It's maddening when you realise you've lost the registration key to an expensive piece of software. It's happened to me twice in the last week. First I uninstalled Microsoft Office 2007, before realising that it came preinstalled without any media. Then someone gave me an Acer netbook with a faulty hdd to fix. The registration sticker was on the underside, but to my horror, one letter was missing where the sticker had worn. It would be nice if there was some way of retrieving these keys, because losing one is like losing the thing itself.
Lost Microsoft Software Registration Keys
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Thanks for the link. I will give Magic Jelly Bean a try, but it's not clear from the article whether registration keys persist after software is uninstalled. If the software is still installed, finding the registration key is usually as simple as checking the help / about menu option, which doesn't need third party software to find.
keys will be saved in registry, which aren't taken out when uninstalled
1.
Open up RegEdit
Open up RegEdit by going to Start>Run and typing "regedit" and pressing Enter or OK. You can also enter the "regedit" command into a Command Prompt to open up the editor.
2.
Locate the Office Registry Key
Microsoft stores all of the installation information for Office Products in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\. Underneath this key you will see various version numbers, each corresponding to different versions of Office. They are as follows:
-9.0 is Office 2000
-10.0 is Office XP
-11.0 is Office 2003
-12.0 is Office 2007
-14.0 is Office 2010
3.
Locate the Corresponding Registration Key
Underneath each of the version number keys you should see a "Registration" key. Depending on how many Office products you have installed (Visio, Project, etc. all will be stored underneath one of those version keys) on the machine there will be multiple hashed keys present underneath the Registration key. Each of these hashed keys should have a value underneath it called "ProductName". You can use this value to correctly determine which hashed key is related to the product you want to remove.
4.
Delete the Hashed Key
Once you have located the correct hashed registry key, delete it. As mentioned above, though, make sure you have a good backup before doing this!
and in your case your not deleting it, just coping it
but magic jelly bean will find and save it for you, same as anything else you have on your pc it supports, always wise to print off what it finds just in case, good luck
1.
Open up RegEdit
Open up RegEdit by going to Start>Run and typing "regedit" and pressing Enter or OK. You can also enter the "regedit" command into a Command Prompt to open up the editor.
2.
Locate the Office Registry Key
Microsoft stores all of the installation information for Office Products in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\. Underneath this key you will see various version numbers, each corresponding to different versions of Office. They are as follows:
-9.0 is Office 2000
-10.0 is Office XP
-11.0 is Office 2003
-12.0 is Office 2007
-14.0 is Office 2010
3.
Locate the Corresponding Registration Key
Underneath each of the version number keys you should see a "Registration" key. Depending on how many Office products you have installed (Visio, Project, etc. all will be stored underneath one of those version keys) on the machine there will be multiple hashed keys present underneath the Registration key. Each of these hashed keys should have a value underneath it called "ProductName". You can use this value to correctly determine which hashed key is related to the product you want to remove.
4.
Delete the Hashed Key
Once you have located the correct hashed registry key, delete it. As mentioned above, though, make sure you have a good backup before doing this!
and in your case your not deleting it, just coping it
but magic jelly bean will find and save it for you, same as anything else you have on your pc it supports, always wise to print off what it finds just in case, good luck
One of the best best explanations I've ever received. Too bad I read it after using the Magical Jelly Bean, which found the keys.
I never previously associated software keys with the Windows registry. Seems obvious now.
No doubt there's plenty that Magical Jelly Bean can't find, because they're using it to plug a more capable premium product.
Thanks all round.
I never previously associated software keys with the Windows registry. Seems obvious now.
No doubt there's plenty that Magical Jelly Bean can't find, because they're using it to plug a more capable premium product.
Thanks all round.
I always use this:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
I find it brilliant for work as you can install it on the server and it will connect to remote machines and pull out their product keys. You can use it on a hard drive from a broken machine you have connected to if you're needing to rebuild it.
Pretty much does the same thing as the registry thing but it's much easier
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
I find it brilliant for work as you can install it on the server and it will connect to remote machines and pull out their product keys. You can use it on a hard drive from a broken machine you have connected to if you're needing to rebuild it.
Pretty much does the same thing as the registry thing but it's much easier
Too bad I read this after ripping open the netbook with the faulty hdd.
Reinstalling Windows 7 on a netbook
I was able to guess the single character missing from the torn Windows registration key sticker. After all, it could only be one of 36 possibilities, ie. a-z and 0-9. It saved me from having to retrieve the key from an unbootable hard disc.
It seems most netbooks don't ship with the operating system on a DVD and you can't download the Windows 7 Starter Edition that is common on them. Windows registration keys are specific to particular editions of the operating system, so you can't just use another Windows 7 DVD to install from. Fortunately, you can create your own bootable Windows 7 Starter Edition DVD or USB drive.
You can do this by downloading another edition of Windows from the links on the Dell support site, which is also where I found the solution.
Simply edit a file called ei.cfg in the sources folder. So, if you download Windows 7 "Ultimate", you can relabel it in the ei.cfg file to "Starter".
I should point out that the Novacorp WinToFlash software Dell recommend for burning Windows to bootable discs seems to be bloatware, no matter which site you download it from. I recommend ImgBurn instead.
I was able to guess the single character missing from the torn Windows registration key sticker. After all, it could only be one of 36 possibilities, ie. a-z and 0-9. It saved me from having to retrieve the key from an unbootable hard disc.
It seems most netbooks don't ship with the operating system on a DVD and you can't download the Windows 7 Starter Edition that is common on them. Windows registration keys are specific to particular editions of the operating system, so you can't just use another Windows 7 DVD to install from. Fortunately, you can create your own bootable Windows 7 Starter Edition DVD or USB drive.
You can do this by downloading another edition of Windows from the links on the Dell support site, which is also where I found the solution.
Simply edit a file called ei.cfg in the sources folder. So, if you download Windows 7 "Ultimate", you can relabel it in the ei.cfg file to "Starter".
I should point out that the Novacorp WinToFlash software Dell recommend for burning Windows to bootable discs seems to be bloatware, no matter which site you download it from. I recommend ImgBurn instead.
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