microsoft product key question

[surfmaster2000]

I have recently taken a new position at the company I work for, and now support all of our software. I have in my possesion about 6 copies of windows xp pro upgrade that i am unsure if they were used or not. There are about 15 copies total, and i cannot account for these six opened copies. Is it possible (without attemping install) to verify the product key # with microsoft to know if any of these copies have been used or not? They are slated to be used for another purpose, but i am unsure if they have been previously installed. Any one know of a way to check?

[Miz]

Sure, just call Microsoft, explain the situation and they'll be happy to help since you're trying to avoid violating the EULA.

[surfmaster2000]

Yeah, well I thought the same and tried it. I called about 4 different microsoft phone numbers and got some really bad attitudes. Microsoft support is crap. I was very suprised to see the #1 software maker to have such terrible support. Anyways, I was told by the last person I talked to at microsoft that the only way I would be able to know is to attempt installation, then I would know if the title had been previously used if activation failed.

Thanks for the help,

No wonder Microsoft is losing market share to other os's

[Tuf]

I always have really good luck with them. If you are buying in bulk hopefully you have a rep if not the place you buy from will have one. Get in touch with that person. M$ has always been very helpful to me when to comes to licensing issues or just about anything esle.

I'm not sure about them losing any share of the Desktop OS market though.

[ezeebob]

A simple way would be to run a small program on each machine running XP to get the key each used.
Several programs will give you this info. With only 15 units involved it should not take very long. After you view the key
match it up with the proper disc and your done. May want to create a list for future use.

Belarc Advisor

Aida32

Windows XP key Utility
http://www.digitalnowhere.com/module...p=getit&lid=74

[jeresimo]

Aida32 is nice and good details too. Hmm? is she a Lady? lols..

[videobruce]

Aida's site is closed!

Try:

http://www.softpedia.com/public/scri...hero/13-9-195/

or this, though the first is far better:

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.html

[glc]

Belarc Advisor is the quickest and easiest way to read out the keys that I've used, it fits on a floppy and installs quickly. A side benefit is you can save the reports for each machine and they will help you a lot in maintaining your IT inventory.

[jasmus]

In another thread (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=109036) I've explained how my parent's computer has pretty much died and although I can see their hard drive in my computer as a slave drive, it won't boot up as a master drive on any computer I've tried.

I'd like to set them up on a spare pc I have (which has windows 98 on it), but install windows xp on it since they are more familiar with it. The problem, they have their windows xp cd that came with their computer, but cannot find the card with the product key on it (I know they had it because I had to reinstall their operating system once before).

I know they have utilities to read the product key, but do any of them work when the operating system is on a slave drive and not the currently running operating system?

I hope that makes sense!