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Software keys are used to validate your copy of a piece of software is genuine. Windows computers, when supplied by manufactureres, usually use what is know as a O.E.M Key. This is a key the manufacturer uses to install Windows on all it's computers. This key is not the same as the key printed on the "Sticker of Authenticity" attached to the outside of the computer. For this reason, if you have an office of computers supplied by (say) Lenovo, you will likely see that the Windows keys for these computers is the same. This is correct and not a fault in Open-AudIT.

 

Open-AudIT will retrieve quite a few Windows software keys such as Windows XP, Office 2003, etc as well as many third party programs such as Adobe Acrobat, AutoCAD, Crystal Reports, VMware Workstation, etc.

 

Unfortunately not all (Microsoft) keys can be retrieved. Microsoft chenaged the way it "stores" keys for Windows and Office and not all versions store their key on the hard drive. Some versions of Windows 7 (Enterprise and Professional being two examples) do not record the key at all on the hard drive. They may use a service called MAK (Multiple Activation Keys) and/or KMS (Key Management Service) and/or VLK (Volume License Keys) These keys are non-existant and an attempt to retrieve them results in a string like "BBBB-BBBB-BBBB-BBBB-BBBB".

 

So called "Click-to-Run" keys are also not able to be retrieved.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/what-is-click-to-run-HA101868855.aspx

 

Microsoft article about Volume Activation

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ff716616.aspx

 

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