Nakatomi2010 Posted December 1, 2005 Posted December 1, 2005 Is there a program out there that'll test XP keys and determine which version of XP it's for?I'm a tech at a local computer store and use tools to recover CD keys when we're not given it, and although we can determine which it's corporate, OEM, or Retail, it helps to know without hunting too hard, testing the key would also ensure we have the right one...Thank you...
cluberti Posted December 1, 2005 Posted December 1, 2005 Windows XP product keys themselves are not able to be decoded in any way, so you cannot look at a product key and determine it's matching product. You can use the setupp.ini file from the original disc to determine if the disc is a Home or Pro disc, but you can't take a key and determine whether it's a "Home" or "Professional" key. It is not possible without access to the database of keys, which none of us is likely to have .
Nakatomi2010 Posted December 1, 2005 Author Posted December 1, 2005 I'm not trying to find out if the key is a "Home" or "Professional" key, I'm trying to determine if the key is Retail, OEM, or VLM...
Synapse Posted December 1, 2005 Posted December 1, 2005 wish i had a solution to this, unfortunantly i do not. but as Nakatomi has said it would be nice to check what type of CD-Key it is.. especially considering all the versions of windows that are out there.I believe i read a post by you nakatomi on another forum in which if it was you, you asked the same question and the topic just got flamed to hell and back saying you were a pirate and what not.. but i do too see the advantage this would be.I've been looking everywhere for this same thing, and have yet to find a solution myself.. if you find a solution elsewhere would you post it here as well?
Nakatomi2010 Posted December 1, 2005 Author Posted December 1, 2005 (edited) **** straight.... closest thing I've got right now is a Corporate key tester... Or at least, I had one....But I don't want to test JUST corporate keys....Removed - Listed program is not appropriate for discussion on MSFN. Edited December 1, 2005 by Zxian
cluberti Posted December 1, 2005 Posted December 1, 2005 You can't, short of having a key generator. Even then, you can't be entirely sure of the results (although most generators are pretty good at being correct in determining). The keys for Windows aren't decodable (well, ok, key generators can do some of the work), so you'll have real trouble determining a retail vs VLK product key. I guess you could always run it through a key generator that does some checking on the PID that a key creates, but otherwise, I think you may be out of luck. You aren't supposed to be able to verify this info from the key itself, but you can get some info from the PID that Windows creates from the key (which is what the keygen is likely doing).
Zxian Posted December 1, 2005 Posted December 1, 2005 (edited) Program name removed. There is zero tolerance for keygens, cracks, patches, etc on MSFN. Please take this into consideration before posting.As for the original question, there is no legally available tool for what you want. You can find the key of your Windows installation with several freeware programs (Lavalys Everest for example), so discussion of that is fine.On a second note, why would you want to do this? If you have purchased your licence to Windows, you will get an appropriate key. If you don't know what the key is, then you didn't acquire it legally. (Meaning that this discussion is breaking MSFN Rule #1)Edit - On second thought... this is breaking rule number 1. Topic Closed Edited December 1, 2005 by Zxian
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