t know how to retrieve the version using the key, but it’s easy enough to do with the product ID if you have access to the SOFTWARE registry hive or have a copy of i386\setupp.ini on the machine itself (huge assumptions aside). So that was my answer to Falcon – get the product ID beforehand.

Finally found a DigitalProductId using the trouble shooting information. Thank you very much.

I didn’t read all the posts, but this is a lifesaver… I slightly altered my method and thought I would share.

There is a bootable linux CD that will mount the ntfs filesystem and with some scripts will let you access the registry on a non-booting windows hard disk. Check it out at http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

I browsed on my friend’s drive to the correct place in the registry and pulled the hex code out without moving any files or other dirty stuff, dropped the hex code into the Dagon Design key tool and got the product key.

I would outline my method a little further, except that this is extremely advanced stuff IMO… people that think they are a pro should forget about it. Definately not geek squad level. I recommend my method for elitists only. With that said (no offense intended) if you can’t figure it out, you probably shouldn’t do it my way. Anyone else can feel free to write up something on it.

In response to the ‘Pro’ post 217: I wasn’t thinking straight either, you have to remember this is all hexidecimal, line 00 (in the example above) covers 8 bytes, line 08 covers 8 bytes…. so by the time you’re at line 10 you’ve gone through 16 bytes… by line 30 you’re looking at the 49th byte.

All:

I understand that this method is working 100% without having any problem using Decryptor Tool and I hope that there are lots of VB Script to find the XP CD KEY from DigitalProductID.

My Question is:

Is it possible to find the Decode the CD KEY from the “ProductID”
I mean using this “55274-640-8365391-23739″

If anyone can find a solution to the above mentioned mail me

prathaprabhutemp@yahoo.com

Aw heck… maybe I should just read the other comments huh.

I’m such a tool.

Dude…
Thx so much for this tutorial.
But: I think i am a pro, but it needs hours and different tries again and again by gettin´what you mean with “15″ characters.
A screenshot and the sentence “write the 15 letters from line 0030 10th letterpairs to line 0040 6th letterpairs” may help others too to understand what you mean.

Thx so much!

I have a different sort of problem. I had a hard drive from an old computer with a licensed copy of WinXPsp2, and I wanted to take that drive and install it on a second computer (as a dual boot) running linux.
Now, I can mount my WinXP drive as ntfs under linux and browse through the file system. I just don’t know how to find the 30-char hex string for the encrypted product key.
Any insights would be most helpful!

I just wanted to say thanks. I did what you said and it worked. I didn’t do everything though. I just went straight to the “regedit” and got the digitalproductid and verified it with what I know is the product id and it works. I’m just curious how you made the decryption tool. That thing is really cool. If you could let me know, I’m really interested.

So I’m not sure if this is possible without the system intact to produce some sort of hash? but i have the product-id which i’m hoping might be the same as the hex or binary you are extracting/decrypting with your current tool. I installed an OS over windows and wrote down the product-id not realizing it wasn’t the actual key….

the product-id is in the form XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX and seems to be all decimal

Sorry I must be dim, I don’t understand how to identify the numbers to enter into the decrypter. From the example I gather you need 15 sets containing 1’s. Thing is I only have 9. I take it that the 1’s are supposed to be in the main body of numbers where they are in pairs? Please help.

I tried this technique on a 7 year old XP Home installation.
Microsoft refused to activate an installation based on this number.
I also tried Magical Jelly Bean. It produced a completely different product key that Microsoft refuses to activate as well.
What is going on?
The motherboard of this machine died and has been changed. Is my Windows “BIOS-Locked”?

I used this to get my XP product key.

What I am interested in is the mathematics behind your decryption tool, can you explain the algorithm for converting the numbers in the DigitalProductID to the valid product key?

Thank you.

First, thanks a lot. I found this entry a pair of moths ago when I was desperate for the situation. This method solve my problem!!!

Personally, I prefer to boot with a Windows livecd instead of mount the drive in another computer. Avoids to get mixed up with hardware unnecessaryly.

Finally, I want to ask your permision to translate the article to spanish (I understand english better than I wrote) Please!

