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W i n d o w s  9 5 / 9 8 ( s e )

P r o d u c t   I D   /  K e y

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What if you need to reinstall Windows and
you have lost your Windows Product ID (W95)
or Product Key (W98)?

Before you wipe your Hard Disk you can
still retreive it from the Registry.

Instructions are shown here for both Windows
95 and 98(se), for systems that you can boot
into and for those you cannot, and therefore
need to access the information via MS-DOS.



==== SYSTEM WORKING ====

If you can boot into Windows (either Normal
or Safe Mode) the do the following:


== Windows 95 : What to do

1.	Open the Control Panel to the 
	System/General tab and the 
	ProductID is displayed there.


== Windows 98 : What to do

1.	Click Start, Run (or Windows Key+R)
	and enter REGEDIT, then click OK

2.	In Registry Editor navigate to

	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

3.	The CD Key is stored in the 
	ProductKey value in the right pane,
	in the format:

	ABCDE-1F2GH-IJ3K4-L5MN6-7O8PQ



==== SYSTEM NOT WORKING ====

If the system is not working, start the computer 
with a floppy startup disk.

== Windows 95 : What to do

1.	At the A: prompt, type: 
	C:\Windows\Command\Find /N "ProductID" C:\Windows\System.dat

2.	Note: ProductID must be typed in 
	upper and lower case letters as 
	shown and there is a space after:
	 "Find" after: "/N" and after: 
	"ProductID"

== Windows 98 : What to do

1.	At the A: prompt, type:
	C:\Windows\Command\Find /N "ProductKey" C:\Windows\System.dat

2.	Note: ProductKey must be typed in 
	upper and lower case letters as 
	shown and there is a space after:
	 "Find" after: "/N" and after: 
	"ProductKey"

== Both systems

If the hard drive has been formatted, 
contact the maker of the computer if the
system was provided with the computer.

If it is a retail version of Windows,
contact Microsoft.




==== Source =====
Doug Knox
news:win98_gen_discussion

and

Ron Badour, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://badour.freewebsites.com/index.html