Keyfinder v1.4b4 saved me a whole lot money and aggravation!!
 

<div align=justify>I was installing various programs to my 82-year-old grandmother's new computer and while attempting to install Office97 it prompted me for a product key or CD Key, which needless to say, was 'who knows where' either in storage somewhere or most likely lost. As soon as got home I began looking for it where I hoped I had kept it, but with most things like that, some important instruction manual or phone number of a relative you haven't seen in years, it was gone. I started to search the mess that is support.microsoft.com naively hoping for some actual support for my dilemma. I soon learned that Microsoft is not interested in supporting their past products, which in their language is "money they've already made", but in selling more of the same software with a different name and a larger price tag. Feeling as though she would be forced to buy their stupid product, because, at her age, learning a whole different word processing program would probably kill her, I searched Google and found the light!
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Keyfinder v1.4b4 (252 Kb)

"The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v1.4b4 is a freeware utility that retrieves your Product Key (cd key) used to install windows from your registry. It has the options to copy the key to clipboard, save it to a text file, or print it for safekeeping. It works on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, .NET, Office 97, and Office XP."

I would be very careful with something like this. It could be an easy way to install a Trojan onto your system.

there is a universal key that you can use on just about every M$ product before XP. But posting it here might be against the rules so I better not.

Well that was helpfull. I guess.:hmm:

you could PM him the info he needs...

Praise the Lawd!
...

Thanks for the warning, too late, done it, and I'll just hope for the best, besides Nana is happy!

Thank you again!

By the way, does virus scan programs find Trojans? Probably not all, huh?

Well, you can find huge lists of serial numbers on the web. I have a vmware install with an undoable disk, so I can run a keygen, then revert the drive image. Haven't pirited anything in years though ( i use linux now, damnwd near everything is free, and what isn't, I pay for)

I have a similar problem, I need to replace my hard drive and am running win 2k upgraded from win 98. I have lost my 98 serial key, and you must first reinstall 98 in order to reinstall 2k. But I'm stuck with no key for my 98. Any ideas?

crewsor: you sure you can't install 2k, and at some point in the installation process insert the 98 CD to verify that you're "legally" upgrading? I seem to remember things installing like that, but it might have been office upgrades, not OS upgrades...

That might work with a win 98 cd, but unfortunately I have a HP, and they don't give you a windows disk only a recovery disk with 98 on it. I tried putting that in at the prompt, but no dice.

It does, but only the older ones, trojans have a way of evolving one step ahead of virus scan programs.

Thanks...this will help my tech work alot!

the universal key was like 0001000011 or something silly like that if I remember correctly.

Maybe the Binars from Star Trek had something to do with it.