Strange keycode

[wfooshee]

I had to reinstall a Windows XP yesterday for a customer who got whacked by backdoor.haxdoor.D. I kept thinking I got the machine cleaned up, but as soon as he reconnected to the LAN, it came back. He can log in another machine with no problem, so I gave up and asked him for his CD packages.

The reload went fine right up to asking for the keycode. The screen has the regular prompt for the 25-character alpha-numeric code, but the sticker on the PC has a number in the format xxxxxx-xxx-xxx-xxx, all numeric. The sticker is clearly labeled Windows XP Professional, has a MS hologram and everything. I've never seen this, and he states that the CD is the one that came with his PC. It looks to me like it might be a volume license or OEM edition keycode, but his CD is the regular edition, hologram surface, XP Pro SP1, like out of a retail box. I don't have a keycode for that CD, it's in his package in a plain sleeve, with the Windows install guide.

Am I right in thinking that he's gotten his CD switched with another somehow? Is the 15-digit key a genuine article that I just have to find the actual original CD for?

Thanks

 

[timroop]

It sounds like the sticker is the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and not the Product Key Label. The Key should be located on a license certificate or on the manual that came with the CD.

Don't you love it when clients don't keep up with documents?

Hope this helps.

Tim Roop
"If you can do something about it, why waste time getting upset? If you can't do anything about it, why bother getting upset on top of it? -Shantideva

 

[bcastner]

CD key - 25 alphanumeric characters long
Product ID - 20 numeric characters long
COA key - 25 alphanumeric characters long
VLK key - 25 alphanumeric characters long
OEM key - 25 alphanumeric characters long
MSDN key - 25 alphanumeric characters long

From the CD key, and the installed hardware, is generated the two keys that are necessary for authentication:

The Installation ID is comprised of two different pieces of information — the product ID and a hardware hash (a hash is a numeric value derived through a mathematical formula and based upon some other, original value). The product ID is unique to the installation of Windows and is created from the product key used during installation. Each product key delivered with retail boxed software is unique, and the product ID it creates is unique. Microsoft uses the product ID for other purposes in addition to product activation such as when requesting product support. The product ID can be found by viewing the Properties of My Computer (an example of a product ID is 12345-123-1234567-12345).

The hardware hash is an eight byte value that is created by running 10 different pieces of information from the PC's hardware components through a one-way mathematical transformation This means that the resultant hash value cannot be backwards calculated to determine the original values. Further, only a portion of the resulting hash value is used in the hardware hash in order to ensure complete anonymity.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/evaluate/xpactiv.mspx

Whatever you are looking at, it is not sufficient to allow an intallation of XP.