>i need to find out the product key of my windows 64x before i install it is this possible?<

Hey, I see the discussion has shifted to windows vista, so sorry for this, but i have an xp installation question.
i have 3 dell computers that are running windows xp, all oem, 2 pro, 1 home. i want to format and clean reinstall the xp home on the comp running it, but accidently tossed that cd, so am just left with two pros.
since i can’t reinstall the xp home without the cd, i’m thinking of just installing one of the dell oem xp pro cd’s on the dell currently running xp home. would this work? i have read that dell oem doesn’t require activation? all 3 comps have totally different configs…could i use the COA from one of the comps running the xp pro? any ideas? and no, i don’t know anyone with a dell oem home xp cd. also, one of the xp pro cd’s has no service packs, the other has service pack 2. thank you!

Excellent app and instructions, I would include in the instructions that if the key you finally retrieve doesn’t work for your repair/install then try with an upgrade version of the OS install disk (eg. Orange key vs new key)

i tried it and it froze my comp and corrupted the HD woohoo i am sure that is a bad thing… but i am stuck now buying a new version of xp pro i am sure it would have worked on a healthy drive.. thanx

Jimbo, Vista product keys are in a different format. Vista beta builds, RC’s and possibly even some early production releases of vista used the old XP format for DigitalProductID, but later releases use a new format and there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the web who has decoded it yet.

This tool is worked well, while there was no need to run loadhive.exe to see or decrypt the DigitalProductID bytes.
Please, explain the steps/procedure for decrypting the DigitalProductID bytes manually

I have found the correct hive and loaded it successfully, but the product ID from the foreign hive and the product ID from my local machine’s hive are coming up the same, I have not tried loading it onto a third machine to see if results are the same. Any ideas on whats going on? I am pulling the bytes depicted in the picture, not the ones mentioned in the instructions.

I mean, you do log these decodes, don’t you

Will this work on Windows 2000 Pro? If not, what would?

Thanks.

OMG!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH.
see it all started out my friend got a laptop (used) and he forgot his password. so i thought it was going to be a simple password disk thingy but it didnt work. so i eventualy decided to get my copy of windows and reinstall it on his computor all was well and good untill it asked me for the code and i didnt have the sticker thingy with the code so i tried EVERYTHING and it wouldnt work so i found this article and eventually i got it so thank u . U SAVED MY LIFE !!!! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH U GUYS ARE THE BEST

That’s amazing! Thank you so much, worked first time! I thought my key was lost for good.

there is noting on the "Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > Current Version", but i fund "Software > Microsoft > Internet Explorer > Registration"... and it gave me my product key... but my problem still is to activate the windows (XP home)...

Great Tools to recover XP Key! In order to recover the XP key without removing the hard drive, I ran loadhive.exe and xpkeydecrypt.exe from ‘inside’ the ’shell’ created by BartPE V.3.1.10a! I needed to use the software hive to get a valid DigitalProductID, however this worked great! For all that are interested, BartPE can be created on a bootable CDROM. Check out
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/. This ’solution’ of course assumes that the ‘broken’ XP machine will boot from the BartPE CDROM. I hope that this helps…Vaughn !:-) PS – In order to run XPKeyDecrypt.exe from the BartPE CDROM it was necessary to copy the file msvbvm60.dll into the same directory that contained XPKeyDecrypt.exe. (Also, BartPE is useful for ‘operating’ on ‘broken’ XP systems that will not boot to Normal mode or Safe mode!)

No matter which ntuser.dat file I try. I get the following message.
” The system has attempted to load or restore a file into the registry, but the specified file is not in the registry file format”

Please help

Solution to missing DigitalProductID. Use Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0 Beta 2½ (at http://www.magicaljellybean.com/beta/). For those wanting to retrieve their keys from another hard drive, you just select ‘Load hive’ from the ‘Edit’ menu, then navigate to the WINDOWS directory on the hard drive in question. That’s it!

(To the author, I’m SO sorry for posting this here because your efforts are to be highly commended. I reluctantly posted this because I–& apparently others–struggled with this problem. So please delete this post if it’s inappropriate. Thanks for all your hard work!)

