Question

Matching COA's with Product ID's

Asked by: Smileyman

I am trying to audit the company I work for to make sure their software licences are legit and correct.

I have found several different Certificates of Authneticity (COA's) for software such as Windows 2000 or MS Office. Some Certificates are affixed to the computer but some are still with the CD or on separate sheets. The OEM versions of these certificates should have been stuck to the coresponding PC but some were not.

My problem now is to try and match the COA with the correct PC. Does anyone know of a way this can be done....mathc the product key on the CAO to the product key generated on the PC. I know I can just list all my PC's and just match the number of licences bought to the number of PC's but there has to be a way of matching them after the fast. I have a bunch of PC's for example that have Office XP Pro on them and I have a pile of CD's with COA's on them but I have no way of matching which PC goes with which COA.

This would also make loading needed components of a software package like Office onto a PC as you need the correct version of the software to do it....ie. OEM, retail...etc...etc...

I am using Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer to search my network and report back all the software loaded on all the PC's. This is great but I have to manually add in the licence keys...as far as I can see. I was hoping it would also extract the product Id and then I could match it to a COA.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks
Smileyman

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Asked On
2004-05-05 at 12:07:40ID20979222
Tags

id

,

coa

,

product

Topic

Miscellaneous Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-05-05 at 12:35:00ID: 10999232

Not sure about a network sniffer solution, there's a registry location for the Windows COA:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion ProductKey
Which will return the serial on the COA.

System analysis software such as Belarc Advisor or AIDA32 will grab all the product keys for display.

 

by: RDAdamsPosted on 2004-05-05 at 12:50:26ID: 10999361

I like the AIDA32 software. It is very slick.

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:05:12ID: 10999484

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?

 

by: RDAdamsPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:24:50ID: 10999653

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

 

by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:29:19ID: 10999696

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...

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:34:14ID: 10999739

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.

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:40:25ID: 10999807

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...

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 13:52:35ID: 10999907

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

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:06:33ID: 11000022

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.

 

by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:08:21ID: 11000040

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.

 

by: RDAdamsPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:15:41ID: 11000087

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?

 

by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:22:31ID: 11000140

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.

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:23:34ID: 11000149

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

 

by: SmileymanPosted on 2004-05-05 at 14:26:20ID: 11000165

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

 

by: RDAdamsPosted on 2004-05-06 at 05:39:26ID: 11004981

I somewhere have the network version of AIDA32 also.  Will have to see if I can dig it up and see if there are any differences.  

Just hope I could help.  

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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