Hey, Hey, Hey!
AskTheAdmin here again with another free tool that I can’t live without. As TheAdmiN I have literally over 10,000 servers in production. Most of them are on the same corporate open license program and have the same serial number and need no activation. BUT there are more than a few machines that are not owned by my company and were installed, configured and shipped to us as-is.
When one of these machines crash or are about to fail there is little I can do other than call the respective company’s support staff. I hate relying on other people!
Now perhaps I need to build a quick replacement for one of these machines - say a label printing machine on loan from UPS or in your case maybe your home file server. Now if you don’t have the serial (aka product key) number for reinstalling - it is going to be a real… pardon my French… BITCH!
If the machine is still up and running and you have access to it you can install a tiny program that will give you the serial numbers for installed Microsoft Products including Vista, XP, 2000 and any office suite right up to our current 2007 offering.
It is free, totally safe and something that lives on my memory stick (it’s a portable app). Let’s take a look at how it works.
You can download it securely from SourceForge here. and the main site for it is over here.
No need to install it - just run the ‘exe’ from inside the zip file and it will return a screen that looks similar to this:
Your products will be displayed and there are the corresponding serial keys! Sweet! You will notice off the tools menu an option that looks like this:
It will let you change the registered user name for Windows or Office. Very handy.
When researching the newest version of this tool for my article (I was using a 2 year old version) I found this little chunk of information which made me smile:
It also has a community-updated configuration file that retrieves product keys for many other applications.
So it not only works for M$ applications but through a little forum magic you can make it work with almost anything that stores its password information in the registry! Double Sweet.
And then as if that wasn’t enough I continued reading and saw this:
Another feature is the ability to retrieve product keys from unbootable Windows installations.
Unbootable Windows Installations? This is a straight up life saver! Who knew I could like my little Magical JellyBean App any more! Just do yourself a favor and NOT tell people what it is called! Unless you are prepared for STRANGE and Dirty Looks!
(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at the NEW AskTheAdmin.com today. Show your support and check us out today! Where all your technology questions are answered for free!
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Filed Under: Cool Software Apps ¦ How-To ¦ Windows
Tags: How-To, Microsoft, office, portable, portable app, serial number, USB, Vista, windows tips, XP
Dude, it’s really easy to read your serial number through the *transparent* purple colour.
So what is it then? Am I that hard of seeing? Am I getting old?
I think you can just about see it but you can’t really read all of it.
here’s what I have and I am not sure about those I got either:
PSHQ5-2492P-MDTRF-F49**-D*R9Q
Not even close
You got 10 random character right! But that and $8.50 will buy you a pack of cigarettes! LMAO
Any other guesses?
… which is the point I was trying to make - to debunk the original comment.
Thanks Nicole!
another alternative and supplies even more info is SIW — http://www.gtopala.com/
Quite effective
* Software: Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Software Licenses (Product Keys / Serial Numbers / CD Key), Secrets (Password Recovery).
* Hardware: Motherboard, Sensors, BIOS, CPU, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers.
* Network: Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.
* Tools: Eureka! (Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks), MAC Address Changer, Monitor Test, Shutdown / Restart.
* Real-time monitors: CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.
Nice one Karl. I’ve been using the Magical Jelly Bean for quite some time and it has been a lifesaver.
You can also use Belarc Advisor, it’s a free soft
“Recover Keys” retrieve CD keys for more than 750 products and have an ability to change keys, save or print the list of CD keys, retrieve CD keys on network computers, retrieve CD keys of programs which are installed on second HDD and a lot of other small features. (http://recover-keys.com)
but it’s $20.00 - I’m pretty sure we can get most of this functionality from a free (or a few free) apps.
Not that I don’t like supporting developers - but I’d rather MAKEUSEOF what I can for FREE!
Irene are you affiliated with them?
Irene, I’m afraid I didn’t hear your response to the question. Could you please speak up?? Ah, well, Goodnight Irene.
Karl, I wish I cold explain how very valuable and timely this is. I just lucked up on four de-commisioned XP machines…
Thanks.