OKay, So here’s my problem. I purchased windows vista home premium and used it to upgrade my dell from xp to vista. then from that i purchased a new comp. case and motherboard. Not knowing I had to reinstall windows vista (due to significant hardware change), i had already thrown out my old dell case (which had the vista product key sticker on it). SO now i have Vista installed on my computer (un-activated) and time running out. The ntuser.dat from my previos windows vista installlation is in a windows.old folder however when i try to run loadhive.exe it tells me the ntuser.dat (old one with my product key) is already in use. HELP

The DigitalProductId wasn`t in the ntuser.dat-file so I opened the file from the \%SystemRoot%\System32\config\software root. Now I could find the DigitalProductId but when installing XP it says “Your product ID is invalid”. I did decrypt it What also concerns me, is that the DigitalProductId doesnt change after I close the Loadhive program even after refresh in the registry. It`s not even the DigitalProductId of the computer I installed my hard drive.

Well, your eg has a counting error. Hex-Decimal & year-Zero.
Year-Zer0:
1st Byte= 0000Hx vs. 1 dec.
0030Hx=48dec= 49th Byte.
So your GRAPHIC shows from 0034=52= 53rd Byte,
and shows 0042=66= 67th Byte.

But text says “Byte 52-66″.

Web DeCrypt tool:
This gives a frame shift of 1 Byte.
Every other Byte is null (00), so mine starts
with 0034=53rd= 74Hx, or 0033=51= 52st= ooHx.

Your tool gives Prod IDs for BOTH.

Would you clarify please? -Carl,Columbus OH

Interesting Read. This was very helpful. Thanks.

Also, in response to Petty Problems comments…..There are three types of Windows XP product keys: Retail, Corporate, and OEM. Retail is the type you buy from the store. Corporate is for volume license customers. OEM is the copy that is preinstalled on computers (These have a Windows license sticker on the side of the case). Each type of license has a different installation CD. There is a very very tiny difference on each type of disk (Three characters to be exact) that will only allow that installation disk to accept one type of product key. So make sure you are using the proper disk to reinstall your copy of Windows to accept your valid product key.

Very nice work. My recovery disks have died and I had to put a “copy ” of XP on this old machine for the misses while im away cuz she dont speak Linux. I aways thought that I could use my own Product Key in any copy of XP but it was not accepted so I had to use a not so genuine key. Is there a way of replacing my original key in the bytes 52 to 66? of course it would mean doing the reverse decrypting to your excellent tool. Is there a tool to do this already that you know off. Thanks again for this great bit of knowledge and tooling you rock!!

You are too cool. What a great tool and service. Followed
directions exactly and found the key on a freebee 40G drive.
It was OEM ver and nothing in ntuser.dat, but found in
sys32/config/software. Thank you again from an 70 year
old geezer (an thats what you call a 70 year old-time geek)
Doug

My NTuser.dat file didn’t have the DigitalProductID key, but the Windows/system32/config/software file did. Everything looked fine and such, I retrieved a key, tried inputting it into a Windows install screen… and it said the key was invalid.

I run (ran, rather) Windows XP Professional Edition. I don’t know if caused the problem, or not.

I got the product key code, but I don’t think it is right. I am going to continue to try to find my cd case with the product id on it.

I don’t uenderstand what numbers I am looking for one I get into the digital product id. Can you help me?

I bought a new computer without an Operating system. I tried to install Windowxs XP Pro x64. The problem is the key on cd is not readable and I can’t complete installation. i also have windoxs XP Pro and I want to install that instead but The computer keeps trying to make me complete installation of x64. How can i bypass x64 so i can install XP Pro?

What I really would like to know is the Math behind the source code, not the source code itself. I have found several different examples of source code on the net but can’t figure out the math. Each of the encrypted bits represents two places in the product key but how is it done? There is a divided by 24 statement and a MOD statement. I will keep at it.

Your code works with VISTA. Good Job. Would like to learn more about how MS encrypts this Product Key. Would like to see the source code.

This worked brilliantly. I was able to recover my Product number
many thanks to Matt

Falcon4: (re comment 113) http://wiki.DjLizard.net/Product_IDs

Version 2.01 beta of the Magical Jellybean Finder will find out what version of XP you are using. And other things, too.

Oy… doesn’t really help, I can get this functionality with much less hassle using Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder (which can load remote hives automatically too). What I don’t have though is the ability to figure out what type of installation it is – OEM, VLM, or Retail! So I’m sitting here with a code from a trashed Windows installation, not knowing if the person had OEM, VLM, or Retail on there. The only way I’m isolating it is by trying to install each one, then punching the code into it when it asks. So far I know it’s not OEM, not Retail, so that leaves only one.

