How Do You Find The Serial Number For A Game That's *ALREADY* On Your Computer?

[MAME]

I want to reformat my computer and I'm making sure I have all the CD's and CD Keys before I delete everything.

I found my Warcraft 3 CD, but I can't find my Frozen Throne CD with the serial number. Since the game is already on my computer, I thought the serial number would be in the registry somewhere. I searched 'Blizzard', 'Warcraft' and 'Frozen' in the registry and found nothing.

I hate that this is so hard to find...does anyone know how/where to get the key off my computer? I tried to call Blizzard but they're closed until Monday (I was hoping to get this all done today).


Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

There's a program called cd-key grabber that might work.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: M0oG0oGaiPan
There's a program called cd-key grabber that might work.

Hmm, seems like that program has been practically removed entirely from the internet...all of the links are invalid :/

Any thoughts on where I can get this?


Thanks

 

[kingtas]

Registry keys.

HKLocal Machine
Software

Look for software folder name of your game or company who makes it and expand the + to see if there is a CD Key entry.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: kingtas
Registry keys.

HKLocal Machine
Software

Look for software folder name of your game or company who makes it and expand the + to see if there is a CD Key entry.

Nope, nothing in the Software directory for Blizzard or Warcraft

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Originally posted by: kingtas
Registry keys.

HKLocal Machine
Software

Look for software folder name of your game or company who makes it and expand the + to see if there is a CD Key entry.

Blizzard doesn't save the CD keys from their games to the registry keys.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy

Originally posted by: kingtas
Registry keys.

HKLocal Machine
Software

Look for software folder name of your game or company who makes it and expand the + to see if there is a CD Key entry.

Blizzard doesn't save the CD keys from their games to the registry keys.

Then it must be saved on the computer somewhere. So how does Blizzard check your cd key when you sign in to battle net each time?


Think of it this way; when you enter your cd key, you don't need to be connected to the Internet. So when you finally do log in to battle net, it must read the cd key from a file/the registry on your computer.


I just want to know where it's stored. I don't understand why they make it so difficult

 

[BFG10K]

If it's not in the registry it'll be a file in the game's folder somewhere.

 

[WildHorse]

The free Belarc Advisor will probably display that for you.

When I run it, it displays la list of the sn info for every installed thing.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: scott
The free Belarc Advisor will probably display that for you.

When I run it, it displays la list of the sn info for every installed thing.

Are you talking about the "Software Licenses" section? If so, only 8 or so programs show up in that list for me: Photoshop, Nero, Office XP, etc....


I do see several references to Blizzard, including The Frozen Throne, in the Software Versions section, but it just has a name and version number of the software, not the cd key. There's an asterisk next to the Software Versions, but all that does is open the directory the program was installed in.


Thoughts?

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
If it's not in the registry it'll be a file in the game's folder somewhere.

makes sense, but I think I tried to open every file and search for the Warcraft 3 cd key (I know the War3 CD key, I'm just missing the frozen throne cd key) without success.

 

[SonicIce]

I dont have war3 so I cant test this but, try using search on the war3 folder and typing in "key" in the "A word or phrase in the file" box. dunno if that'll work, might take a while too.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
I dont have war3 so I cant test this but, try using search on the war3 folder and typing in "key" in the "A word or phrase in the file" box. dunno if that'll work, might take a while too.

Good idea but even when I searched for "WTV2" (a substring of my War3 cd key) I still couldn't find anything in the warcraft directory...

crazy blizzard!

 

[daniel49]

this looks like blizzards answer to it
I lost my CD-Key, where can I find it ?
If your game is still installed on your computer, you are in luck.

Get Magickian's CD-Key Grabber. Launch the appropriate game and connect to Battle.net. At the login screen, alt-tab to the desktop and click the Get CD-Key button. If successful, your CD-Key should be displayed in the edit boxes.


Note: You don't have to fully login (by entering your username and password) in
order to get your cd-key.

If your game is not installed, you will have to get a new CD-Key from Blizzard. Read this page for more information.


