Genuine (not illegal) product Key Advise!!

[liquid-blue22]

Hi Guys,

A very simple and quick question, I have a laptop which was supplied by a company called Hi-Grade, this laptop has Vista Home Premium on it, It also has office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher); and Kaspersky IS.

Im going to change the OS for a while to Ubuntu, but I don't want to run dual OS's on the laptop. I was also unlucky enough to not be supplied with a reinstallation disk of vista, drivers or office (amongst many other applications) which I am currently downloading. I just want to ask a couple of quick questions relaing to re-installing my legal copies of windows, office, and kaspersky.

Where do I find the product keys?

For vista on the bottom of my laptop there is a nice official windows sticker stating "Vista Home Premium" "Hi-Grade Computer PLC" and a "Product Key". Assuming I unistall windows and reinstall it in a few months, will this product key still work or as its already being used and activated on my laptop now, will problems follow?

I was not supplied the installation disk for office, however I do have a full legal copy of 2007 that states my name on loading, this was set up by Hi-Grade, How do I find out what version office my laptop is running and I assume somewhere in the registry files I could find my product key for this? Is this possible and if so does anyone know where I can find these details.

Thanks In advance. i know its a tall order but Im not going to risk losing all of my legal activated microsoft software if I cant find the keys!

[liquid-blue22]

I have just download a package called "Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder" it locates stored keys, does any one have experience with this?

My question about installing vista again still stands though: Will the product key on the bottom of my laptop still work when i come to reinstall vista on this laptop or will it just be a case of once I have unistalled vista that I will not be able to reinstall it with my official product key (the one on the bottom of my laptop) again. The vista running on my laptop now is set to this product key, I assume (it was done by the manufacturers).

[patio]

The key on the laptop is the one you should use...

If you have any issues after a clean install contact Microsoft....they have an 800# strictly for activation and they are very accomodating.

[liquid-blue22]

Thanks thats not a bad idea,

interestingly I have a new question, I ran this keyfinder software and its stated that my product key is different to the one I have on the bottom of the laptop?!? The laptop was recently sent off for a damaged HDD which was replaced by the original company, is this normal that the new code differs?

[liquid-blue22]

I have now found my keys for; office and vista. Can i just check that if i unistall either that these official and legal keys which are licenced to me will work when i type them in next!?

[2x3i5x]

your keys should work if they are genuine and you have the right version of the software that the key is supposed to activate.

if not working, then just call Microsoft and they'll get you on your way.

[liquid-blue22]

Do i need to do any sort of special unistall before formatiing the hard drive so that MS know that im not using the serial code at the moment?

[patio]

You should be able to use the keys with no problem...