But without the two hours of repatative, unnecessary work, how could I tell what type of code it is? I know these things can be decoded – I saw someone’s CD key writeup on how they work, but it’s rather complicated. Can’t someone write something like that into their program?

I decided to test this by copying ntuser.dat from a friend’s computer but I encountered a problem. There were 6 ntuser.dat files on the computer ranging in size from 768 Bytes to 8704 Bytes. I wasn’t sure which one to select so I decided to copy all to my flash drive to take them back to my computer to complete the rest of the steps. All but the largest copied properly but each time I tried to copy the largest one I encountered an error message that copying couldn’t be done because the file was in use by another program. I suspect the largest file was the one I needed because that is the one you recommend that users select when there is more than 1 although someone suggested that the oldest ntuser.dat is the correct choice. I do know the method is intended for “dead” computers but is there a problem testing it with “live” ones that are booted to Windows?

You’re all full of baloney. Use Keyfinder151.Zip (exe) Download, extract the zip, run it and you’ll have the key in about half a second. Works on ‘95,’98, 2000, XP, and vista.

i have original windows xp disc but lost my product key due to this i have trouble to install this. so plese tell how to find product key from windows xp disc.

Phone Microsoft they will be able to help you.

If the key is not on the cd, what does it validate the number you type in to, to make sure that it is valid?

I am trying to recover the key to windows XP like in your article.I found the digitalproductid after doing your trouble shoting measure. I loaded the Software_00 hive. I do not see a pattern with 1111’s in it
my text is something like this.
a4 00 00 00 03 00 00 00
37 36 34 37 37 2d 4f 45
and so on
I could not find the the KEY under the user.dat when I loaded it
COuld you help me out?
Thanks
Dave

I have Windows XP Pro (full version). It’s never been opened, but I lost the product key. How do I get the key?

P.S. It hasn’t ever been installed.

Brilliant – of course with OEM the Key should be stuck to the PC but for action pack and damaged stickers, it is easy to lose track of which key on which box – just follow the instructions to the letter and it works! (look for the oldest *user*\ntuser.dat

worked for me thanks a lot a will remember this site keep up good work

I tried this after replaceing my motherboard on my m1300 tablet but the key given does not work. I tried calling Microsoft but they disconnected me three times now. It did give me my code key just will not activate my O/S ?? what di i do ?
Thanks

i’ve loaded the ntuser.dat file but it dosen’t show the DigitalProductID in the right pane of the regedit. Any idea what’s wrong? Deeply appreciated.

if anyone figures it out it be much appreciated email me at grymtt@yaho.com

That’s what I figured just wanted to double check. Although I thought I could repair MCE with Pro SP2 since MCE reports itself as Pro SP2 (its just modified Pro). However your right it probably is some sort of key mismatch and it won’t except keys of either type, I guess I’ll just have to find an OEM MCE disk. (Should have made an OS backup).

I have a copy of Windows XP MCE OEM that I had installed, however a recent bout of spyware rendered some of the system files unusable. I have tried to do a repair install with a Windows XP SP2 Pro disk (original OEM MCE disk is missing) however when I enter the MCE Product Key it comes back with an invalid product key message. Also, when I try to enter the SP2 Pro key it comes back with invalid key. The screen that requests the key is titled “XP Professional Upgrade”, if it is trying to “upgrade” the mce install I don’t see why the SP2 Pro key would not work. Could there be some type of version mismatch, or could the spyware have somehow corrupted the registry on the MCE installation (i am able to load the hive and check the key is valid)? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Well.. I thought maybe ‘Windows Genuine Advantage’ tool had taken additional steps to extract more money out of me, but, after restoring the Acer OEM XP Home disks (they are a password protected norton ghost set, without WGA) to a spare partition, I find that there is still no DigitalProductID under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>NTUSER>SOFTWARE>MICROSOFT>WINDOWSNT>CURRENTVERSION

This being the case these instructions can’t be correct for all OEM versions of windows.

