How To Get Windows Xp Product Key From Cd

Technique

Salvage Time By
Reconstructing your Windows XP production key
Verifying that you take a legit copy of Windows
You know you're supposed to hold onto the plastic precious stone example or cardboard pack that your Windows XP CD came in, correct?
If y'all bought your copy of Windows (as opposed to having it preinstalled on the PC), and you ever need to reinstall it, that 25-character product fundamental (run across Figure 3-ane) is the simply thing that stands between you and a $2,000 hunk of useless mechanism. If you don't take your product key, you can't fifty-fifty start the installation.
What? You bought your PC with Windows XP preinstalled? Hey, don't act so smug. Are you sure yous got a 18-carat re-create of Windows XP? If you're running a homemade Windows XP, Microsoft may reject to let you lot apply security patches; Microsoft could even continue you lot off the Windows Update site. You might be prohibited from installing Service Pack 2 (see Technique 4). It doesn't matter if you lot're at fault or not; the restrictions use automatically.
Stop whatever you're doing. Reading this technique merely takes a few minutes, and information technology could save your tail some solar day.

Figure 3-1: And you should never rip those tags off your mattresses, either.

Unlocking the Secrets of the Windows XP Product Key

Every copy of Windows XP ships with a product key, a 25-grapheme string that looks something similar T9TRD-9CTTR-V8X7W-R8888-6TPYR. If you bought your PC with Windows XP preinstalled, y'all might not realize that you have a product key, simply yous do.
When you install or reinstall Windows XP, one of the commencement steps in the installation process requires you to type that key (come across Figure iii-two).

Figure three-ii: Windows XP doesn't install unless you tin provide the 25-character product central.
If you don't take the 25-character key, Windows XP doesn't install — period — fifty-fifty if you're reinstalling Windows. That's considering your difficult drive self-immolated ("This computer volition self-destruct . . ."). If y'all don't take the central, wait to spend hours (or even days) on the phone with Microsoft trying to go it.

Locating the Key

Take a minute or ii correct at present and make sure that you can detect your production cardinal:

If you have more than than ane copy of Windows XP, you'd ameliorate brand sure that y'all know which auto goes with which product key!
If you bought a new computer with Windows XP preinstalled, the Windows XP product key should exist on a sticker that'due south permanently attached to the computer'south chassis (the metal box that all the plastic hangs on). Look for a multicolored sticker proclaiming itself to be a Windows XP Certificate of Authenticity (see Figure 3-3).

Figure iii-3: The chassis sticker with your product cardinal.
If you bought a re-create of Windows XP, the product key is on a yellow sticker affixed to the plastic gem case or cardboard binder that contains the Windows XP CD.
If you (or your visitor) has a volume license (VL) for Windows XP, the production primal came in the package with the VL.
What? You can't find the paper-thin holder your re-create of Windows XP came in? Has the chassis sticker succumbed to years of abrading by an amorous house pet? Practise you lot take three copies of Windows XP, and can't think which machine goes with what re-create? Don't fret. You tin can get the production key back.
All joking aside, if you accept any reason to believe that your re-create of Windows XP is, ahem, less than 18-carat, follow the steps in the section, "Verifying Your Product Key," to make sure you don't have a pirate copy — fifty-fifty if you lot found the product central.

Reconstructing the Product Central

A tremendous single-purpose product called Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder (no, I don't brand this stuff upwards) reaches into your Windows Registry, assembles all the lost pieces, and re-creates your original Windows XP production key (run across Figure three-iv).

