Windows Server 2008 Product Key

Hello,

I would like to let my Windows Server 2008 show it's original product key. I do not want to use third software.

We have an audit comming up and for some of our servers i'm not sure the product key in-use corresponds to the product key we bought.

I do not want to use third party software because I don't want to risk these keys being send to the creator of the third party software.

Thanx in advance for you're help on this. It is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Jelle

 

January 21st, 2011 1:57pm

Hello Jelle2006,

You can query and get the last 5 digits of the product key.  That should be sufficient to determine whether the installed product key is one that you bought or not

You can do this using slmgr /dlv from an elevated command prompt, slmgr  can query remote machines as well.

 

There is also a WMI method to query machines, if you want to write a WMI script to query a number of machines.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793441.aspx

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January 21st, 2011 8:32pm

Thank you for you're reply, Darell.

I would like to get the complete key, not just the 5 first chars.

How do I accomplish this?

Regards,

Jelle

January 24th, 2011 3:27pm

Hello,

check out without any warranty the tool "Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder"

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January 24th, 2011 3:44pm

Thank you for you're reply, Meinolf, but as I said i don't want to use third part software.

Can I know the reason why Microsoft hides this information? I can understand they want to counter piracy, but hiding you're license key which you paid a pretty penny for, forcing to use third party software and thereby exposing you're machines... where is the sense in that ?

I found this script which i'l running in PowerShell but sadly the keys don't correspond to the OEM stickers.

# create table to convert in base 24 

$map="BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789" 

# Read registry Key 

$value = (get-itemproperty "HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion").digitalproductid[0x34..0x42] 

# Convert in Hexa to show you the Raw Key 

$hexa = "" 

$value | foreach { 

 $hexa = $_.ToString("X2") + $hexa 

} 

"Raw Key Big Endian: $hexa" 

 

# find the Product Key 

$ProductKey = "" 

for ($i = 24; $i -ge 0; $i--) { 

 $r = 0 

 for ($j = 14; $j -ge 0; $j--) { 

  $r = ($r * 256) -bxor $value[$j] 

  $value[$j] = [math]::Floor([double]($r/24)) 

  $r = $r % 24 

 } 

 $ProductKey = $map[$r] + $ProductKey 

 if (($i % 5) -eq 0 -and $i -ne 0) { 

  $ProductKey = "-" + $ProductKey 

 } 

} 

"Product Key: $ProductKey" 

Could anyone confirm that this thing shows the correct information or maybe point me in the right direction for another script?

Thanks in advance, the audit is comming up, my boss is panicking :p

January 25th, 2011 8:33am

Hi,

 

Microsoft hides license keys in the system for the privacy purpose. It’s your responsibility to reserve the keys. If the system can show the license keys, it is easy for other people who use your computer to obtain the key illegally.

 

If your computer is an OEM one, you can contact your OEM and try to obtain your key.

 

If your computer is a retail one, you have to use third-party tools because Microsoft does not provide a way to find the key but this is not recommanded by Microsoft.

 

For detailed information about licensing, please contact your local Microsoft Customer Service:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/

 

Tim Quan

 

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January 26th, 2011 5:03am

Hello,

I fail to understand Microsofts reasoning about privacy and it being my own responsability if it's so hard for me to find my own license key yet so easy for a third party tool to obtain this. If my license key is my responsability, isn't keeping it safe as well? You are not being very respnsable by redeirecting me to my OEM supplier, now are you?

I could maybe get on board with this with client OSs like Windows 7, Vista or XP, but in a server environment... I could only wish we would live in an ideal world where sysadmins work for the same company ever since the firs server was baptised and never have to dig trough the records of his procedessor or the administration department on a frustrating and time-consuming quest for keys.

If it's so easy for a third party tool to show the keys, why not provide you're customers with a free (I already paid for my key), safe and Microsoft signed application to provide transparency for its own licensing? 

I guess this is not the forum to find help with my scripts, yet I would like to thank Tim, Meinolf and Darell for their helpfull replies and professionalism.

Regards,

Jelle

January 26th, 2011 9:06am

I do not see what the problem is with Microsoft hiding the keys in the system? Its really the sys admin or whoever is installing the software responsibility to look after and manage software licenses. You should not really rely on the software to provide you with the license key prior to entering it. This does not only apply to Microsoft but all software in general.

What happens if you want a list of all your user / device CALs? Some Microsoft products do not allow you to enter these into the system and you the admin or whoever is responsible for purchasing the licenses are supposed to store these keys (pieces of paper with the key on) in a safe place.

If you have not managed your licensing correctly you cannot really blame the software. You will need to use third part software to obtain the key. If you have your own Microsoft licensing activation server you will be able to find out how many activations and work out what the key is of that.

It does not matter where you go, the answer is third party if you do not have your license documentation to hand. Obviously using third party to obtain OS keys which are not already available via the software itself is a risk.

  • Marked as answer by Tim QuanModerator Friday, January 28, 2011 2:20 AM
  • Unmarked as answer by Jelle2006 Wednesday, February 09, 2011 11:23 AM
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January 26th, 2011 10:19am

I can understand it is the responsability of the buyer to maintain his licensing but it is one step too far hiding this key. This hinders more the legitimate buyer then provide security settings versus hackers. It even encourages data mining by forcing ppl to use third party software. If a server is remotely compromised, the hacker will not think twice about installing a 3th part tool to fetch the key. It only hinders a legitimate buyer who is physicually at the server (that access is 100% his responsability) , now  he has to pay extra to fetch his key. 

For example, an anual license key check. A server park will typicually consist of OEM and other types of licenses. Presuming you don't have a record at hand, are u really telling me to pull each server from his rack,  read the key, log into the server, install a third party tool on each of those servers and make the comparission? 

Same conclusions can be drawn in DRM protection.

If a third party tool can fetch keys without a problem MS should help me with my script in recreating this behaviour.

February 9th, 2011 11:41am

Hello,

I don't agree that MS does this for security purposes...

In windows server 2012 you can view the last 5 digits of your activation key.

This is indeed needed for accounting purposes when you have virtual + physical + ESXi clusters.

They all use a different licensing structure.

I am however still looking for a way to find the activation for server 2008...

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July 28th, 2015 10:35pm

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