If anyone knows what’s up with the Acer, and as someone else noted their Dell laptop Windows install missing the DigitalProductID, but yet still otherwise completely working with WGA, let me know. Cheers

I too have a laptop (Acer) hard disk attached via USB. The problem appears that there is no DigitalProductID in the specified location. There’s only one DigitalProductID and that is under ‘Internet Explorer’ somewhere else in the NTUSER hive (it’s also not encrypted).

I assume that this laptop was running XP Home Acer OEM.. I kinda need the CD key so I can reinstall onto a new PC (snapped the damn laptop in half .

Anyone know where else this CD Key might be hiding?

For those with problems sorting out which disk type you are using, example: OEM, retail, academic, VLK etc., have a look at this site http://wiki.djlizard.net/Product_IDs

I was saying if the worst was to happen, like a drive crash.
Just wondered if the CD had any thing that could be dragged out. I do build and set up PCs and I have tried to swap the keys it does not work and it also reject one wrong character. in computer properties the ID is converted back to the old windows style (eg.95) this tells me there must be a batch of IDs for types of Windows. So there must be a file to convert,say the first “M” to say a “4″ the next “M” (may be say the seventh character in the key may be a “9″ I find that in my computer properties the key has 20 digits what happens to the extra five charaters in the product key? There must be some covertion file find it is the hard part and work it out. What was that batch file in the resource kit
where you could instaal windows abd skip the need to be ey the PC.

Is there a key finder that can find the key in the set-up cd. You are stuck if the drive packs up and you lost the key or forgot to write it down when you change the PC case. If the label was stuck on it.

I’m sorry, I didn’t explain the circumstances. I was defragging the drive and I wanted to include the virtual memory in that. T do that you have to turn off the paging file altogether and then reboot. It was on the reboot that I got the message to re-enter an activation code. I can’t find the disk and don’t know the code, but once I’m in I have a work-around.

Hello…i just wanted to say,that i dont have a 15 sets in a digital code..I found only 14 numbers with num. 1 ..So i cant decode product key.. (

Hello, this is what I’ve been looking for! Except… I don’t find any digitalProductIDs in the reg. I’m working with a removed laptop HD hooked up via USB (another crap Toshiba as it so happens). I’ve looked in every user account, and in the “software” hive, and in every one all I see under WinNT/CurrentVersion is one key – name “(Default)”, type “REG_SZ”, data “(value not set)”. i do see productID for working XP installation.

There is no Owner or User account; there is an Administrator, All Users, Default User, and a few people names. The All Users ntuser.dat file, however, loads with loadhive no problem but in regedit gives the error “Cannot open NTUSER: Error while opening key.” I checked ownership but it was the same as all the others. Could this be the one with the elusive productID? Oi vey! Any ideas?

I had a dell and a toshiba laptop, same xp version.
since toshiba doesn’t came with a OS disc, if I want to format the toshiba, can I use the dell OEM disc to do so and type my toshiba cd key in?

Hmm very strange indeed.
On the product key on the side of the Case it does say Dell OEM? Either way it should be fine. Any OEM key “should” work with any OEM disk. The disc you mentioned is definately an OEM Dell Home XP disc. But you say when You try to use that disc with a key from the side of the Dell computer it doesnt work? Very strange.

Ok. This is where I start pulling out old discs and and testing with other stuff. I dont know if you are a tech or just ”
the friend that knows about computers” I would take an OEM “gold” disc and use it. A real OEM xp disc from MS not one from dell.
****disclaimer****
I dont know the legalities of this but I do it when all else fails.

I have a list of a billion product keys (google groups) and I’ll use one to get the product installed. This DOES NOT defeat Windows Genuine Validation, Or make it a cracked copy etc…

Then when You get it all up and running its going to ask you to activate. Then you’ll try to activate over the internet and it’ll crap out and tell you to call MS… Blah Blah.

Then you call them and theyll harass you about what type of computer and what is the product key from the side of the computer. Give it to them and they’ll give you the unlock key. You arent doing anything wrong or bad or illegal. The software is yours.

K Im going to bed. To many martinis at Roy’s. Lemme know if you need more help. If you want to do this completely “by the book” you should call dell and see whats happening in India these days….

