Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

License Key Audit Tool?

  • 07-12-2010 11:25am
    #1
    azzeretti
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,477 ✭✭✭


    I have a new client, with a very small budget, who wants me to audit their network and consolidate windows licensing for all Microsoft products. I have some enterprise options that I would normally use but the budget is too small for this.
    Does anyone know of any, relativley cheap tool that will scan a network and bring back the installed apps and, most importantly, the Product Key used to install them? Something similar to Belarc Advisor (can't use that commercially though). There are loads of apps out there but none seem to decrypt the Product ID back to Key, which is what I need.

    I have been considering writing my own WMI script to do this but that will take some time and there is no point re-inventing the wheel!


Comments

  • #2
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 11,106 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    The only utility I've seen out there for decrypting Product ID back to Product Keys is usually flagged as malware and of sufficiently nebulous nature that it's not something that should be used professionally (if at all).

    So you'll probably have to use a script for the job. You might be able to find something valid (or at least some pointers in the right direction) by going through the Applications category of the Technet Script Repository.


  • #3
    woolymammoth
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭woolymammoth


    microsoft planning & assesment toolkit, or Spiceworks are two free options


    [update]
    sorry, i should've expanded a bit. I was stuffing my face at the time i wrote :D

    the licence keys are going to present a problem alright, you may just have to do them individually. But Spiceworks is pretty handy at scanning the network and reporting back on all hardware, and software. You just need to make sure WMI is working on all computers, and snmp on any network devices. The MS planning & Assessment toolkit, i've yet to finist testing out. I keep getting started and then get distracted by something else :(

    [another update]
    actually i double checked for you, because i hadn't needed key information specifically before. Spiceworks will pull the product key for Win 7 Enterprise, Win 7 Pro, Win XP, server 2003, 2003 Ent, 2003 x64, can't say for sure with server 2008 as we have volume license keys. For all operating systems, if a vlk is used, spiceworks will only show 'Volume License Key' and not the actual key.


Advertisement