Search for ProductID in the registry.

Mario

I might be wrong, but from what I understand from Microsoft is that the License info is not editable in Win2K ... in other words you can't just search and replace the Product ID in the registry and expect it to work ...

Chris.

Try to change the valude of following regsitry settings:

\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Registration\ProductID

\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProductID

\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProductID

I have tried all the above and none of them work. At present there does not seem to be a way to change this.

Sorry to be the holder of bad news :(

Is your new product ID valid? Hmm, I don't think the ID can be changed in any sequence of numbers.

.. I was right!  Not a great effort on my part, but I was the closest! :)

Chris.

iirc sysprep (available for download from the microsoft website) deletes the product key. So, after running sysprep, you should be able to enter a different key.
Be warned, however, that Windows will lose some driver information. It will re-install drivers, which is said to fail sometimes (never had a problem with it myself though).

Correct me if i'm wrong, i do not have a win2k box availble for testing right now.

i have heard that during installation process W2K converts somehow this 5x5 characters to another value (like crypting) which can't be restored & registry only displays this crypted value

sysprep sounds like a good idea, i am going to try that later tonight, and i shall get back to you... thank you all for the advice!

Michael

alweber : how exactly do i use sysprep on win2k to remove the serial? i have downloaded the updated version of sysprep.

thanks for your help!! i increased it to 300 points =) but i have one last question... is there a way i can determine the version of win 2k? like OEM, RC3, upgrade, etc? or extract a serial number?

The Win2k version string which includes the build number can be used to identify the Windows version in detail. The version string is displayed in the "system" control panel and in most diagnose and information tools. These are the builds I know of:
5.00.2031: Beta 3
5.00.2072: RC 1
5.00.2128: RC 2
5.00.2195: Released version
The Service Packs add a suffix to the string, identifying the installed SP.
As for identifying the install method (OEM, clone, clean): I don't know of a reliable way to extract that information; however, there are some hints hidden in the registry:
If HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup holds a CloneTag, the installation is a clone that was prepared with sysprep. The Key also holds the command line used to install Windows 2000.
If a OemDuplicatorString is set, the installation probably was done by an OEM using an answer file for automated installation.
There should be information on how the installation was done; I'll look for it later as I'm finally going to get my Win2k machine back. :)
BTW: afaik the serial number cannot be extracted. After checking it while installing Windows, it is computed into a product id that cannot be calculated back to the serial number. The serial number itself is not stored in a reverse-engineerable form.