Search for Windows key turns up other cool tools

Have you ever been in the annoying situation of having Windows installed on a machine but you had no idea where the card with the CD key was? This happened to us yesterday, and after searching high and low in the office and drawing a blank, we went looking for a solution.

We found some online help, but there is a certain amount of confusion in the advice. Many sites suggest running up regedit to find the CD key but this method works only for Windows 95, 98 and ME.

The easiest way to find your CD keys is by using tools you can download for free. There's ViewKeyXP  and the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder . The former works only with Windows XP, while the latter works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP and Server 2003. Keyfinder also supports changing the key in an installed Windows 95, 98, ME or XP system.

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Have you ever been in the annoying situation of having Windows installed on a machine but you had no idea where the card with the CD key was? This happened to us yesterday, and after searching high and low in the office and drawing a blank, we went looking for a solution.

We found some online help, but there is a certain amount of confusion in the advice. Many sites suggest running up regedit to find the CD key but this method works only for Windows 95, 98 and ME.

The easiest way to find your CD keys is by using tools you can download for free. There's ViewKeyXP  and the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder . The former works only with Windows XP, while the latter works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP and Server 2003. Keyfinder also supports changing the key in an installed Windows 95, 98, ME or XP system.

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder also is supposed to be able to display the CD keys for Office 97 and Office XP but couldn't do so on one of our desktop machines. But we have evidence that the machine is horribly mangled and due for a rebuild, or termination. The latest version of Keyfinder  - a beta release - can find the keys for all the components of Office 2003 and let you modify user information.

Another informational tool worth checking out is Everest from Lavalys Consulting Group . Everest comes in two flavors: Home Edition, which is free, and Professional, which sells for $30.

Everest is a system-analysis tool that provides full information on hardware and software (the latter is limited in the Home Edition), along with data on DirectX, overclocking, UPS and tape drive support. But wait, there's more! There's also diagnostics, benchmarks, tweaking features, Web links to all installed application and driver providers, and a built-in hardware database. Everest is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, produces reports in TXT, HTML and MHTML formats, and is localized for 27 languages.

The Professional version also provides XML, CSV, MIF and INI reports; visual audit statistics; database connection to MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Sybase, Borland Interbase and Firebird; secure remote connection within an IP network; remote monitoring of anti-virus databases, network traffic, processes and change tracking; and statistics analysis of uptime and downtime. Oh, and all versions will find your CD key.

While we were researching key location utilities we stumbled across another cool utility: nLite , which lets you create customized Windows installations for Windows 2000, XP and 2003. NLite is published - for free! - by Dino Nuhagic, who lives in Croatia.

Nuhagic describes nLite as "a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make a bootable image ready for burning on CD or testing in virtual machines. So with nLite you will be able to have a Windows installation CD that doesn't install, or even contain on CD, unwanted components."

He goes on to point out that "Maybe you won't believe it at first but it's not easy to not install what you don't want when it comes to Windows. It involves many setup files to be edited carefully without interfering with basic Windows components."