Determining a Clients Product key withou

It's not on the cd... there's an algorhythm that is programmed into the software that determines or calculates whether the input product id is a correct one. Microsoft would have a difficult time inputting unique id's on each cd ... so would any company. They may be doing that now, but no way have they done that on Win95/98 cd-roms.

Sorry, but if you are obtaining customers windows cd, then they are more organized than some people who do not have even the cd. Realize too, that some people only get a recovery cd and usually the manufacturer will stick a label on the computer with the license.

Many many people do not have a valid license out there. Some have purchased and obtained their OS from people engaged in copying these and making them look like real versions.

In addition to what Anna told you, most of the newer OS's generate a seperate serial number from a product key.
The serial number stored in the registry has no visable relationship to the product key that you have to enter during setup.

I did find a web page that lists some MS product keys. He also has a small program that is suppossed to be able to extract / generate a product key.

http://bcarr.virtualave.net/cdkey.html

However, from the technical legalities of the ELU, if the user has lost the certificate with the product key, they no longer have a legal copy of the software.

Many IT departments are now locking up all licenses in a file cabinet so that they have proof for each PC that they have valid software licenses.

When I setup a PC for a client, I setup a binder with all of the pertinant system information inside. I am considering attaching the critical ducuments and CDs to the inside of the PC case.
That way, they are less apt to get lost.