Only the program seems to be called all in one its here

haven't tried it myself

 

[lxskllr]

Make sure your computer is set to show hidden files and folders, then look in Documents and Settings for the Application Data folder. It'll be translucent due to being a system folder. Maybe they have it in there somewhere.

Edit: also look in Local Settings in the My Documents folder.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: daniel49
this looks like blizzards answer to it
I lost my CD-Key, where can I find it ?
If your game is still installed on your computer, you are in luck.

Get Magickian's CD-Key Grabber. Launch the appropriate game and connect to Battle.net. At the login screen, alt-tab to the desktop and click the Get CD-Key button. If successful, your CD-Key should be displayed in the edit boxes.


Note: You don't have to fully login (by entering your username and password) in
order to get your cd-key.

If your game is not installed, you will have to get a new CD-Key from Blizzard. Read this page for more information.


Only the program seems to be called all in one its here

haven't tried it myself

thanks for the link but it doesn't work with Warcraft 3. The program is only for Diablo and Starcraft.

That "Magickian's CD-Key Grabber" is actually pretty impossible to find so far. Only place I found required a $25 paid account to download. I also read that support for the program ended, so I doubt it'll work with Warcraft 3 V1.21.



The CD Key Grabber is done for:
http://www.thehelper.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-14873.html
"The Helper
December 13th, 2005, 01:09 PM
I have recently discovered that the CD Key Grabber is being abused by people. Due to this fact I will no longer offer it for download on this site. It is sad that a useful utility like this has been ruined by greedy thieving people. Anyway, please do not ask for it because we will not give it - the days of the CD Key Grabber being hosted by Thehelper.net are over."

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Make sure your computer is set to show hidden files and folders, then look in Documents and Settings for the Application Data folder. It'll be translucent due to being a system folder. Maybe they have it in there somewhere.

Edit: also look in Local Settings in the My Documents folder.

I searched my entire computer for "WTV2" (a substring of my CD Key for War3:ROC) and nothing came up. I made sure to search hidden folders as well.


I think it's useless to try to hunt this down...the CD Key must be local, but it's also encoded somehow. Arghhhhhhhhhhh

 

[daniel49]

too bad seems they feel people have abused it.
Lost key to starcraft once and called blizzard. As I recall they told me if I had the book that came with it as proof, I could use that to obtain a new key from them and they gave me a temp key suitable for single play only until they recieved proof.
But I never went through with it because eventually i found the jewel case with ##

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: daniel49
too bad seems they feel people have abused it.
Lost key to starcraft once and called blizzard. As I recall they told me if I had the book that came with it as proof, I could use that to obtain a new key from them and they gave me a temp key suitable for single play only until they recieved proof.
But I never went through with it because eventually i found the jewel case with ##

I have the CD, but not the case or manual. I think that would still suffice, but they still charge an additional $10 for some reason.

I'd rather not have to pay twice for a game I already have. Grr...

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Well I read that the key could be either in a .dll file or is stored in one of the .mpq files. If it's in the .dll then ur probably screwed. But if it's in the .mpq file I think there's programs that allow you to decompile or somehow browse the .mpq file. It might just be like a pak file for quake1. Anyway just google for more info on the .mpq files.

 

[AVP]

Did you check torrents for the cd grabber? seems like a good place to find "removed" software

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: M0oG0oGaiPan
Well I read that the key could be either in a .dll file or is stored in one of the .mpq files. If it's in the .dll then ur probably screwed. But if it's in the .mpq file I think there's programs that allow you to decompile or somehow browse the .mpq file. It might just be like a pak file for quake1. Anyway just google for more info on the .mpq files.

I found this:
http://www.infoceptor.net/files/warcraft3.shtml

It looks like it works, but the .MPQ files have thousands of files in them, so it's kinda hard to find where the key is stored. I did find a 'config.txt', but the program crashes when it tries to read the file.

I'll try to find another MPQ reader, but like you said, it may just be in a dll anyway...