PDA

View Full Version : Please Help!!! (W98)


wisconsinpam
10-05-2003, 07:47 PM
I hope somebody out there can help me! I was working on my laptop that has Windows 98 on it. I hit a button while trying to make labels and lost all Program Files. Then my husband tried to re-install the Windows 98 original disk (we had failed to make a back-up disc) but we do not have the product key. We just moved to Wisconsin from Arizona and I have no idea where the manuals are or if I even have them. But I need the product key and hope there is someplace else I can find it. So now I am stuck with no working laptop. I would just buy Windows XP, but my laptop is too old and would not support it. How can I retrieve this number? I sent in the registration card when I first got the laptop. Can Microsoft email it to me from my registration information? Please respond to me if you can help me out of this mess!!!! I really need my laptop.
BertImmenschuh
10-05-2003, 09:59 PM
Which version of Win98 do you have, the original, Second Edition [printed on the CD], or an upgrade version of either? The numbers are different and don't interchange.

Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement
roymac
11-21-2003, 07:30 AM
Press F8 during boot to access the startup menu and select safe mode if you are having probs booting up. Click Start-Run and type "regedit" in the box (no quotes) and hit enter. The w98 registry editor will start.
Click the plus (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. This will expand the topic.
Click the plus next to softwre under this item.
Click the plus next to Microsoft.
Scroll down under Microsoft until you find Windows.
Click the plus next to Windows.
Click on the title "Current Version", usually the first entry under Windows. Click on the title not the plus.
In the right side window, scroll down to Product Key.
Under data on the right side is your original key. Write this down and double check it. Then close the registry editor by clicking X on the title bar at the top.
As log as you don't type anything in the data fields, you won't change the registry.
The Product key is the install key for your disk.