Product Key, Product ID, License Key? I am confused, help

I am confused with these terms and their meanings. I thought there was only one key, called the Product Key, that you get on that orange sticker when you buy retail Vista or you get the sticker on the back of your laptop if you have the OEM version that is pre installed on the machine. My understanding is that this key was a 1 user license to use Vista.

My confusion started when I went to Computer -> Properties and saw a Product ID in the activation area of the screen. Next I flipped over the laptop and looked at the Windows sticker and it had something called the Product Key. The Product ID was not the same as the Product Key.

Why are their different IDs/keys? What do they mean? Which alpha numeric sequence represents that fact that you have a Vista license? Thanks.

 

Product Ley and License key are the same thing!

Product ID is the version you have.

example, my product ID is Windows XP Professional Edition Retail

 

They are indeed the same thing. Typically the license key on the bottom of a OEM notebook is only used if you have to do a reinstall of the operating system. The product ID that pops up in the properties screen is a generic license that the OEM bought and installs on all of their computers. Hope that answers your question.

 

Ok, so that answers one of my questions, the Product Key = License Key.

See my product id doesn't say Vista blah blah blah. It is an alphanumeric sequence.

 

See, this is what is confusing me. I have read the clean install guides written by Stallen and Orev. From what I learned it looks like I have 2 Product Keys, one that is printed on the bottom of the laptop that is not activated and another that is hidden and is preactivated. Your response seems to indicate that the product id is this hidden key, where as IBO just responded that the Product Id represents just the version of Windows that I have. So the question is what does the product id represent?

 

When you buy a computer that comes with Windows preinstalled and Activated, the license that's activated is not what you see on the sticker, but an OEM license. The license on your sticker is not activated, but that's what you paid for and what you can use when reinstalling Windows.

Stallen's clean install guide makes use of a utility which recovers the OEM keys before your format, so that you can use them once you installed Windows. Basically you're avoiding the activation step, and it's perfectly legal to do so. If you ask me that's way better than calling Microsoft to activate your sticker license and explaining them why you're formatting.

 

There are a bunch of different numbers.

The one on the bottom sticker on the laptop is the "License Key". OEM installs have two license keys, the one on the sticker, and the one that it's installed with. This does not mean they are called different things, they are the same thing.

The "Product ID" is the number that's shown in the System control panel. It's not really related to the license key at all, it's just some other number that's used for who-knows-what.

"Product Key" is a confusion of the two terms and is something that does not exist.

 

just to further add chaos into the mix...

most product keys on the label on the bottom of your lappy ARE NOT the product key used to install the OS at the factory.... but there are some programs that can give you the current INSTALLED product key
unfortunatley i'm not familuar w/ any of these since i use a retail version of XP PRO but surely someone here can point you to a program that can extract the current installed ID

 

I believe that post cleared up the remaining "chaos". I did mention that OEM installs have two license keys, which are what you are referring to. What that means is that the license key on the sticker is not actually installed at all on the computer when you get it from the OEM.

The real confusion comes from the misuse of the terms "Product ID", "Product Key" and "License Key". The "Product ID" is found on the System control panel, while the "License Key" is found on the bottom sticker or by using one of the tools you mentioned (one of which I an the author of). The term "Product Key" is not an official term used by Microsoft, and one should avoid it because it causes this confusion.

 

who would have thought i could clear up CHAOS... now to solve the mysteries of the pyramids and to explain how Fractals illustrate that from Chaos and Complexity can arise

 

orev and all, thanks for your help.

Here is what I know now. Please let me know if I am correct.

1.) There are 2 License Keys that I have. One is the one printed on the bottom of the laptop and another hidden one. This hidden one is pre activated and the one in use but the one printed underneath(one I paid for) is not activated. Orev's utility helps to extract and save this hidden pre activated Key.

2.) The Product ID is not related to the License Key and is some number but we don't know what it is used for and we don't need to care.

BTW Orev - The sticker on the bottom of the laptop, which has the license key, says "Product Key". This term does seem to exist.

 

1) yes, that's right. You paid for one license to use Vista, and your OEM paid for the right to install an OEM license that lets them do a bulk install. Even though you technically have access to two keys, it's only one license. The hidden one is pre-activated only when coupled with the pre-activated activation certificate which is also installed on your computer.

I guess you got me there

 

Thanks Orev. This really clears this up for me. Also thanks for your very detailed clean install guide, I really liked it. The thing that got me confused was when I looked at the Windows activation section of the properties screen under computer. It has a line that says "Windows is activated". Then the line underneath it says "Product ID: xxxxxx..." and next to it there is a button you can click on that says "Change product key".. This is what threw me off, but I think I am ok now. Thanks again.

+rep orev and revvo