Any way to check if a product key has been registered?

[stultus]

I have aquired winME with certificate and product key, but I don't want to use it and want to sell it. Is there any way to tell if the key has been used/registered with microsoft?

 

[Lord Evermore]

If you didn't register it, then it's not. Unless it's one you got from someone else, in which case it may be, but only by calling MS could you possibly find out, and they may not tell you.

If it is registered, the original owner can legally transfer the ownership/registration to you and you can do the same, though Microsoft might balk at that.

 

[bozo1]

Doesn't matter if it's been registered or not. If you have the certificate of authenticity, you are the owner and you can sell it. It is up to the person who sold it to you to remove it from any machine he had it installed on.

 

[circlek]

but....is there any web page to check registration???

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: circlek
but....is there any web page to check registration???

The only way that I know of, is to just go ahead and try it

 

[Lord Evermore]

No there's no way for you to check yourself whether the software was registered. However "registration" itself doesn't mean much. It just means if for some reason Microsoft decided they wanted to see who owns a particular CD key, they'd look and see it's Mr. Smith. But if Mr. Smith sold it to you and gave you the certificate of authenticity (now just the little sticker on the side of a computer) then you own it, and if Mr. Smith still has copies of it in use then he's the one who is breaking the law. Naturally, if you register the OS when you install it, Microsoft is going to see that it's been registered by two different people, which is why the only way to absolutely avoid an issue is for Mr. Smith to call Microsoft and notify them of a change of ownership. But if you don't register it during install, then there's not likely to ever be any problem.

"Activation" is a separate issue from registration, if that is what you're actually wondering about.