I'm trying to identify a USB device uniquely on a Windows system. Since serial number is optional (and empty on most devices), I'm looking at the Instance ID. The field that is like USB VID03F0&PID094A 6&24b73976&0&2. I already know that this ID changes if I plug the same device into different ports, but that is ok with me. The device descriptor itself doesn't contain the serial number either, the serial number is stored in a string descriptor; the device descriptor only holds the index of the string descriptor (or 0 if the device doesn't have one). If you want to truly image a USB device, you need to probe and store all.
Your installation of Windows no longer boots, and unfortunately you don't have a copy of your Windows product key in order to reinstall the operating system? Don't worry, it's possible to recover Windows Product Key from registry in offline mode, even if Windows is no longer bootable.
This article explains how to find and recover Windows Product Key from the registry, extract Windows Serial Number from registry in offline mode, and get Windows CD Key from unbootable computer.
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![Find Usb Serial Number Registry Find Usb Serial Number Registry](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126382086/790054731.png)
1. Intended audience of this article
This article is for people who want to reinstall Windows, but lost or forgotten Windows Product Key.
Using Registry of your old Windows installation, you can retrieve Product Key once upon a time used to install Windows. This method works even if Windows is broken and unbootable, or if your computer crashes during startup.
All you need to recover your Windows Product Key is readable (non-broken) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE Registry hive.
2. Solution in a nutshell
- Boot into Emergency Boot Kit
- Run Emergency Boot Kit Registry Editor, choose Windows installation and open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE Registry hive
- Export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion registry key to text file on USB thumbdrive.
- Boot into Windows, open registry key dump in Notepad, copy DigitalProductId value into the clipboard.
- Paste clipboard into Javascript form on this website to decode your Product Key.
3. Extracting DigitalProductId from registry
Find Usb Serial Number Registry Tool
1) Download Emergency Boot Kit and deploy it USB thumbdrive according to the instructions, then set up your BIOS to boot from USB thumbdrive. Demo version of Emergency Boot Kit will suffice for the purpose of this article.
2) Boot Emergency Boot Kit and run Registry Editor from the main menu:
3) Wait for Emergency Boot Kit Registry Editor to start:
4) Choose Windows Installation to extract Product Key (this screen will not appear if you have one copy of Windows installed on your PC):
5) Choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE on this screen:
6) Emergency Boot Kit Registry Editor is loading Registry Hive with Windows Product Key:
7) Using arrow UP and DOWN keys on keyboard, go to Microsoft key and press ENTER:
8) Using arrow UP and DOWN keys on keyboard (and optionally PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN), go to Windows NT subkey and press ENTER:
9) Using arrow UP and DOWN keys on keyboard, go to CurrentVersion subkey and press ENTER:
10) Press TAB to switch input focus to the right panel. Scroll down with arrow keys and PAGE DOWN / PAGE UP keys:
11) Make sure DigitalProductId value of type REG_BINARY exists:
12) Press F3 on the keyboard to open Registry Key Export dialog window, then click [...] button with a mouse:
13) In this Save File common dialog, click on the USB thumbdrive with Emergency Boot Kit, then click on the text area next to 'File Name:' label and type some file name from keyboard. File name must have .txt suffix.
14) Click OK to confirm export of Registry Key to the file:
Usb Drive Serial Number
15) Message like this should appear on the screen:
16) Choose 'Reboot' in the main menu of Emergency Boot Kit:
Unplug Emergency Boot Kit from USB port and boot into Windows (maybe on the different PC, where you are browsing this page). Plug USB thumbdrive with registry key dump and open My Computer:
Open USB thumbdrive with registry key dump in Exporer:
![Find Find](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126382086/548661490.png)
Double-click on registry key dump file to open it in the Notepad (won't open if it wasn't saved with .txt extension):
Find Usb Serial Number Registry Lookup
Find 'DigitalProductId'=... registry value, select it using your mouse or SHIFT + arrow keys and the copy it to the clipboard:
4. Decoding DigitalProductId
5. References
- Inside Windows Product Activation, a paper from Fully Licensed GmbH:
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt - Getting Windows Product Key from Registry, an answer from SuperUser.com:
https://superuser.com/questions/617886/recovery-disk-install-to-a-specific-partition - Interactive JavaScript-based Microsoft Digital Product ID Decoder, by Ed Scherer:
http://www.ed.scherer.name/Tools/MicrosoftDigitalProductIDDecoder.html