Microsoft CD Keys, CD Key Generator, Genuine Advantage Validation. I am no fan of Microsoft for a lot of different reasons which I won't go through here. However, one of the things that I think is so insane is the silly CD Keys that they put on the cases of the CD. Anyone who is thorough enough to copy a CD would certainly copy the CD Key. However, the average guy who just files the CD away after a successful installation may very well separate the actual CD from the CD case (which are often not clearly marked). Fortunately just about any Microsoft CD Key will do. So this web site is to help out people who have legitimately bought/received a Microsoft CD (non-OEM variety), but have lost their CD case with the key. If you have a CD from Microsoft that you got from an OEMer (for example, it came with your computer), follow the link to MS OEM Numbers. I just recently heard that XP installation CDs have a valid CD key right on the CD. Explore the CD and navigate to the i386 folder. Open the file and scroll down to the last line. You will find your Windows XP Product key there. It was there on an old XP CD SP2 I had around. If you find a CD key on your installation CD, please let me know how it works out. My guess is that these keys on the CD are best to use as there would be the same CD key for thousands of computers (all the CDs which were printed with that key) so Microsoft would have a hard time invalidating a CD key which is used legitimately by thousands of computers. The CD I had has a key of "CD87T-HFP4C-V7X7H-8VY68-W7D7M". I wonder if that key will work for anyone else (my XP computers all have legitimate Microsoft keys already. Can you help me. I am now preparing a suit against Microsoft for misrepresenting their copyrights under the DMCA and so on. I also believe that their CD keys are primarily intended to defraud consumers from their legal rights to use the software (in the hope that they will lose the CD keys and have to buy another license, this time directly from Microsoft). So, I would like to include a class action suit of consumers who. purchased a computer with OEM licenses. lost their key. had to reinstall their software, but were blocked by Microsoft key validation software, and. purchased an additional license at a store (hence were defrauded by Microsoft) or. used information on my site to permit them to reinstall their legally purchased software. If you are a U.S. resident (preferrably of upstate New York) and can document your purchases as above (what a pain), please send me an email at (take out the space). I will need your full name and address for inclusion in the suit (as a co-plaintiff). Eventually you will need to provide me with a signed declaration that you purchased the computer and the other things above (I will write up the declaration for you) as well as documentation of your purchases. Thanks for any help you can provide. This web page is now located at its 139th home, so it seems to bother the people at Microsoft. My reading of the law is that there is nothing illegal contained in it (as CD keys are neither copyrighted nor trademarked), but that doesn't keep them from complaining to our current host and getting the pages deleted. I was able to get a copy of a previous host's original complaint (they got another one later and booted me). They also got the DNS (domain name) for our friends at pulled until they stopped providing a permanent link to this page. Sigh! It would be best to bookmark the link is That page has a button along the top that will take you to the current server. What a bother, but it keeps the information accessible. If you have a partially or fully functioning system, you can visit: or to get the current keys you are using (so that you will have them if you need them later). Right now that seems the easiest way to go with the pitfalls that MS is making for us. High School and University Students. It looks like Microsoft has opened up free versions of Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Virtual PC via download for students. They do have a verification program (which is understandable) so I can't say how well it works. Check out the full list at Good luck. Genuine Advantage. In 2005 Microsoft started introducing a new program to trip users up, Genuine Advantage. It appears that Genuine Advantage is somewhat of a misnomer as the only useful thing it does is generate more revenue for Microsoft. For now the best way to avoid this 'license checker' is to never agree to the EULA that goes with it (for now watch for the title Genuine Advantage, but be cautious of any program that requires a new EULA). Given its very negative value to the customer, Microsoft insists that you agree to their terms in an agreement before installing it. If you don't agree it even gives you the option of never being asked again about it. Sadly this is only after the fact advice. I have heard that you can roll back your system to the previous state before the last set of updates and remove it. With the latest version of Windowns Update, you can't get normal updates without verifying your license. However, you still get the security updates (which is good as Windows is like swiss cheese (full of holes) for viruses), but you can't get the latest enhancements (which is also good as you hardly need new bugs and holes for viruses to exploit). For example, you won't be able to get Internet Explorer (IE) 7, but you probably shouldn't be running IE or Outlook anyway. Those are the two best ways to get viruses. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are each quite nice and not nearly as virus prone as their Microsoft equivalents (and they are free. Microsoft published a procedure that removes the pre-release verions of Genuine Advantage at For your convenience I have included the excerpt that worked for me (I have two systems which have Windows XP installed and two certificates of authenticity, but only one was installed with the 'correct' key for the CD I was using at the time). If you need to change your CD key as Genuine Advantage doesn't like your current one, visit for a description of how to change a bad key to a good one. I have two systems that have Windows XP installed (along with other OSes of course) and one had been installed with a generated key (though I have two licenses for XP). When they switched to the real Genuine Advantage I was able to give in my real CD key (from the certificates) and stop the annoying messages. However, now I can't test methods to get around their license checks (they don't tell you how to go back to the old 'bad' key). Drats. On there is a package by Matt (no last name, I wonder why) which gets you around WGA (or Windows Genuine Advantage) checking. You can get it at If that link doesn't work for you, you can try. It is really five files. Opening it will show you the five files and you should open the file It explains what to do with the four other files. It mentions that it works with pirated copies of Windows XP and Office, but it will also work with a legally purchased copy of Windows XP and Office in case you have lost the legal key (this page does not encourage pirating software). Please try it out and let me know how it works for you. I have checked it for viruses and trojans, but we all need to be careful. There is a new procedure for getting around Genuine Advantage with Windows XP SP3 which is a little cleaner than past approached. You can try it at: I am happy with SP2 and haven't tried it, so please let me know how it works for you. Thanks. I have a link to a manual procedure for getting around activation. It also included a link to which does the update for you. Vista and Genuine Advantage checks. There seems to be a procedure for getting around the activation and check in procedures for Vista. You can find it (for now) at: I haven't been able to try it as I am avoiding Vista (I seem to be such a Luddite). Please let me know how it works for you and I can update these pages. Windows Activation. With the advent of MS Office 2000 SR1 and all the XP and 2002 releases, MS seems to have gone the route of mandatory registration which makes reinstallations and such really difficult when you lose the old key. There is a program that seems to be able to test if a key meets the MS requirements and can also generate keys at random until it finds one that should work. It supports for Windows XP, Office XP and Visio XP called. There are new generations of key generators for Windows XP and Office which run faster and can generate SP1 and SP2 acceptable keys. I don't have any Windows XP SP1 CD's or MS Office (I run OpenOffice which is free, open source (so it should be available for a while), handles MS format files, and works pretty well (you can download from )), so I can't test the new features. If the standard doesn't work for you, try. Recently (end of 2007) virus scanners have been flagging and deleting They seem to think it is a trojan, but I have had my copy for over ten years and no one has reported it trying to get beyond firewalls. I am considering contacting McAfee and asking them to really check it (the error they give is that it looks like a generic trojan which is to say it was built with tools commonly used by hackers). If you learn anything more about this, please send it on to me. Thanks. From what I have heard it can generate keys for both the older and newer versions of Windows XP and is much faster. also generates keys for Office XP (and these are reported to work with Office 2003, even home edition) and Windows Server 2003 keys. However, to generate SP2 keys for corporate (VLK) licenses, you need to specify the range of 640-500000 to 640-599999. Please let me know how it works for you at (take out the space). There is also a nicer program to activate your Windows XP installation without contacting