Figure iii-4: Magical Jelly Edible bean Keyfinder reconstructs
product keys, based on information cached in the Windows Registry.
Keyfinder is a tiny programme that doesn't take long to download and that runs in a snap. I strongly advise you lot run it right now while you're thinking about it, and write down your product key some place where yous won't lose information technology. Here's how:
one Get to www.magicaljellybean.com.
If you like Keyfinder, consider clicking the PayPal Donate button and sending a few shekels to Magical Jelly Bean Software.
2. Click the link to the Keyfinder and and so click the Download push button that's closest to your location.
Net Explorer starts downloading a Cipher file.
3. When IE asks if you want to open or save the file, click Open.
four. Afterward the Zero file opens, double-click the keyfinder.exe file to run it.
5. If IE gives you a security warning, click Run.
Eventually, the Keyfinder program runs, producing the dialog box shown in Figure three-4.
6. Write downward your registration key and and then choose FileOExit to exit the plan.
I used to recommend a product called ViewKeyXP, but it doesn't piece of work with systems running Windows XP Service Pack 2.
If Windows came preinstalled on your machine, at that place's a small hazard that Keyfinder tin't reconstruct the product key. If that's the case, make sure yous empathize how to reinstall the original copy of Windows XP — usually from a "panic" CD or "recovery" CD (come across Figure 3-5) that came with the computer, or from a hidden partition on your hard drive.

Figure iii-v: A typical Dell recovery CD, which contains a version of Windows XP that but installs on the original PC.

Verifying Your Production Key

Making certain that you're using a legitimate copy of Windows XP is important — and not merely so that Microsoft gets the income information technology's due.
By verifying your fundamental, you can avoid getting defenseless in a time-consuming crisis at some indeterminate point in the future.
Microsoft has no obligations to you if y'all're running a pirate copy of Windows XP, even if you were duped into buying one. In fact, the Softies accept, at times, fabricated life very difficult for people who utilise bootleg versions of Windows XP:
Service Pack i (and, reportedly, Service Pack 2) refuses to install itself if it determines that y'all're using i of the most commonly ripped-off product keys, including the following book license central, which has appeared on hundreds of thousands of pirated copies of Windows XP:

FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-?????

Microsoft has, from time to fourth dimension, threatened to block access to the Windows Update site for PCs that use any of the commonly distributed "bad" product keys.
Microsoft is caught between a rock and a hard spot on this topic: Pirate copies of Windows get infected just equally easily equally legitimate copies. Restricting access to security patches only helps increase the number of exposed systems, and thus contributes to the spread of malware. While cool heads don't always prevail at Microsoft, it seems less and less likely that Redmond will have callous steps in the hereafter to withhold security patches from pirates.
Of course, companies are particularly at risk. The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) ordinarily rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties from companies that run bootleg software, and individuals are liable, every bit well.
If you want to salvage yourself a major headache in the future, have a few seconds to cheque the cardinal. Here's how:
If you bought your PC with Windows XP preinstalled: Compare the product key from Keyfinder with the i on the chassis sticker. (I talk about how to get and run Keyfinder in "Reconstructing the Production Primal," earlier in this technique.)
If the two keys don't lucifer, Microsoft wants to hear about information technology. Start at www.microsoft.com/ piracy/YourPC.mspx and follow the instructions for tracking down and reporting a bad Document of Authenticity. If your sticker actually is bad, you lot got ripped off — and you tin help fight against future rip-offs by reporting the offending party.
If you lot bought Windows XP at a store, compare the product key from Keyfinder with the yellow sticker on the CD'due south example (bold you can find the instance, of class): If the keys don't match, you lot nearly assuredly accept the wrong CD instance/cardboard binder. Hunting this i down is well worth your time, because an extra copy of Windows XP is floating around! Chances are very proficient y'all just switched around a couple of CD cases, but I know at least one person who discovered he had a long-forgotten legitimate, licensed copy of Windows XP sitting on his desk-bound.

If you have whatsoever reason to believe that you lot were ripped off and bought a pirate re-create of Windows XP, contact Microsoft immediately:

Microsoft takes this stuff seriously, considering it loses billions of dollars a year to pirates. People who sell you a bogus copy of Windows rip off Microsoft, of grade — but they also have you to the cleaners.
Salvage yourself a lot of time — and headache — by permanently keeping your product key with your CD. Take out a permanent marking and print the product key on the top of your Windows XP CD. That'due south the side with the hologram (see Effigy 3-vi). Do it right at present, and you'll never need to worry about information technology again.

Figure iii-6: You tin mark your Windows XP CD on the side that has the hologram.

Source: http://what-when-how.com/windows-xp/retrieving-windows-xp-product-key/

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