Get Product Keys

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vbnetdev

I have been assigned an application that is suppose to take an inventory of
machines including the product keys for the systems. System operating
systems included are Windows 2003, XP, 2000 and NT. Any ideas on how to get
this information on these computers in a vb.net Winforms app?

Thanks,
Kelly
 
This I was aware works with 2000 and XP. Do you know if it will work with
Win Vista, 2003, NT and 98?
 
Hi Kelly,

The sample that Terry provides works with Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and
Vista.

In Windows 95, 98 and Me, Windows product key is stored in plain text in
the Registry and in the file system.dat. It resides in the
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows\CurrentVersion" registry
branch. For Windows 95, the registry key is "ProductID" and for Windows 98
and Me, the registry key is "ProductKey". So, for these platforms, you
should change the registry branch and key in the function to get the value
of the product key.

As for the OS platform, you could use Enviroment.OSVersion.Platform to
determine what type of the platform the application is run on.

Hope this helps.
If you have anything unclear, please feel free to let me know.


Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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