XP product key

[X86fun]

http://www.fixmyxp.com/content/view/166/40/

hey guys I realy shouldent post this but it worked for me when I tryed this many moons ago It was killing me if you all/guys knew this I cant stand M$ I had to call and stuff to get the Key because a guy I used to know gave me the XP Home CD it was his X wife's and he kicked her out ....lol... but anyway I had no product key so I called Nukerosoft gave them my info and I have key,,, Then one of a few days as XP was crashing I found this it pissed me off real bad I wanted to call Nukerosoft but they weir nice and asked no questions so I thought its not the guys fault I had customers yell at me and try even to fight me... over what the sale's rep told them... I realy did not want to be posting alot but I put this forum in with Ubuntu so I hit bolth sights in the AM and PM... So I like the forum and I see alot of people are in Jersey lol tell me if you guys knew about this .TXT file in the CD have a good one

[Dudeking]

Quality! Thanks :)

[Duplicate User]

I always use Magical Jelly Bean.

I think that's what you mean. :whistle:


Magical Jelly Bean (http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml)

[Dudeking]

Looks like that just finds the text file for you.
Nice little program :)

[PeteF]

http://www.fixmyxp.com/content/view/166/40/

I followed the procedure on two different PCs and got some unexpected results.

PC1
WinXP Home
HP Pavillion PC

* First I did a search on... unattend.txt
for drive C: and it found unattend.txt in C:\i386
containing a key code that is different than the one
on the case and different than the one in the registry.

Next I put in a WinXP Pro CD (Full MS version costing $300)
and repeated the procedure. This time it found unattend.txt
in an long list of subfolders under \My Documents....\i386

The key code was the same as the first search I did.

PC2
WinXP Pro
on custom built PC

* First search on drive C: found no file.

Then I put in the Win XP Pro CD (Full MS version costing $300)
and repeated the procedure. Thistime it found the unattend.txt
file but and the key is differnet from the key found on PC1
but it's still different from the key in the registry on PC2.

Very strange results.

----pete---

[Duplicate User]

Each cd doesn't have it's own key. The real one is the one in your registry.

[X86fun]

Jack.D.Ripper
Thats cool and all but I dont like useing or doing stuff that way.I guess I like doing thing's the hard way not useing any kind of .exe 's but if it works then cool...

PeteF

COOL so it worked for ya yea thats what I got too I just wanted to install XP and I needed the KEY so I done a search on google fix my xp
my this and my that

[Duplicate User]

COOL so it worked for ya yea thats what I got too I just wanted to install XP and I needed the KEY so I done a search on google fix my xp
my this and my that

Have you tried to activate yet, using that key?

[X86fun]

No*********** Jack

I'm sure it works just fine

[Guest117]

Each cd doesn't have it's own key.
:confused:
That rip'd me, Jack.
Of course each install cd has the key burned in it.
How else would it get into the registry?
I'm a little slow so be gentle.;)

Locate your Product Key using nothing more than your Windows XP Installation CD.:cool:

[Duplicate User]

:confused:
That rip'd me, Jack.
Of course each install cd has the key burned in it.
How else would it get into the registry?
I'm a little slow so be gentle.;)

Locate your Product Key using nothing more than your Windows XP Installation CD.:cool:
The cds are all the same and until you activate you don't have a unique key - the product activation label stuck on the back of the computer or in the cd box is a different set of numbers for each licence.
Try to activate through M$ without a COA and let me know what happens. I tried once or twice - no chance.

[RAK]

I fail to see in your post that you actually have a license to use this product. Unlike Ubuntu, Windows XP is a commercial program that requires users to purchase a license before they are entitled to enjoy its benefits. Many of us do not like M$, but few of us advocate stealing from them. I may be wrong, and if I am I apologize. But I would suggest that the moderators of this forum look at this thread and decide whether it is proper to continue it.

[Duplicate User]

I fail to see in your post that you actually have a license to use this product. Unlike Ubuntu, Windows XP is a commercial program that requires users to purchase a license before they are entitled to enjoy its benefits. Many of us do not like M$, but few of us advocate stealing from them. I may be wrong, and if I am I apologize. But I would suggest that the moderators of this forum look at this thread and decide whether it is proper to continue it.Well, the Magical Jelly Bean program [as in my post above] is all legal and above board - and has been around for some years with no objections from M$. All it does is retrieve your own key from the hard drive if you lose it. I can't see how the other program does anything worthwhile to be honest - let alone illegal. :rolleyes:

[edheitz]

http://www.fixmyxp.com/content/view/166/40/


Absolute BS advice. The key's not on the cd. It's on the COA label or pre-encoded in the computer hardware or BIOS (e.g. Dell). Once installed, it's in the registry too.

The unattend.txt file clearly states that it's a " Sample Unattended Setup Answer File".
So the product key shown is just a sample too.

For the heck of it I tried it with 2 XP pro cds I bought together, and sure enough they had identical product keys shown there, neither matching a label. An XP home upgrade cd had a different key in that file, but still not matching the label.

The only curious thing is why the search says the text file is in C:.... when it's on the cd. I couldn't find it on the cd using Windows explorer, but opening notepad and browsing with that found it easily on the cd in the I386 folder.
--edit-- nevermind, I just missed it. I had it sorted by type in groups and there was no "txt files" group after "tx_ files" where I looked, rather it was a few screenfuls up under "text documents". --end edit--

I've used the Magical Jelly Bean program mentioned before and also ProduKey from Nirsoft:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Produkey has been useful when I had to rescue a key from an unbootable drive, by slaving it to another computer and pointing the program at the windows folder on that drive (a command line option in ProduKey). I don't think Magical Jelly Bean can do that (though it's been awhile -- maybe it can now).