Microsoft. There is also a procedure to get past activation for XP as described at It did not work for one person, please let me know how it works for you. Office 2007 Key Generator. Someone sent me a key generator that might be for Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007. You can try it at Just press the 'search' button and it will generate a key. The author is working on an addition to activate Vista, but that doesn't work yet. Please let me know how these work for you as I don't have Office 2007 so can't really test it. I myself have switched to OpenOffice as it is open source and free. It can read and write MS formatted files and works quite nicely (I use it at home and prefer it to MS Office which I use at work). You can get it at. Traditional CD Keys. Another person sent me a procedure for getting around the need for a CD key with Win 98 and Win ME. Here are the instructions as they were sent to me. If they are useful to you let me know. If you can make them clearer, send a new version back to me. They also tell you where the CD Key and product ID are kept in the registry so that you can look them up with an existing installation. If you want to make up your own key of the form nnn-nnnnnnn, it seems that the first three digits can be any number you like while the last seven digits must add up to a multiple of seven. A really boring (but easy to type key) is. This key has been used successfully with. BackOffice 4.5 (Beta 2. Flight Simulator 98 (OEM. Liquid Motion 1.0. Monster Truck Madness. Office 97 Pro. Publisher 98. SQL Server Enterprise Edition. Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition. Visual Studio 6 (Enterprise and Pro) and 97. I have also read that if you take an upgrade CD key and add one to the first set of numbers (whether three or four digit) then the CD key will be for the full edition. If that didn't work, try this. I am not sure what CD this is from, but I am compiling a list of all Microsoft applications that this CD Key works with. It seems to have been the standard with older CD's (95 thru 97). This key has been used successfully with. Exchange 5.5. Flight Simulator 95. Monster Truck Madness. Office 98 for MacIntosh. Office 2001 for MacIntosh. Publisher 97. Publisher 98 (with 0465 in first block. Sidewinder Game Pad CD. Visual Basic 4.0 Enterprise. Visual Basic 6.0a Professional Edition. Visual C++ 4.0 and 5.0. Visual C++ 4.0 Professional. Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition. Visual C++ 6.0 Pro. Visual Studio 97. Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. Windows 95/98 Plus. Windows 95 Upgrade. Windows 98 Beta 3. If you are installing an OEM CD on a PC with an existing copy of Windows, you can sometimes get around the complaint that you it only works on new PC's by deleting or renaming the file Likewise, if you have an upgrade CD and it doesn't see the version of Windows that you need, often by just copying that file from an exisiting installation (or CD or diskette, wherever you can find it) will satisfy the installation program (pressing F8 will give you options on boot. Please send me an E-mail take out the space) if you find other CD's that it works with. 98 CD's seem to require a longer CD Key (extra digit). If you need four digits for the first section, try. This key has been used successfully with. MS Exchange Server 5.0 and 5.5. If you find another CD that this CD key works with, please let me know which CD at (take out the space. So if the CD Key above did not work, try this. This key has been used successfully with. Office 97 Pro. Power Point 97 Upgrade. Publisher 5.0 and 98. Microsoft Works. If that one doesn't work for you, try this. This key has been used successfully with. Front Page 98. Office 97 Pro. Publisher 98, English, Spanish Version. Visual Basic 5.0 Professional and Enterprise Edition. Please send me an E-mail take out the space) if you find other CD's that it works with. And thanks to the people who have helped keep me informed of what CD's require what key. The format for the nnnn-nnnnnnn. The first four digits seem to make a difference, but even versus odd totals are rumored to indicate an OEM versus upgrade CD (this hasn't been worked out). The last seven digits still must add up to a multiple of seven, but certain combinations like all ones and anything ending with a zero are disallowed. 