Belarc and computer's Product keys (CD, email, screen, reinstall)

[nezlie]

Yesterday I downloaded Belarc Advisor on three pc's. Two of them run Vista Home Premium and one runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

The Product keys shown by Belarc for the Vista pc's are not the actual keys that are on the stickers that came with the pc's.

The Product key shown by Belarc for the Windows 7 pc is the actual Product key that came with the pc and which I have used to re-install Win 7.

Any idea why there is such a difference?

[NHDave]

The product key that shows up for a factory installed image (Dell, HP, etc) will never match the product key on the sticker. If you had checked the Windows 7 box before you did a reinstall it wouldn't have matched either, perfectly normal.

The keys Belarc returned are what are known as SLP product keys (System Locked Pre-installation), an explanation can be found here.

http://www.fooli****.com/tech-info/slp-product-keys/

[edit] Grrrr, stupid CD language filter, the domain in that link should be foolish it.com, remove the space.

[stanley-88888888]

Originally Posted by NHDave

[edit] Grrrr, stupid CD language filter, the domain in that link should be foolish it.com, remove the space.

haha, i knew son someone who worked at fitness exchange and their email would be automatically flagged as spam.

[nezlie]

Good article Dave. Thanks.

The two Vista pc's were purchased at a retail store years ago. I can understand how Belarc pulled the SLP keys on them and how they differ from the sticker Product key on the pc's.

The Windows 7 pc was actually a refurbished pc that I bought on eBay, and the seller upgraded from XP to Windows 7. When I ran Belarc, it pulled the Windows 7 Product key (which I have since used).... not an SLP key.

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by nezlie

The Windows 7 pc was actually a refurbished pc that I bought on eBay, and the seller upgraded from XP to Windows 7. When I ran Belarc, it pulled the Windows 7 Product key (which I have since used).... not an SLP key.

That's because the Windows 7 installation was not an OEM, it was installed with a retail product key.

[nezlie]

Good to know.

If a person doesn't know their Product key, they can run Belarc, and if the OS was installed with a retail key, Belarc will retrieve it. If it was installed via OEM, they are sol with an unusable key. And that's the way it goes. Thanks again.

[jcgriff2]

For OEM Windows 8.1/8, this command will yield the product key:

powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKe y"

Paste it in to an Admin CMD screen.

[irman]

OK ... , so Belarc is a good proggie, and would help me ot keep my Sysytem up to date.

So it find this:
CpuJan2015-1972971 Critical Oracle Java SE Critical Patch Update for Java 8.0.25.18 64-bit

When you click on that link,
Oracle Critical Patch Update - January 2015
it takes you to a whole slew of
info of which nothing makes sense,
at least not for me ...

So ... , not so sure about Belarc ! (on my own)

Anybody can shed some light about this ?

[jcgriff2]

Not sure if Belarc would tell you that Java is out of date or not. It does seem to do a decent job re: Windows Updates, but then again so does Windows Updates itself!

No Java installed on any system here - too many bad infection experiences. The kids know that Java is verboten.

[irman]

Originally Posted by jcgriff2

No Java installed on any system here - too many bad infection experiences. The kids know that Java is verboten.

There you go !!
Better this answer than some kind of gibberish I do not understand.

Thanks for the heads-up.
I will leave Java alone !