Extracting the cd key from the registry

6 November 2002 by Snakefoot | Comment » | Trackback Off
The cd key is stored as clear text in Windows 9x and Windows NT4, but newer versions of Windows and Office encrypts the cd keys a little.

To help decrypting the cd keys, then one can use the following utilities:

Updated: 8 December 2007

Comments:

Comment by Pedro - 15 February 2003 @ 6:58 Reply

i wus Wondering what happens Once my Activation expires..?? 30 days Over..?

Comment by snakefoot - 15 May 2003 @ 7:29 Reply

Pedro
i wus Wondering what happens Once my Activation expires..?? 30 days Over..?

I believe that after the 30 day grace period WinXP will stop booting normally.

After this point you will have to boot into safemode(press F8 at startup). In safemode you should still be able to activate your WinXP.

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

Comment by Johnno - 31 July 2004 @ 2:19 Reply

Do you know of any program whcih works in DOS to find the WinXP key? I have a damaged registry and cannot open WinXP, but need the key, as the owner has lost her WinXP Product Code

Comment by snakefoot - 1 August 2004 @ 2:22 Reply

Johnno
Do you know of any program whcih works in DOS to find the WinXP key? I have a damaged registry and cannot open WinXP, but need the key, as the owner has lost her WinXP Product Code

Don’t know how to extract the CD-Key without running the cd-key utility on the computer.

Have you tried to boot in safemode ?
Have you tried to use Last Known Good Configuration ?
Have you treid to use Recovery Console to restore the initial registry ?

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