Oki dont get it...I actually performed the exact same method and it is working for me.... i didnt use the key while install or after install..i just used it for converting the eval to full version and then activated using the activator.
Good Morning
To : chinchin85
hello sir
as I saw your response regarding a person having trouble i liked to write a message to you , as i am having some problems with my computer , I currently have windows 10 pro and i have not activated it yet as i dont have a product key but i tried to activate it through cmd and it activated but it is showing activated but i cant personalize my comp. and it is showing activate windows .
so if you can help me then its your great pleasure
Thank You
wating for your response
Also this is a Windows Server thread so Win 10 questions might not be allowed here so refrain from asking question in an incorrect thread, else thread moderators could remove your question altogether.
@chinchin85 It's not that questions about other products aren't allowed as much as we want to make sure that your questions get routed to the right teams, so if we see a post that is for a different product, we attempt to move it to the right forum to be addressed. Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks for the reply. My questions were based on Win 11 22H2 Preview branch being same as Server 2022 preview i.e 22463, hence the query regarding the release timeline (possibly of a Windows Server 2022 R2 or so...). But as you said, LTSC releases would happen after a gap of 2-3 years so that clarifies my queries. Thanks again
You can do something like create a record which contains the data you want to authenticate to the application. This could include anything you want - e.g. program features to enable, expiry date, name of the user (if you want to bind it to a user). Then encrypt that using some crypto algorithm with a fixed key or hash it. Then you just verify it within your program. One way to distribute the license file (on windows) is to provide it as a file which updates the registry (saves the user having to type it).
Beware of false sense of security though - sooner or later someone will simply patch your program to skip that check, and distribute the patched version. Or, they will work out a key that passes all checks and distribute that, or backdate the clock, etc. It doesn't matter how convoluted you make your scheme, anything you do for this will ultimately be security through obscurity and they will always be able to this. Even if they can't someone will, and will distribute the hacked version. Same applies even if you supply a dongle - if someone wants to, they can patch out the check for that too. Digitally signing your code won't help, they can remove that signature, or resign it.
You can complicate matters a bit by using techniques to prevent the program running in a debugger etc, but even this is not bullet proof. So you should just make it difficult enough that an honest user will not forget to pay. Also be very careful that your scheme does not become obtrusive to paying users - it's better to have some ripped off copies than for your paying customers not to be able to use what they have paid for.
Another option is to have an online check - just provide the user with a unique ID, and check online as to what capabilities that ID should have, and cache it for some period. All the same caveats apply though - people can get round anything like this.
edit: I just want to add, don't invest too much time in this or think that somehow your convoluted scheme will be different and uncrackable. It won't, and cannot be as long as people control the hardware and OS your program runs on. Developers have been trying to come up with ever more complex schemes for this, thinking that if they develop their own system for it then it will be known only to them and therefore 'more secure'. But it really is the programming equivalent of trying to build a perpetual motion machine. :-)
I've always considered this area too critical to trust a third party to manage the runtime security of your application. Once that component is cracked for one application, it's cracked for all applications. It happened to Discreet in five minutes once they went with a third-party license solution for 3ds Max years ago... Good times!
And since this is now probably the most important code in your application/company, on top of/instead of obfuscation consider putting the decrypt routines in a native DLL file and simply P/Invoke to it.
If you are asking about the keys that you can type in, like Windows product keys, then they are based on some checks. If you are talking about the keys that you have to copy paste, then they are based on a digitial signature (private key encryption).
A simple product key logic could be to start with saying that the product key consists of four 5-digit groups, like abcde-fghij-kljmo-pqrst, and then go on to specify internal relationships like f+k+p should equal a, meaning the first digits of the 2, 3 and 4 group should total to a. This means that 8xxxx-2xxxx-4xxxx-2xxxx is valid, so is 8xxxx-1xxxx-0xxxx-7xxxx. Of course, there would be other relationships as well, including complex relations like, if the second digit of the first group is odd, then the last digit of the last group should be odd too. This way there would be generators for product keys and verification of product keys would simply check if it matches all the rules.