[PeteF]

For the heck of it I tried it with 2 XP pro cds I bought together, and sure enough they had identical product keys shown there, neither matching a label. An XP home upgrade cd had a different key in that file, but still not matching the label.


Right, that's what I found, the key in unattend.txt does not match the key
on label for the CD and it does not match the key in the registry either.

However, if you place the CD in different computer it comes up with
a totally different key. Again that key does not match what is in the
registry. So something weird is going on with this technique. I don't
know what would happen if you tried to use the key it comes up with
to actually install Win XP.

---pete---

[Duplicate User]

I don't
know what would happen if you tried to use the key it comes up with
to actually install Win XP.

---pete---It didn't work when I tried that. I just tried it as a test; I had to telephone M$ to activate who basically told me to buy a new one. :eek:

That's why I asked above if he had tried yet.

[PeteF]

It didn't work when I tried that. I just tried it as a test; I had to telephone M$ to activate who basically told me to buy a new one. :eek:

That's why I asked above if he had tried yet.

Ok, cool, so that means the entire tip about using the CD to extract
a keycode is bogus. As edheitz say.. It's absolute BS advise. :)

---pete---

[Duplicate User]

.....It's absolute BS advise. :)

---pete---I reckon so.

Maybe the differences you're getting are because of different versions of Windows?

[Guest117]

Informative discussion.
It rock'd me straight. (RockXP...another key finder and modifier)
Thanks.:)

[edheitz]

Right, that's what I found, the key in unattend.txt does not match the key
on label for the CD and it does not match the key in the registry either.

However, if you place the CD in different computer it comes up with
a totally different key. Again that key does not match what is in the
registry. So something weird is going on with this technique. I don't
know what would happen if you tried to use the key it comes up with
to actually install Win XP.

---pete---

I didn't get that behavior. I tried it with an xp pro oem cd and an xp home upgrade cd on 2 dell laptops and 2 very different homebrews. The 2 cds had diffeent keys in that file, but they were the same on all 4 computers as I expected. I don't have a full $300 version to try.

Oh, and forget what I said about Windows Explorer not seeing the file on the cd. I just missed it. I had it sorted by type in groups and there was no "txt files" group after "tx_ files" where I looked, rather it was a few screenfuls up under "text documents".

- Ed

[kern]

I fail to see in your post that you actually have a license to use this product. Unlike Ubuntu, Windows XP is a commercial program that requires users to purchase a license before they are entitled to enjoy its benefits. Many of us do not like M$, but few of us advocate stealing from them. I may be wrong, and if I am I apologize. But I would suggest that the moderators of this forum look at this thread and decide whether it is proper to continue it.

Seems the programs mentioned are simply to find a 'lost' product key, unless I missed something too....

[Dan18960]

Everyone does realize that Belarc's Advisor will give you ALL the product keys of all the software installed on a computer "right"?

I use it all the time to get Windows [and version] product key, office product key, and other software that has registration keys to enter.

Takes only a matter of a few minutes and you have an html page to save and/or print.

As for the unattend.txt file - it is simply a mask used to determine if you are using an upgrade version, oem version, or retail version. If you enter a product key for upgrade and are using an oem media - it tells you that you are using the wrong media (product key fails). The same is true of any variety of mixing and matching the media.

[Duplicate User]

Everyone does realize that Belarc's Advisor will give you ALL the product keys of all the software installed on a computer "right"?


Yep, there's a few others too - Everest does it too I think. The one I find the quickest and easiest is System Spec (http://www.alexnolan.net/software/sysspec.htm).

Magical Jelly Bean is handy for if you have to change the key for any reason though.

[alidabiri]

:confused:
...............
Of course each install cd has the key burned in it.
How else would it get into the registry?
..............

that is not true. the cd key is not burned on the cd. it's an algorithm that makes the key based on what's on your pc and so forth.
here's an article to decipher the key algorithm:
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt

[Guest117]

Very similar to the decimal encoding of the Installation ID the 25
characters of the Product Key form a base-24 encoding of the binary
representation of the Product Key. Decoding the Product Key yields a
multi-precision integer of roughly 115 bits, which is stored - again
in little endian byte order - in an array of 15 bytes.
Yes. Very interesting.
Thanks.:cool:

[dale@fcg]

program called siw is pretty cool-
http://www.gtopala.com/
all hw and sw info you could ever want from your system: licenses numbers, coa's, serial numbers of hw, type of hw (type of ram, free ram slots features great for determing what and how much more ram to buy), etc. It doesn't need installed; it runs from any disk (local, network, removable media).

[ThorXP]

:confused:
That rip'd me, Jack.
Of course each install cd has the key burned in it.
How else would it get into the registry?
I'm a little slow so be gentle.;)

Locate your Product Key using nothing more than your Windows XP Installation CD.:cool:

I beg to differ about the key being embedded in each of the install cd's. It is not and the proof is why do you have to enter the key when installing the OS? If it was embedded in the cd then you would not have to enter it. and you do not have to enter it to verify if the cd is valid the install process when authenticating does it for you. Microsoft has all of the illegal key codes on their site. Just think of the hassle making or burning the installation cd's if each one was different because it had a key code that was unique for that cd?

This may answer some of the questions:
Everything you always wanted to know about Windows Product Activation
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=506


If you need the key code for your disk out of the registry use this program SIW = http://www.gtopala.com/

[dale@fcg]

If you need the key code for your disk out of the registry use this program SIW = http://www.gtopala.com/
Hey, nice idea! ;)

[Duplicate User]

Hey, nice idea! ;)
Haha yeah I wish I'd thought of that one...http://www.smileypad.com/v224/Happy/Grin-Nod.gif