I am new to this site but you guys are rock! Thanks to the Owner and all those who have helped me

Thanks solohelp for your help. This is a great site.
If you don’t mind, let me just share an experience with you all.
I went to a freinds work where he has about 5 dells that he uses. One of them had crashed
and he did not have the time for me to fix all the Boot.ini and nfts.dll and nftsdetects etc. etc.
So I figured sense he had 2 of the 5 dells branded windows xp pro on it. I would just reinstall it and use the key that was on the sticker.. In the back of my head though I kinda new something would not be right. When it got to the please insert 25 key message, I typed the key that was on the sticker of that pc. It did not work. I then tryed using every key that was on the back of every sticker in his office, same message. Wrong key/invalid key. I was using the dell windows xp os cd to reinstall it, there was nothing funny or “fishy” going on. He had lost the rest of the cd’s to the pc’s and did not know which one went to which one. I used the second disk (2of5 that he had) and ran to the same senerio. What gives?
Any ideas? I then tried placing a retail version of windows and using the key (by using a key retriever from a working computer) and got the same message.. Wrong key/invalid key.

Any thoughts on what was going on here?

Kind regards

Ghost

Hi, I was wondering…if someone has BAUGHT a computer from a store with windows xp (any version) and they have the sticker key on the computer can they get a copy of the same OS that is on there computer and intall it. The reason for this would be because the individual does not want all the extra garbage they throw in, in most computers now a’days.

In short will the key that is on the sticker of the computer work with a copy of the same windows they are using on there pc?

Also why when running a windows key retreiver (any of the many out there) does it show a diffrent number than the key that is on the sticker?

Kind reagards
Ghost

Sweet tool. This saved my bacon. My XP Home Upgrade cd was stolen. No biggie, right — I still had the box, which I knew had a Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) on it, and I had a backup of the CD.

One day my XP stopped booting and I thought ok I’ll just repair the install. So I did that with a backup copy of the CD. Then it prompted me for my Product Key, so I marched downstairs grabbed the box, and there was NO PRODUCT KEY ON THE BOX COA STICKER! WOW and DAMN.

It seems only the OEM CoA’s have a product key on the sticker (Likely because they are not sitting on the bottom of a retail box for everyone to see.)

Anyhow, I pulled the drive, stuck it in my external USB enclosure, ran your tool (had to load \WINDOWS\system32\config\software.sav, not any of the user.dats).

Now to see if I can use this code to complete my reinstall.

Thanks for making this decode available. Why the hell MS wouldn’t just store this in a string data type in the registry, I’ll never know. The encryption key has to be in the software on the machine, so it’s not like it’s any more secret than the algorithm used to encrypt it.

W

There is no product key “In” the disc. Its on the sticker. The disc is just media. If you lost the sticker or product key the disc by itself is usless. (which is why you can get a replcement from MS for between $5 and $20)

This is also why you can have only 4 discs and do pretty much an install you need to. OEM Pro and Home and Retail Home and Pro.

OEM product keys are different than Retail product keys and the discs are not interchangeable. So you can install with a retail disc and use an OEM product key.

hope that helps

Do you have the decryter available for “Offline Use”. It worked great but I’d love to be able to use it offline on my laptop since when I am working on a system I am sometimes where there is no “Online” connection available? PLEASE!!!

WOW thanks for this wicked tool!

I know this is off topic, but I have a machine that will not boot into windows.
A “setup entry key detected” error appears very briefly after exiting BIOS and nothing after that, just blank screen.
I can F8 into boot options but also blank screen after selecting option.
It seems as if something is preventing windowsXP from booting.
Would appreciate any help Thanx

I have located the digitalproductid but on the 2 machines that i have looked at both of them have 00 located in the appropriate spots.
I can see the productinfo numbers located at the begining of the code. Any help would be appreciated

I tried to use your method to unblock WinXP Pro. The hive program worked, but when I used Regedit I found that in Current Version I didn’t have a digital product key , just AB default Reg_SZ Value not defined. What can I do??

Hey,

Yeah I do not trust this, you could easily be stelling people’s cd-keys when they run this mug. And you just found a way to do, in which people would think your honest because it looks like it.

Maybe it’s just me. You should instead allow the user to download the source code and run it on his own.

cya,

Will

I followed instructions and the product key appeared instantly. Thanks,Maurie.

Care to post the source code for your PHP XP Key decrypter?

Cheers!

Jon