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Identifying Windows codes

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    Identifying Windows codes

    Quick story:

    When Windows 7 came out and was half price I bought two retail (as in can be transferred) boxed copies, one for the laptop (Vista) and one for the desktop (XP). The laptop got replaced with one that came with an OEM Windows 7 (and now a second time), but I kept that laptop and paid for the "upgrade" to Windows 8, really just to try it out. That laptop is somewhere in a cupboard and hasn't been switched on in a couple of years.

    A few months ago I replaced the trusty 10-year old desktop with a bare-bones system (i.e. no OS or disks). I used one of my boxed copies of Windows 7, but not sure which. I then gave into temptation just before the deadline and let it upgrade to Windows 10.

    In theory I have one free retail licence, but I don't know which it is. And I don't know whether the same licence was upgraded to Windows 8 and then Windows 10 leaving one Windows 7 free, or whether one was upgraded to Windows 8 and the other Windows 10.

    So the question is is there a way I can find out? There's lots of programs promising to reveal the Windows code on the net, but I'm not going to run some random EXE off the internet. If I were to install Windows 7 in a VM and activate it what happens if there's a conflict with the licence I'm currently using? I don't want to risk breaking the system that's running and ending up in the "This copy of windows isn't genuine" hell that I've seen before.

    Thanks.
    Will work inside IR35. Or for food.

    #2
    Run this in Powershell
    (Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey
    Edit: that's only applicable for Win8/10
    Last edited by sal; 6 September 2016, 14:57.

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      #3
      Thanks but that returns nothing. I tried removing the bit at the end to see all the values, and that field is empty.

      Googling that lead me to a VBS that tells me the Windows 10 product key, but that still doesn't help as I need the Windows 7 key that one was upgraded from. Bah!
      Will work inside IR35. Or for food.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by VectraMan View Post
        Thanks but that returns nothing. I tried removing the bit at the end to see all the values, and that field is empty.

        Googling that lead me to a VBS that tells me the Windows 10 product key, but that still doesn't help as I need the Windows 7 key that one was upgraded from. Bah!
        https://www.google.co.uk/?ion=1&espv...+cd+key+viewer

        I used one of those and retrieved cd keys easily. I think it was cd key finder or so

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          #5
          I've used Belarc Advisor before, for the OS it tells you the licence as well as the key, so if your licence is OEM it will say something like 00571-OEM-9297304-516

          Belarc Advisor

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            #6
            Just so you know the OEM windows license is only valid with the original hardware it was sold with, can't be transferred to other hardware. Even if the key is accepted on another machine it will still be an illegal copy.

            Comment


              #7
              +1 for Belarc. It work for me and didn't install any viruses (that I know of).
              England's greatest sailor since Nelson lost the armada.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by sal View Post
                Just so you know the OEM windows license is only valid with the original hardware it was sold with, can't be transferred to other hardware. Even if the key is accepted on another machine it will still be an illegal copy.
                True but irrelevant : the OP wishes to know which of his two retail-licenced copies of W7 got upgraded to W8/W10.

                Boo

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