4157-7777777 seems to work and is easier to type. If your computer came with Windows 98 (i.e. you did not upgrade your computer to Windows 98), you may need to use an OEM number which you find via this link. With Windows 98, MS seems to have gone crazy with the length of the CD Key or Product Key. There see to only be about three common families of CD keys, OEM, full retail, and upgrade retail. The main thing seems to be just using a CD key from the same family. Two less common families are corporate (which can sometimes bypass the mandatory registration process) and academic. Windows 98 Second Edition keys are broken out in a separate section below. Some Windows 98 CD Keys you can try are. R3TQR-PQTKG-HBVQ9-YBFH3-CGCRT worked with German full, English full (OEM), UK Edition, Compaq English, Spanish Full, Dutch, Compaq and IBM Recovery CDs, and U.S. Second Edition (SE) OEM, Dell SE laptop, Toshiba 4100XDVD. Q2YHH-GYWV2-MDXCD-H9P2X-HYVMM worked with several versions including SE (Second Edition), UK Edition, and US OEM. R34DV-VB6WM-XMHHV-WM4Q2-WBB3Y is supposed to work with all version of first edition Windows 98 (4.10.98), UK Edition. T7J8Q-MH7RP-9H9J2-2HVFG-C3X2M worked with four U.S. retail versions (4.10.1998) as well as second edition version. JJK9P-G8JYJ-X24RC-XTFJ4-K9W4W worked with English retail version (CA), UK Edition. MMHK7-QPHQG-KMTP9-7GTJY-JQ6XM worked with English Retail Second Edition v4.10.2222A. Also, HP 4440 recovery disk, UK Edition. XB88B-9B96V-CRJPG-64882-GQBDD Full verison, not upgrade, also Second Edition, UK Edition. DJK2X-6XFJB-Q9J7J-WGC7P-WMHYG Compaq, HP, IBM, etc. UK Edition. HGBRM-RBK3V-M9FXV-YCXDK-V38J4 Apr 98 Beta. MD97J-QC7R7-TQJGD-3V2WM-W7PVM came with English Developer's Connection Version. Seems to work with same CD's as T7J8Q. above. Also Japanese version. DCTB2-4RV9D-3TXP2-F89JK-26XWQ Universal key for all languages (Denmark. K4HVD-99TJ9-6CRXG-C9G68-R92D3 OEM French WIN98SE. BQRYF-BQ4BF-Q4VFX-D9PRC-YTCV7 French Update CD. HBM43-PD86Y-9R8HM-4GM8H-TVG3Q UK Edition. BHB6V-JYFJ8-V9C47-QDB6B-JCTXK UK Version. Q988C-P7VK2-K2K7R-QX9W9-7CDW3 UK Edition. RV8RQ-6YTPD-HTPRC-C6G3G-TFKYF Upgrade. QP46B-G4WJ9-7PPBJ-RK7R8-TFM3B (also SE. Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade CD Key that should bypass the requirement to have Win95 installed. H26W6-897MW-6T4WY-P3G98-GR342 Win 98 Upgrade Second Edition, bypasses Win95 requirement. Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) CD Keys you can try are. RW9MG-QR4G3-2WRR9-TG7BH-33GXB Full Edition, English UK, French. DKJQY-TMJGF-BYYPQ-Q2HB7-W2K3V Upgrade English, U.S. Version. K4HVD-Q9TJ9-6CRX9-C9G68-RQ2D3 Win 98 Upgrade Second Edition, also 1st edition full retail and W98SE from MSDN (english version. HQ6K2-QPC42-3HWDM-BF4KJ-W4XWJ Win 98 Second Edition English, also Danish, Norwegian and Norwegian OEM, UK Edition (product ID 16203-OEM-0000007-00651. JHD22-PY6C8-GGTJC-HYYWT-TF7MY Ver 4.10.2222A Retail. T7FCQ-XTD3Q-YY6QD-TGYJQ-7BPJJ UK Version. HQ88R-P7JWC-4FYHY-DK6MV-HT3CD Plus SE U.S English Ver 4.10.2222A. P767C-WKHX7-62TFV-H6XTP-JXFQM works with ver. 4.10.2222 English, UK Edition, also Packard Bell Master Recovery CD. MKMXV-CDQGH-98HCX-3HM2C-G3T7B, UK Edition. XQY3P-8MMD2-JC6M2-HJDYW-P6H7B, UK Edition. d6xwh-xkvv6-t2f87-kb2kh-9h3yg from Compaq OEM system, UK Edition. BBH2G-D2VK9-QD4M9-F63XB-43C33 Chinese Language, Full Installation. J3R3W-VBVDF-2496X-46TQB-HH8BY Australian English. Product Key 792807368, UK Edition. TR9TQ-F4JRW-FXM4G-3H7V2-FH4J6 UK and Chinese Version. W7XTC-2YWFB-K6BPT-GMHMV-B6FDY Second Edition English. QMPMF-23D8R-83GV6-MMR3C-BQ7C3 UK Edition. QCWJD-F94YQ-KWQXX-M48M3-MCFQW UK Edition. WTY8X-CQP24-MX9TD-GBBD9-JKCXP (upgrade. WGJTT-2Q9MV-3TB8B-DQ77Y-C6QKB UK Edition. TVYGH-V683W-3CWT9-MQ468-G66WR Upgrade. DBRCB-D43K3-VY4G4-KVG4H-6FK9M Australia, Compaq. PRDDH-83JD9-G6PK4-684GF-6Y73B Dell OEM English and Dell upgrade. If any of these keys work for you, could you send me the key which worked for you (first five characters is fine, I know the rest), the language of your version (English, Spanish, etc.) and anything else you know about its origin. I would like to be able to advise people which key to try as it is such a pain to type in these absurdly long keys. Send them to me at (take out the space). If you have to use yet another Windows 98 CD Key, you could also send me the key along with what you know about this version and I will post it here in case the CD case gets separated from the CD and you can use this page as an archive of the key. A most kind person sent me a load of other Windows OS keys. I will present them all in a separate page for you to look through if none of the above worked. As a last resort, one person called Microsoft at 1-800-652-2342 when no keys worked with his version of Windows 98. They then promptly looked up a working key for his computer and sent a CD key to him directly via E-Mail (with no hassles. 99 CD's have gone back to the shorter CD Key, but they have different formats from the older keys. Try these. This key is from MS Money 99. Both this key and the following have been used with Visual Studio 6 Professional Edition. The above key has been used with Visual Basic 6 Fundamentals. This key is from MS Works 99. A Serial Number for Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition is. This serial number is also supposed to work with Visual C++, FoxPro, J++. as the Product ID for the 6.0 Professional Edition.
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