Retrieving XP CD-Key from the Registry
Do you not know your computer operating systems’ serial number and you need it? If you want to re-install windows, or do any major updating it may require you to enter you serial number to confirm you indeed have a license for the software. This tutorial will guide you through using a website and information from your registry to get your CD-Key. This way, you wont have to download any software, as most of these utilities have viruses associated with them. First we need to get some information from the registry.
Click on Start and select “Run”
Type in “regedit” into the run box that comes up. This will launch the registry editor.
This is the registry editor with all trees minimized. This tool will allow us to make many changes within all of our applications and the operating system. You can severely damage your computer in here, so please be careful not to mess with anything unless told to do so. To continue with our tutorial we need to locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Expand SOFTWARE
Scroll down and expand Microsoft
Scroll down and expand WindowsNT
Highlight CurrentVersion. This will show you a whole bunch of keys in the right pane of the editor. I have blacked out the ones that will give out valuable information.
Look for the key in the right pane called “DigitalProductID” and double click on it.
The above box has the key in it but it is embedded and only part of this is the key. I whited out a lot of it to ensure that my key could not be compromised. Here is a guide to show you which numbers to write down (you should end up with 30 characters)
Start from the top and write all of the digits down. You will need to type them back in (sorry – cannot copy paste from here in the registry) Once you have your 30 digits we are now ready to get our product key. We are going to go to a website to convert this key.
A site called DagonDesign has a web based tool for converting this string into a usable key for us. Click on the link above to go to the site and you will see the box as pictured above. Type your 30 characters in the box and press “Decrypt Code” and it will give you your Windows CD-Key. This ends this tutorial. Thank-you for reading.
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on March 1st, 2008 at 7:54 pm
THAT TUTORIAL WAS AWESOME. I FIX CPU’S ON THE SIDE AND I CANT TELL YOU HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN ME THEIR PCS TO UPGRADE AND DONT KNOW THE CD KEY. THANKX
on April 9th, 2008 at 9:52 am
This is an excellent tutorial. If an existing Key retriever won’t work, this will without a doubt.
on April 9th, 2008 at 9:54 am
[...] This article was originally posted on Team Tutorials, here is the original article. [...]
on April 19th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I had to use this tonight. Worked like a charm.
on April 26th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Thanks so much for this! Awesome tutorial.
on May 10th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m surprised to see this is how easy it is to find the serial…anyway..
Great tutorial….Bookmarked
Keep it up !
on May 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
d71cf59a4117…
d71cf59a411798c75daa…
on May 16th, 2008 at 11:12 am
omg!! i nid help!!
the OEM i used says UNAUTHORIZED PRODUCT KEY?
could any1 help..
btw, the this is good man.. you can help many troubles people like me (myself of course, im really troubled *sigh*)..
nice work man..
appreciate it, the only thing is mine is UNAUTHORIZED..
on January 7th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
i have more then 30 digits what should i do ?
on January 7th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Then you might be looking at the wrong section of the string. Should only be bites 34 through 42 (which can be identified by the values on the left – then you count in order to the right).
on June 14th, 2009 at 11:13 am
“Start from the top and write all of the digits down. You will need to type them back in (sorry – cannot copy paste from here in the registry) Once you have your 30 digits we are now ready to get our product key…”
Start from where? From “A0 00 00 03 00 00 00…” then continue with the next line until we get 30 characters?
Please explain. Thank you.
on October 25th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I am using Keyfinder (Opensource Porject) to view all app keys in your computer.
on January 27th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
This a very nice guide. I have in the past lost the cd case to windows so this is fantastic for me.