Encryption are normally the string of information about the license encrypted using a private key (== digitally signed) and converted to Base64. The public key is distributed with the application. When the Base64 string arrives, it is verified (==decrypted) by the public key and if found valid, the product is activated.
Personally, I think there are two classes of user. Those who pay. Those who don't. The ones that do will likely do so with even the most trivial protection. Those who don't will wait for a crack or look elsewhere. Either way, it won't get you any more money.
Microsoft Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services is a software activation service that enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to adopt flexible licensing terms for their customers. Microsoft SLP Services employs a unique protection method that helps safeguard your application and licensing information allowing you to get to market faster while increasing customer compliance.
If you want a simple solution just to create and verify serial numbers, try Ellipter. It uses elliptic curves cryptography and has an "Expiration Date" feature so you can create trial verisons or time-limited registration keys.
Since you mentioned wanting 2 "types" of licenses for your application, i.e. a "full version" and a "trial version", we can simplify that and use a feature license model where you license specific features of your application (in this case, there's a "full" feature-set and a "trial" feature-set).
To start off, we could create 2 license types (called policies in Keygen) and whenever a user registers an account you can generate a "trial" license for them to start out (the "trial" license implements our "trial" feature policy), which you can use to do various checks within the app e.g. can user use Trial-Feature-A and Trial-Feature-B.
And building on that, whenever a user purchases your app (whether you're using PayPal, Stripe, etc.), you can generate a license implementing the "full" feature policy and associate it with the user's account. Now within your app you can check if the user has a "full" license that can do Pro-Feature-X and Pro-Feature-Y (by doing something like user.HasLicenseFor(FEATURE_POLICY_ID)).
Of course, if you don't want to handle user accounts and you want your users to input license keys, that's completely fine (and Keygen supports doing that as well). I'm just offering another way to go about handling that aspect of licensing and hopefully provide a nice UX for your customers.
Finally since you also mentioned that you want to update these licenses annually, you can set a duration on your policies so that "full" licenses will expire after a year and "trial" licenses last say 2 weeks, requiring that your users purchase a new license after expiration.
You can use HMAC to accomplish this. With HMAC, when you hash something you also use a secret key and this helps you verify the integrity and authenticity of the message/serial key. It means you verify that a license key is authentic and one that you have generated with your secret string.
HMAC is cool because its super simple. Its not like public key crypto. Its symetric which means all you need to do is generate one secret string and that key can be used to both generate hashes and also validate them later on. This is exactly what you need when creating product keys.
Then you would generate a serial/product key. For the key, I am going to split it into groups of 5 characters. The serial key will be 15 characters in length and the HMAC will also be 15 characters in length. We will combine them together.
Now, when the user enters the full serial key, to validate the key you can split the serial number from the HMAC. Then using our secret private key generate a new HMAC from the serial number. If the generated HMAC matches the HMAC from the license key, you know its valid.
Ideally, the validate function and your secret key should be server side. The client app should call an API and pass the product key to the server to validate. If your stored the secret in your app, a nefarious user could attempt to disassemble the code to try to steal your private key.
First, I am not sure which series of laptop I have to know if I am even posting to the correct board here. I used a .vbs file to extract the windows 7 product key from my acer and thought it would be fine to use when I reinstalled windows 7 premium but after the install it rejected the product key. When I contacted Microsoft they said it was an OEM SLP situation and that I would have to get the product key unlocked from the manufacturer which is Acer, or do they mean the retailer who sold the laptop, then I would likely have to provide proof of purchase.
Something tells me this whole idea is so that they can try to bill me to unlock the code so that I can activate the new Windows installation. I see on the support site that they mention purchasing recovery media. Thats kind of sleazy to do to customers who bought a laptop with windows installed.
So my question is how do I get my accurate product key to be able to activate my windows 7 re-install. I tried Magical Jellybean and it gives me the same product key which fails activation. What can I do to salvage this Acer laptop that works fine but simply needs Windows activated. I shouldnt have to buy another copy of Windows for it. There must be a solution that does not involve spending more money.
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