How to know which license version has an XP installed system [duplicate]

Question

My friend has a notebook with Windows XP Professional installed. I would like to understand which version exactly is and which license type is referred to. The sticker reports an OEM pre-installed XP Home Ed, so I just get infos by read some file or some pop-up by launch a command. For example I can read the serial number from system proprieties. I also can extract product key used for activation.

My goal is to provide all needed infos to, in case, be able to borrow the right version of WinXP CD and reinstall/reactivate the system on the same machine, reusing current extracted product key.

So I'd like to know which version is installed (localization included) and which CD version of XP I need to reuse its working product key.

Thanks in advance! :)

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EDIT

to explain why this question is not solved by answers of suggested topic (How can I determine the installed edition of Windows XP if the OS does not boot up?):

c:\windows\system32\prodspec.ini

on our system is just empty, I saw that answer before posting, thanks anyway for suggest.

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EDIT2

In reply to who talked about absence of COA. If one loose an old CD with its COA sticker, his system remains still genuine. I think it should be possible to obtain info about license version from an installed system in that case, just it. This topic is not to discuss about cracking or so on. We have a system installed. We want to know more info as possible about its version and license version. That's all, nothing more.

Thanks for all your answers, even if I think they are not completely exhaustive, anyway... thanks again

Answer 1

Install Produkey and run, it will show the Product ID, which will tell you if it is OEM, Retail etc.., also shows the language (localization) code.

You can also copy and paste the code below into the command prompt to show the Product ID

reg query "hklm\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion" /v ProductID

Here is an example of a XP product ID, the first 5 digits are the MPC or Language, the next three are the Channel ID (version of XP)

55274-OEM-0011903-00102 .

.

.

Channel ID's (version of XP)

-000 : Other (includes some retail, upgrade and evaluation versions) (includes (some?) MSDNAA discs)

-006 : MS or Partner promotions

-007 : FIXME : Retail

-009 : Not for resale - bundle

-011 : Upgrade (XP Home?)

-013 : Upgrade (XP Pro)

-071 : FIXME : Unknown

-083 : Windows Genuine Advantage

-OEM : OEM (This does not specify royalty or normal OEM)

-270 : Volume License

-296 : MSDN

-308/347 : Microsoft Action Pack subscription

-335 : Retail

-640 through 652 : Volume License (usually generated via 270 CID in setupp.ini)

-699 : Volume Windows XP Tablet Edition

-770 : Retail (at least according to WGA Diagnostic)

MPC codes (localization or language)

English:

55274 : XP Pro generic OEM

55276 : XP Pro (upgrade)

55276 : XP Home (?) †

55277 : XP Home generic OEM

55285 : XP Pro †

55661 : XP Pro (retail)

76475 : XP Home (upgrade) (?)

76477 : XP Home Royalty OEM ‡

76481 : XP Pro Dell OEM

76487 : XP Media Center Edition 2005

76487 : XP Pro Royalty OEM ‡

76487 : XP Pro SP2 (retail)

76487 : XP Pro SP3 (OEM)

76487 : XP Pro volume license (with '640' channel ID)

76500 : XP MCE 2005 (which is XP Pro with no domain capability)

76588 : XP Pro x64 OEM

Other Languages:

55372 : XP Home - German (OEM)

55373 : XP Home Upgrade - German (OEM)

55375 : XP Pro - German (VLK)

55639 : XP Pro - French (OEM)

55677 : XP Home - Dutch

55679 : XP Pro - Dutch

55712 : XP Pro - French (retail ?)

76381 : XP Home - Danish

76392 : XP Pro - Danish

76396 : XP Pro (also Home?) - Dutch

76412 : XP Home - French (OEM)

76413 : XP Pro - French (OEM)

76416 : XP Home - German (OEM)

76434 : XP Home - Italian (Royalty OEM)

76440 : XP Pro - Norwegian (retail)

76447 : XP Pro - Polish

76460 : XP Home - Spanish (Royalty OEM) ‡

76470 : XP Home - Traditional Chinese (Royalty OEM) ‡

76497 : XP Pro - German (OEM)

Source on Product ID's

Answer 2

Since the laptop has a Home Edition COA label then it came with a XP home edition, very likely it was reinstalled with (pirated?) Windows XP Pro after purchase. What's showing in the current system doesn't matter unless you have the product key for the XP Pro.

If you want to use the product key on the COA, use XP Home Edition CD then. I'm not sure about the language/localization part, maybe it should just match the language on the COA label?