Friday, September 24, 2010

Product Key

The Picture on the left shows What is called in the software industry the C.O.A. Certificate of Authenticity. This sticker indicates that the operating system on your computer whether it be Windows XP, Vista or 7, should be genuine and was legally purchase.

The sticker also carries the product key for the installed operating system which is a 25 character string of numbers and letters. This product key is required when installing the operating system and is unique to the computer.

I recommend that upon purchase, this number is recorded and stored in a safe place (email for example). the sticker will fade and degrade with time and in the event you need to reinstall your operating system your gonna need the product key. This product key is even more important than the disc it self. 

If you should lose that disc but still have your product key then any oem operating system disc corresponding to the product key can be installed using your COA and will be genuine.

Desktop should also carry this COA and should be looked for when purchasing a computer to ensure you are purchasing genuine software.
Usually on a laptop the sticker is placed on the underside, where as on desktop it maybe placed anywhere convenient to the manufacturer.

3 comments:

  1. Good post, BUT don't you think it's kind of unsafe to expose the key like that? Lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Russian
    Чувак! Ты просто лох, если так светишь ключи :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. store safely store Public (^_^)

    ReplyDelete

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