Matching COA's with Product ID's

I like the AIDA32 software. It is very slick.

Looks like AIDA32 is no longer available as the author has taken a management position: Lavalys Consulting Group, today officially announced that it has appointed effective January 1, 2004 former AIDA32 project leader, Tamás Miklós to its executive management team. Looks like the company has rolled his stuff into a software package they now sell...no longer freeware. I will search for a copy of AIDA32 and try it out. As well as Belarc.

I checked the registry to find that area you mention, MASQUERAID. In Windows 2000 it has ProductID which is the same ID that shows up when you right click MY Computer. It is this number that I am trying to match to the COA's Product number. Not sure if the Registry keeps this number or not. Would AIDA32 go deeper and extract the COA ID number?

AIDA32 here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=181&file=3&evp=e292483f0de3e518ff57fb57cf6eb944

Yes, that is that code that should match your COA.

Sorry the registry key doesn't work in 2000/XP you just get the Product Number (often part of this matches the number under the barcode on the COA).  I think AIDA32 will solve the problem but this freebie will specifically get the Product Key for your Windows installations:
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml.

Still looking to see if there's a way this could be deployed centrally...

Thanks, I have downloaded it and I also downloade a trial version of Everest (probably AIDA32). I will try them out.

RDAdams, what do you mean by above comment "Yes, that is that code that should match your COA."...that the ID I found in the registry should match the COA. It matches the product ID under My Computer but not he COA.

i.e the product ID on the computer (and in the registry) is in the form of numbers 51873-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
The COA is letters 5 sets of 5 letters XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX adn when entered changes it to the number product ID.

That's the ticket Masqueraid, magicaljellybean gets me the info I want...now if I could centrally deploy that or get that information with a tool that scans my network and pulls the computer name and that key...I would be extremely happy. Do you think AIDA32 would do this...

So this is in the registry somewhere..maybe encrypted. If I simply search the registry it is not found but Magicaljellybean figures it out.....

This begs another question....Is there a way to change this Product key. For example I have clients that have been sold pirated software and would like to make things legal. I have purchased software (Win XP) and I would love to change the pirated key to the legit key without reloading the O/S. This is only really important as I am unable to install SP1 as it detects this pirated key. Magical Jelly Bean seems to have this option greyed out....some more investigating is needed for sure...This would be very cool. Any ideas.

Try AIDA on one of your machines with Office etc installed and check the software tab.  I think this is what you want, but still not sure on the network sniffing may need using locally.

Everest home is the replacement freeware for aida32 http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dleverest.html

My COA's for the os match the code on the general tab of system properties.  Not sure why yours would not off hand.  Do you use ghost or similar to copy systems?

As for the pirated XP it's probably the widely "distributed" Corporate Edition.  It's not just the key that is a problem, the Windows Update page looks for file sizes/dates that are unique to the Corp Edition hence no go with the SP1 update.  Don't forget there are several different XP editions in the field.  You can't change the Product key on XP home to an XP Pro key & expect it to be accepted & this applies across the versions.

Thanks....I saw the Everest stuff and downloaded it earlier.

None of my product key's on my COA's ever match the Product ID in the system properties. The install process converts the key into the ID....

AID32 gives me great information including both the key and the ID...Thanks guys very much. I will have to award the points to Masqueraid but I appreciate both your inputs. If either of you knows of a way to change that key as mentioned above, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
 Smiley

Thanks Masqueraid, I guess I was just geting hopeful....I install enough O/S's as it is..I was just getting lazy..but I would still love to find a way...if there is a way....

Smiley