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IDEA: Program to list possible Windows keys based on partial information

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lugosi84:
Just a little note regarding how I see this program working........
For each character, there might be the ability to enter several different guesses for that position, for example:

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Q 3 B                B     
G    8                8
      3

Does this make sense?

MilesAhead:
I think he means the Windows OS registration key...as in the sticker on laptop is faded.  Not the keyboard...
-skwire (April 04, 2014, 09:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

I took "activating windows" as making the window active.  Oh well.

Edit: I would be curious to find out of the server interprets this as a "dictionary attack" and breaks off server contact.  I would be prone to calling Microsoft and explaining the situation before getting too deep into the 1s and 0s.

skwire:
@lugosi84:  What you're asking for, programmatically, is pretty trivial.  However, there are some problems that I can foresee with your request.


* You're basically asking for a keygen which, in most (all?) cases, is a no-no.
* Depending on the number of positions you can make out, you might end up with many hundreds or thousands of combinations.

lugosi84:
Yes, skwire, I understand that this COULD be taken as a keygen, and I completely understand your trepidation. I can assure you that, in my case, it is not. I work at a computer shop, and a customer brought us a laptop that had obviously been well used and the key sticker on the bottom is pretty worn. There was no way to fix the laptop, except by re-formatting, and now I am left in a not so good situation.

I can clearly read some of the characters and others are not so legible, but I can guess at them (there are probably 5-7 out of the 25 characters that are less than readable).

It is my plan that I will have to take a chunk out of my days and try the possible combinations (which I understand could be quite numerous) to see if I can help this customer out.

I started to write a list out of the possible combinations, but that got very cumbersome very quickly.

lugosi84:
I guess there is really no need for this program anymore, although I would like to see how it can be done. My boss was able to get the key read and the computer has been given back to the customer.

Thanks for your consideration.

Jim

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