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

[lugosi84]

Hello,
I have a situation where I have a laptop that has a Windows key (25 character key - 5 groups of 5 characters) that is partially worn away. Some of the characters are very readable, while others are not. For the ones that are not readable, I can take a guess as to what they are.

What I would like is a program where I can enter a base Windows key and all of my guesses for each character. The program would then generate all of the possible key combinations from that information so that I can check them off as I try activating Windows with them. I guess the most ideal version of this program could try each of the combinations by brute force, but that may or may not be do-able.

I reformatted the laptop and now I cannot enter the key because I cannot read all of the characters.

Could anybody help with something like this?

Thanks,

Jim

[MilesAhead]

I'm not familiar with the 5 x 5 keyboard.  But if it generates virtual key codes why not try a program that just echos the key code?

http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/80592-how-to-capture-virtual-key-code-of-a-keypress/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd375731(v=vs.85).aspx

[skwire]

I think he means the Windows OS registration key...as in the sticker on laptop is faded.  Not the keyboard...

[lugosi84]

Yes, it is the OS registration key on the bottom of the laptop that is faded.

Thank you so much for your quick attention to my request

[lugosi84]

I have a degree in computer programming, but it has been SO LONG since I have done any programming. I plan on trying my hand at this, but I know that you guys can do it a lot quicker than I can, and a lot better:)

[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...

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.

1. You're basically asking for a keygen which, in most (all?) cases, is a no-no.
2. 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

[MilesAhead]

I'm guessing Windows uses only upper case characters and digits 0 - 9 for each character in the key.  Someone may correct my math but since there are 5 groups of 5 characters that should be equal to 36 to the 25th power, if you had to generate all permutations.

For a partial it would be 36 to the power of each missing character.  So if there were 4 unreadable characters that would be 36 to the 4th power, or 1679616 permutations.  I think MS server would flag you long before you got through 'em all.