Lost Product Key

[tomwalshco]

I was given an IBM hard drive I can use to resurrect an old notebook that's been dead for a number of years.

I have the original OEM Win95 CD, but the wrapping and docs are long gone.

Is there a way to mine the Product Key out of the CD somehow, or is there a work-around concerning the Product Key? Stuck in the install process and can't get past the Cert of Auth. Guess I can call MS, but there must be an easier way... Thanks.

 

[mikecel79]

The key is not stored anywhere on the CD. You would need the license certificate to install. Even if you call MS they won't help you because 1) Win95 is no longer supported, and 2) they won't give you a key for one you lost.

 

[bacillus]

see if this can be of any help!
key finder

 

[tomwalshco]

Well the key has to be stored on the CD, otherwise how will it recognize good or bad key #s.

Thanks, bacillus, but I've been there. Great if you have OS already running and can get into Registry, but I'm at the install stage now...

 

[mikecel79]

Well the key has to be stored on the CD, otherwise how will it recognize good or bad key #s.

No your key is NOT stored on the CD. The Windows setup program has an algorithim to check if your key is a valid one or not. IF YOUR key was stored on that CD then no other key could ever be used with that CD. Keys would be tied to a single CD, which is NOT the way Windows works.

Your only other option is to buy a Win95 CD key from someone or find a place on the internet that still has them. Check in the For Sale forums, there's probably someone with a Win95 CD key laying around that they don't want.

 

[bacillus]

iirc there are a few generic keys you can try but can't for the life of me find a link.

 

[AmigaMan]

I remember when I worked as a helpdesk lackey intern in college I had our corporate WinNT4 key memorized. This was before the days of automated installs and I had to go to each machine physically and upgrade them.

 

[tomwalshco]

Thanks, got my problem solved. Found out that the key is not on the CD, but an algorithm is that crunches the #s put in and looks for result that equates to go - no go situation.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: tomwalshco
Thanks, got my problem solved. Found out that the key is not on the CD, but an algorithm is that crunches the #s put in and looks for result that equates to go - no go situation.

Is this not exactly what I said before?

 

[drag]

Back when I still fooled around with Windows I would use a old Office 97 key that I found to install Windows 95 with.

Then I used something else equally stupid to do the same thing with Win98 first edition. You can find key codes all over the internet, just look for them. If you know somebody that has a old Win95 or Win98 machine laying around the key is stored inside the registry and you can find it just by using regedit and it will probably work with your install.

I forget about what actual registry entry you can find the installation key at, and don't ask me. Google for it. I have since stopped being so naughty about software. (a long long time ago) but installing using a key gleamed from another computer for something this old and stupid seems ok by me.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. MS has used a number of different-length product key-codes over the years.
One of them was all ones and then a seven. Another was the digits 0 through whatever the max possible digit was. For the slightly longer codes, the number for "800 information" works. (800-555-1212) I don't know if those were just artifacts of the loose algorithm that MS used at the time, or just backdoors that I happened to find. Useful information just the same, if you ever have to re-install some really old MS software.

For newer stuff that uses the five-by-five (five blocks of five digits per field) keys, I don't know of any shortcuts, other than OEM keys have "OEM" as one of the fields, and some of the VLK key codes actually contain "VLK" in one portion of the string.

Also, different groups of CD pressings, will only work with certain groups of key codes. The default setup info file with the Product-ID codes, interacts with the key-codes, so that one OEM key that works with an older OEM OS CD, may not work with a newer batch of the same OEM OS CD.