Win98 Certificate of Authenticity

[adamone11]

IF I have a certificate of authenticity for win98, does that mean I OWN it? Can I use anyone's win98 disc and use my key (not a warez kinda guy)? My 'rescue disk' (only given copy of OS) is tied to my mobo, so if I upgrade this summer....hello $180 WinME

 

[Barny]

Dunno for sure but I doubt it. I've keyed in the wrong numbers/letters before and it didn't go any further until I corrected it. So, my guess is the CD Key is unique to each copy.

 

[Spoooon]

I don't think that's true. Any key should work. You might as well give it a try at any rate.

 

[digitalman]

also depends on what type of key you have- regular vs oem. they are different as far as what the disk will awknoledge to be a real key. what happened to you Win98 cd? if you can really prove that it was damaged or lost you may be able to get Microsoft to issue you a replacement... no joke.
dm

 

[abracadabra1]

trust me it's not 🙂
i've *seen* people use the different cd keys for lots of software and it works just fine

 

[RayEarth]

abracadabra1 is right, working as a technician before, i ghost hard drives with win98 on it when someone orders 30 systems that are the same, instead of installing one by one, we do a ghost & then change the win98 cdkey to the key the customer gets with each system, & i bet abracadabra1 has even "seen" himself do it too.

 

[reitz]

It should work without a problem. Just make sure that the key you are using matches the version you are installing. i.e. If you have Win98SE installed on your PC, make sure you only use a Win98SE cdrom to install it. I know that there are some cases where serial no.'s for different versions work, but for the most part they won't.

AFAIK, there's nothing illegal about it.

 

[ctll]

what reitz said, but it may not work for a PARTICULAR cd, even if it is the same version. it WILL work though (and is legal)

i experienced it not working once, might be something about OEM vs retail version cd. not sure, didn't care, and was long ago (2 years, 1, not sure)

 

[adamone11]

Thanks guys

Re: Ghost and change key
Is there a registry key to see what your Win98 key was?

 

[RayEarth]

you have to run regedit, go into the registry & go to the 3rd option, current user, i think & go down to windows, & then go to current version or something, i don't remember exactly, & but the answer is yes, & you shouldn't be in there if you're scared of messing up your system, charge the wrong setting can cause you problems.