Retrieving your Product Key from the Registry

[-Laser-]

OK. To my knowledge, I'm not revealing anything super duper secret, or at least not anything that could get me in legal trouble. I am going to reveal how to go from this:


to this:
R07FL-Z0MF6-L4S3R-1SV3R-Y1337 (that's supposed to represent your serial key thingy)

You will need:

• At least half a brain
• Basic Regedit knowledge
• A calculator capable of converting hexadecimal to base-24.(I recommend Haxial Calculator. Don't attempt to convert it by hand. You will get a severe headache. I know this from experience)

1. Open the Registry Editor. (start-Run, and enter regedit)
   
   
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Halo CE (or Halo)
   
   
3. Go to File-Export, and save it to your desktop(or wherever)
   
   
4. Right click the .reg file, and choose edit. If edit isn't an option on your right-click menu, you can rename it to a .txt, or open it in notepad however you like.
   
   
5. Copy and paste these values(3rd row, 10th byte through 24th byte I believe) into a new text document:
   
   !!! I have tampered with the numbers here, so I don't have to worry about somebody stealing my key !!!
   
   
6. You should now have something like this:
   
   
   
7. Reverse the order of the bytes:
   
   
   
8. Open up Haxial Calculator, and go here:
   
   
   
9. Enter your radixes, bases, whatever you want to call them(16 on the left, 24 on the right), then paste the hex string:
   
   (This isn't your product key)
   
   
10. You should currently have something like this:
    
    
    
11. Now here comes the part that makes me feel 1337
    After comparing a few keys(from various MS products), I noticed something:
    They only contain the following 24 characters:
    BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789
    
    Final Step:
    Take your base 24 string, and replace the characters like this
    
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
    | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
    B C D F G H J K M P Q R T V W X Y 2 3 4 6 7 8 9
    
    
    Final Result:
    
    !!!As I said at the beginning, I tampered with the numbers in the registry export before taking the screenshot. This should work fine for your serial, but the serial shown here is invalid.

NOTE: This should also work with the "DigitalProductID" of other microsoft products.

EDIT: 2 don'ts
1)Don't use online converters. They tend to not like the lenght of the hex string, and will give you an inaccurate base 24 string.

2)If you have trouble, do NOT post any of the strings here. The info above could be used to steal your key. And while it is somewhat unlikely, it is possible that microsoft could add your key to some invalid list or something.

--------
Sticky mebbe?

[Patrickssj6]

If you decode the CD Key Hash I'll love you

[-Laser-]

Originally Posted by Patrickssj6

If you decode the CD Key Hash I'll love you

You mean as in find a way of generating keys?

I have an idea of a person might go about doing it. But here is certainly not the place to discuss it. Besides, I also lack the programming knowledge to attempt it.

[Risenlord M]

I think he means as finding a way just to get the CD Hash.

[Patrickssj6]

Originally Posted by -Laser-

You mean as in find a way of generating keys?

I have an idea of a person might go about doing it. But here is certainly not the place to discuss it. Besides, I also lack the programming knowledge to attempt it.

It was kinda a joke cause I think its impossible

[-Laser-]

Originally Posted by Risenlord M

I think he means as finding a way just to get the CD Hash.

What's that?

[dg945]

It's a hash that gives each copy of Halo it's own online presence. That's why they ban using CD key hashes.


~dg945~

[Apoc4lypse]

hmm... I wonder what other games you can do this with... because I lost my damn cd key to MOHAA (love that game lol...) still got the cd's but no damn key so I cant install it...

I havent played that game online since I got dsl lolz... (I used to play it on dial up online and i always got lag lol...)

[TheGhost]

This is awesome, man. Good job. Did you figure this out by yourself?

[SODIS]

I figured getting your CD-Key from the Registry would've been obvious way back when Halo PC was released. Halo needs the CD-Key written into the registry to load in the first place, so technically you would've been able to retrieve the CD-Key info that Halo uses to open itself.