productid

[ibit-matt]

HI guys

Can someone please clear something up for me. I was at work the other day and I need to find out the serial numbers of the vista installations so I thought I would cheak the registry for them so I went here

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

and found the product id which looks like this

xxxxxx-oem-xxxxxxx-xxxxxx

Is this my vista serial number just encoded?????

 

[Joan Archer]

The OEM in there means that the machine came with Vista already installed by the machine manufacturer.

 

[ibit-matt]

How do actually find my serial number in the registry without using software to find it?

 

[Joan Archer]

I don't know about the registry it's not somewhere I go poking around in
If you go into the control panel and click on Welcome Centre then more details that will give you the serial number which is different to the Product number you have to use when installing the OS. If it's preinstalled the key should be on a sticker on the side of the machine or the bottom if it's a laptop.